Veranish

Heya guys, I've now been driving my Vert for a month now, and have raced it in an autocross, a couple of issues have become apparent, and I have some questions if things are normal or not.

First is the battery is super loose, the tech inspection almost failed me. I need to secure it better, it can wobble quite a bit. It's not the top mounting wobbling either, it's the whole thing it sits on.

Second is the steering, whenever I get to the edges of turning left or right it loses its tension, and becomes super loose. Returning the tires towards the center it tightens up back to normal. Also, turning left too sharply makes a horrible vibration occur, as if someone is shaking the whole car. It feels like it is coming from the passenger footwell. I assume this is the tire scraping on something?

Third is the transmission, Jiffy lube folks told me I've got a leak, though not a serious one, and that I need to top it off with fluids every once in a while. Additionally, the shifter is... extremely difficult to shift down into first gear. Sometimes I CANT do it, I have to shift to second and make due (which isnt that hard). If I force it in those situations, it grinds very loudly.

Fourth, there is a beep that happens... sometimes. It's quite rare and high pitched (No its not the "shift now damnit" beep), it comes from the right hand side of the vehicle only, and sounds sort of like the whooping noise a megaphone has, but only a half second of it. It has happened when I was braking down a hill, and once when just cruising in fifth gear at 64 mph.

A lot of stuff, and none of it life threatening, but any ideas what I should do for any of these? I'd like when I leave this vert one day for a hatchback, to leave it better than I found it.

Akagis_white_comet

iTrader: (4)

If your battery tray is cracked, making the whole battery move around, I have a spare in storage. If you want it, it's yours.

As for your transmission issue, let me put this as gently as possible:
NEVER GO TO PLACES LIKE JIFFY LUBE

Is your car an automatic or manual? This information is vital in assisting you to diagnose the issue at hand. If you've not visited the Second Gen FAQ, please do so and download the Factory Service Manual for 86-88s. Between the FSM and the FAQ, you'll be in the right direction.

misterstyx69

iTrader: (142)

If you got a leak then FIX it.

That is just like your pool guy saying you got a leak and to just keep adding water!

Veranish

That's really generous of you, I appreciate it! I'll take a look at it this weekend and see if it seems cracked. I haven't actually gotten underneath it yet.

You mean never go there for anything, or for transmission issues? I actually didn't know about the leak till the old master mechanic was giving the car a once over. I went in for a quick oil change, since I didn't have a place yet to do it myself. They also saved me when the battery was dead (Turns out if the 'reading light' is set to on, even if the bulb is out, drains the battery. Dur.) in the middle of an intersection and stalled, so I wanted to give em some patronage, some cool guys there that wanted to take a look at the FC.

It's a manual. I'm pretty novice as hell, so I'm reading through it but its a bit latin to me. The gear shifter doesnt reset to the middle and I think that could be one problem, the lock ball spring maybe? Dunno! But I do know to get to anything complicated it I'ma need something to take off the hub nut.

Yeah it seemed odd to me too, but I've never seen anything come from the bottom of it. He said to fill it every like month and keep a small bottle.

For the transmission leak, I was thinking of going through something like this: .


I appreciate the feedback guys, this 7 is my intro to fixing anything myself, and I can daily it right now so I'm wanting to continue that.

Akagis_white_comet

iTrader: (4)

Pulling the battery tray is pretty easy, just a few M6x1.0 bolts. Use a 10mm socket on them.

As for Jiffy Lube, don't go there period. The web is full of horror stories from such places. Hell, I've even seen the results of a Honda dealership in Dublin OH who performed an oil change on a friend's 98 Accord. Drain plug was IMPACTED on, the crush washer forcibly contoured to the flange and the oil filter was on WAY too tight, requiring hammering a screwdriver through it to get it loose. Was not fun chiseling the washer loose. Stuff like this made a 30 minute job into a 2 hour nightmare. Suffice to say they set him up as "a recurring customer", the same way Jiffy Lube does. It's just they're using a different kind of 'lube'

Styx is correct. If it leaks, FIX it. Rotaries don't tolerate laziness, and there's only a couple places where a 86-88 NA manual transmission could leak (drain plug, trans case seams & tailshaft)

If the neutral return springs are toast or missing, you can get new ones from Mazdatrix (MAZDATRIX for Mazda RX7, RX8, Rotary Engine Parts and Accessories). You can inspect it by pulling the shifter trim up (careful, it likes to crack), then removing the middle boot set (four M6x1.0 bolts) and finally the inner boot attached to the transmission (3x m6x1.0 bolts). Tug the shifter straight up and take a look. Good time to check the shifter bushings too.

misterstyx69

iTrader: (142)

The manual trans has a "shifter return spring" that holds the shifter itself into the trans and also allows the shifter to go back to "neutral 2/4 position".
You can run without it and live with it,or fix it,which requires dropping the trans and pulling the tail stock,etc off.No other way to replace it as it wraps around a shaft.
I recently had this done and the Trans Shop Screwed it up.They lost 5th/reverse.
Needless to say I "live without a return spring" now.