| Early June 2001 |
| It's Alive!!! |
| Well, after getting the car home I found out it needed a transmission. I picked one up at a salvage yard for $250.00. It was out of '85 Rx-7, but not a GSL-SE, however, it works just the same. A few days of work later the transmission was changed, and it fired right up and the transmission worked great. It needed some tuning under the hood, but I had wheels now to get me around. I needed to have it running by June 14th because that was the day I moved from New Jersey to Michigan. |
| June 16, 2001 |
| Swiss cheese exhaust |
| While under the car doing the transmission swap, I noticed that my catatalytic converter and pre-cats were in bad shape, they were rusted through in some spots. I did a little online research and decided I would be best off replacing both the pre-cats and main cat. with a Bonez 2" Race Pipe w/ Presilenser from Rotary Performance. The people there were knowledgeable and I would order from them again. The pipe went in without problems and it sounded great and the car felt a bit quicker too. |
| June 2001 |
| Regularly Scheduled Maintenance |
| Well, I changed the spark plugs, distributor cap and rotor. I also replaced the leaking gas cap. I changed the oil for the first time. I found a vacuum leak that was causing the cruise control not to work. I also tried, rather unsucsessfully to check and adjust the timing on the car. The marks weren't lining up and I didn't know why. |
| July 9, 2001 |
| In early July I swapped out my steering wheel, which was a two spoke Mazda wheel from an earlier year Rx-7 with a four spoke wheel which was fatter and I think looks better. I found it on Ebay for $50. I don't know why the original three spoke wheel wasn't still on the car. It didn't matter to me because I prefer to be able to rest my hand at the bottom of the wheel while driving, and the four spoke wheel allows me to do that. |
| Work I have done so far... |
| July 2001 |
| Swapped Steering Wheels |
| Running Out of Gas |
| Well, my gas gauge wasn't reading right ever since I have gotten the car. Finally, my lazyness bit me when I ran out of gas on an Interstate around 2am. At first I thought I blew the motor or something but then I realized I could be out of gas. That experience motivated me to investigate as to why the gas guage wasn't reading right. It turns out the fuel sender unit at the gas tank has a heavily corroded connection. It is not fixable. I'm going to need a new sender unit. |
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| August 12-13 2001 |
| Maintenance |
| I changed the Oxygen sensor, thanks to a recommendation from the good folks on the Rx-7 Forum. I also cleaned out throttle body as best and as far as I could reach in there with Carb cleaner and some rags and Q-tips. There is much less smoke coming out the exhaust now due to the new Oxygen sensor. I'm thinking about possibly going to the track this Wednesday to see what I can run in the 1/4 mile. |
| August 15 2001 |
| NGK Spark Plugs |
| After running around town a bit I found a store that had NGK plugs in stock for my car. The NGK part number was BR9EQ14. It's one range colder then stock but thats allright because I do a lot of highway driving, which the owners manual says that part number is good for. I decided against taking my car to the track. It's really smoking quite a bit now, I didn't like the idea of possibly having to have it towed home. |
| (well, the more major items) |
| I changed the oil and filter and while I had the car jacked up in the front I decided to look at the oil metering pump on the bottom front side of the engine. The car has been smoking a lot and using a lot of oil lately, also I noticed my throttle has been getting stuck, not letting me open it up all the way. Turns out there was a small spring on the oil metering pump that had broken. This spring allows the pump to return to it's resting position, which mine was never doing due to the broken spring, which led to the oil consumption / smoking. I managed to fix the spring and now she doesn't smoke at all and oil consumption is back to normal. Also, that fixed my throttle from not opening all the way. It's running very well now. |
| August 27 2001 |
| Fixed Oil Metering Pump |
| September 2001 |
| Stock Radio Install |
| I was able to get my hands on a stock three part radio (tuner/cassette/equalizer) from an online ad. I removed my aftermarket cd player and installed the stock unit. It looks very nice and works perfectly. I need to get some new rear speakers though because the previous owner installed component speakers in the rear and i'd rather have a 2-way or 3-way set of speakers back there. I'm also in the process of painting the rear interior plastic panels which are badly faded from 16 years in the sun. I found a good spray paint which matches closely to the original color, and applies good. I also bought a fuel sender unit for my gas tank so that my gas gauge would work, unfortunately I cracked the old rusty gas tank trying to get the sender unit out. So I ordered another gas tank and I'll install that as soon as it comes. Fortunately the car is still driveable as long as I don't fill the tank up! |
