mrmattrunner

Hello Everybody! I found a listing on my local Craigslist for a 1983 RX7 with a listing that reads:

"1983 Mazda RX7 FB up for sale. 80,xxx miles, clean title. Car sat for 2 years before I went through and replaced a ton of stuff to get it up and running. I put a brand new Nikki (stock) carb on it, fuel tank was pulled out and cleaned, new fuel pump, fuel filter, battery, and other little odds and ends. Car ran fine after sitting and started running rough after sucking up junk from the fuel tank into the carb hence why I replaced everything. After putting the new carb on the floats were out of adjustment and at the time I couldn't figure out how to adjust them correctly. Easy fix if you know what your doing I just have to many projects and stopped messing with it. Motor has good compression and will run fine once the floats are adjusted correctly. Does not run well at the moment and will need to be towed. Car is really straight and has decent paint. Interior is crusty from sitting in the sun but other than that it could be a really nice car."

After messaging with the guy, he stated that the car fluctuates from running OK to running poorly because each rotor is getting different fuel. I've done some scouring on the forum to read up on what might be the issue but I haven't found anything too similar from other people - so does anyone here have any ideas on what it might be and what I might be able to adjust to get it going good again? Thanks!

diabolical1

iTrader: (3)

welcome to the board.

i think it would be a little silly to try to diagnose the car based on third-hand information because there's no guarantee that the previous owner is correct in saying it's the floats that are causing the issues. so i think the real question is are you willing to buy the car and possibly spend an unpredictable amount of time getting it to run? if your answer is yes, then get it and see what's it's doing for yourself.

that said, it would be worth your while get as many details as you can. when was the work done? i'm particularly curious about this because the ad specifies "brand new Nikki" and i'm skeptical that those are still available, but i don't know. if the carburetor is simply rebuilt, then it could be the needles and seats, which apparently are an issue with the rebuild kits.

if possible, since you said the car is local to you, go see it running for yourself. see what it does and doesn't do. find out exactly what pump he put on it, check the ignition components, check simple things like wire placement. you never know. a report directly from your observations are a little more concrete than "i heard the guy say ...."

mrmattrunner

I plan on seeing the car Monday or Tuesday - I've talked the guy down to $800 for it (Clean title as well) so I'm pretty willing to take the plunge, I was just hoping to have an idea of what to look for before going to see it. Another question I would have would be would it be worth it to just take it to a shop and let them deal with it? I'm all for DIY but I'd be hoping to leave back for college fairly soon after getting the car (~2 weeks) and working on it there of need be but I'd be willing to take it to a mechanic just to get of going so I don't have to worry about it for that trip at least