| January 2002 |
| Well, the Rx-7 has been sidelined for awhile. I can't run it right now because I need a gas tank and a new battery. Also, I cannot run the heat without my windows becoming foggy. I hope to have it running by Spring. |
| Winter Update |
| March 2002 |
| Spring Fast Approaching |
| With Spring approaching I am starting to look for a gas tank. That's my major obstacle right now. I'm looking at over $300 for a new tank plus shipping. Other things I plan to do before I try to start it up again is: oil change, replace fuel filter, buy new ignition coils, and replace the front tires. |
| April 13, 2002 |
| New Battery, and other stuff |
| Well, I found a gas tank and I'm waiting for UPS to bring that. I bought a new battery today from Autozone. Fits the battery tray perfectly. I also received new Ignition coils from Summit Racing this week. Mine were o.k. but they are 17 years old and have 150,000 miles on them so it can't hurt to change them. I also removed the throttle body off for cleaning, there is a lot of carbon buildup around the butterflies. I removed the metal plate below the battery tray as well to sand and paint before I put the battery in. I did notice that my antifreeze wasn't looking very good so I'll have to flush and refill that before I get it running as well. My list of things to do just keep growing!!!! |
| April 17-18, 2002 |
| New Battery, and other stuff |
| These were a busy two days. I reinstalled the throttle body, put the new ignition coils in, changed the oil and put the new battery in. Then came starting time. I knew it would be difficult. I cleaned the plugs off as best I could before starting, squirted a little bit of ATF down the bottom two plug holes, then put the plugs back in. I tried to start it but motor would just turn and turn, without firing. It was obvious to me it was flooded. I spend a few hours trying to un-flood the engine, but I would end up flooding it again. I finally came to the point when I believed I needed new spark plugs because the old ones were just too wet from being covered in gas numerous times. The next day I picked up two sets of new spark plugs and a new fuel filter for the gas tank I will be installing. I put the new plugs in and I immediately noticed a difference. It almost started the first time I cranked it. I had to go through the unflooding procedure once, then I tried again, and it fired up!!! It was running again! A few minor tweaks and it was ready to go. |
| May 4, 2002 |
| Gas Tank and Battery Cables |
| Ok, I finally got to change the gas tank, it took a few hours and I ran into a few snags, but I was able to work through it and get it in. I also changed the old battery cables in the car. They appeared to be very old, probably the original set. They were fairly easy to replace. The most time consuming part was making the pigtail off the positive cable to go to the fusible links. Click here to see a picture of the new cables. The car started and ran fine! My gas gauge even works too! |
| July 29, 2002 |
| Misc. Problems |
| Well here I am with the car, mid summer. The car runs but needs a few things. First, I figured out my heater core was leaking so I have to replace that. In the mean time I've dissconnected it to prevent any more antifreeze from leaking into to the car. The second thing is that I need tires, I have slow leaks on both right sides and they are all pretty well shot. Thats what it really needs right now. |
| August 7, 2002 |
| Replaced Heater |
| Wow! First, I'll say, that was not fun. I picked up a used heater unit from someone that was parting out their Rx-7. You can see in this picture of the old unit and used heater units side-by-side for comparison, someone had hacked up the old one and the one I bought looks perfect. I had to remove the entire dash assembly to replace it. I spread the work over a few days so it wasnt too bad. Everything is back together now and I can say that I have a better understanding of what goes on behind the dashboard. At least I'll have heat come winter :) . This is at 149955 miles. |
| August 23, 2002 |
| Replaced Oil and Antifreeze |
| Today I changed the Oil and filter. I also flushed the old antifreeze out of cooling system and put new fluid in. This was at 149955 miles. Next is to replace my old tires. |
| August 26, 2002 |
| New Tires |
| I received tires today that I ordered from Tirerack.com. They are Sumitomo HTR 200, 205/60/14. The old tires were shot. I also have a new Bonez Catalytic Converter pipe waiting to be installed, as well a low mileage used transmission. This is all in preparation to get the car to pass NJ state inspection. |
