rxforspeed

iTrader: (3)

It's possible to remove one at a time; I'd stick a jack under the side you're removing and leave the top and other side in when you remove one side. When you remove the top, I'd center the jack under the radiator just to support it. My OEM radiator had cracks in the brazing that held the brackets onto the tanks; just be careful when you do it (i.e., don't apply to much pressure on the bottom of the rad from the jack) and you should be OK...

Jeezus

iTrader: (4)

You should be able to, depending on the ruse damage. I did this on my old 84

DivinDriver

iTrader: (15)

Just don't drive it with only one, and you should be fine.

lfd75

Thanks for the replies guys, good to know I can do a bracket at a time

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

if you are not driving it, you can take both off, the hoses keep it in place enough.

rxforspeed

iTrader: (3)

My brackets weren't really rusty, but my radiator looked like it had taken a beating. I've got a new replacement, but of course that entails more mods...

I managed to snap some pics of my wiring mess yesterday, and I removed all the rear wiper, rear window washer, and rear OEM speaker wiring by the time it got dark. I don't have time to start a new thread just yet, but I'll try to do that before this weekend...

How's your progress, Stu?

TainoCo

Cool, Now I have my weekend cut out for me thanks guys. Will polish everything I can cool. Thanks everyone I have just been inspired to do the same as everyone else, SWEET!

rxforspeed

iTrader: (3)

Stu, any updates for us? I still haven't had the chance to start a new thread with my progress, but I'm coming along nicely...

I've also encountered quite a few problems with swapping the S3 dash into the S2 car that I haven't found any info on here in this forum, so I think I'll start a "how to" thread on swapping the nicer dash into an older car when I get the time...

I may just add on to my old project progress thread with the wiring progress; I shouldn't have to start a new thread for that since the project thread covers many if not most of the upgrades and mods I had done to my car at the last time I posted in it. I'll send you a link to it when I get around to uploading and posting the pics...

BTW-I've completely eliminated my X-01 connector and will be adding some weatherpak connectors as soon as the weather here clears up a bit (hopefully sometime this weekend). I'd planned on finishing the wiring during this week (my fall break), but the weather and my woman have kept me from getting everything I wanted to complete finished. Oh well, my plans never seem to go as expected...

Anyway, I'd like to see how your hidden wiring concept is coming along! Update us when you get the chance!

Jeezus

iTrader: (4)

No, nothing yet. I ran into a snag, it looks like the rear most part of the front fender is bonded to the car! I want to take the fender off so I can start routing the wires but I saw that and now I need to brainstorm again.

Also I was trying to think of a place where the X01 harness can get connected at if I run it through the fender. Since you eliminated yours, I will re-read what wires are on there. I have it stripped down to I believe 4 or 5 wires.

Still to do is removing the charcoal line, getting more engine bay cleaner to clean up the drivers side and firewall, and retaping the harness up and looming it through the bay. I have a plan on how I can hide all my headlight wiring as well, without it binding. Just need to get then engine bay clean and welded before I get too far ahead of myself.

Jeezus

iTrader: (4)

Here is the seam:



Anyone else have this? I don't want to take the bolts all out and have to yank it free.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

everyone has it, mazda put a little seam sealer in there. its not really a glue, basically comes right off, but you will be able to tell you had the fender off.

plan B might be to pull the fender liner

Jeezus

iTrader: (4)

Fender liner sounds mucho better.
So I guess she has never been in a wreck then? I see this stuff on the front and some in the rear areas.

diabolical1

iTrader: (3)

you guys are making me so jealous right now because i don't have an Rx-7 to work on.

rxforspeed

iTrader: (3)

Stu and DivinDriver can really be motivational, can't they?!? Stu got me started with his dizzy, but I've been polishing and modifying a few things here and there when the weather has held me up on actual work on the car. I'd be much further behind if it weren't for these guys and their inspirational pics of their work!

Jeezus

iTrader: (4)

I am in the middle of a custom coil bracket being made

Pictures when it gets set up!

rxtasy3

iTrader: (2)

if i understand what ur asking, those rad side(mounting) brackets r supposed to be soldered to the rad at the top and bottom tanks. so if they'll come out without the rad u should take it to a repair shop and have them reattached to the rad.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

yep, if its present and unbroken that panel has probably never been off. you can buy that seam sealer stuff, so like last time i restored one, i redid the sealer.

Victorymike18

Wow, Looks Great!

A little effort can go a long way.

Does anyone like to use a media blast cabinet to clean parts?

DivinDriver

iTrader: (15)

I'd love to, but don't have one (or room enough for one...)

rxforspeed

iTrader: (3)

I've got one that I used to clean most of the parts that I've polished and powdercoated, but I no longer have a garage to work out of so it sits in a storage building collecting dust at the moment. It's the Harbor Freight $120 special, about 20" tall by 20" deep by around 36" wide or so. Just big enough to fit a single wheel (up to probably 15") in and still have room to move around it.

Stock up on clear plastic shields to cover the inside of the viewing glass, trust me-they're cheaper than replacing the glass itself. If you're a tightwad like I am and use hardware store "play" sand as blast media without a cover on the window, the glass gets ruined rather quickly.

If you plan on polishing anything that you've sandblasted, you might want to smooth the part out with some sandpaper first. It's MUCH easier and MUCH faster to polish a 320-grit or finer surface than one that's fresh out of the blast cabinet...



Stu, if you've only got four or five connections left in your X-01 connector, you might want to consider swapping the big bulky black connectors out for either one like the OEM choke 6-pin male and female connectors or the S2 headlight cleaner/retractor switch 6-pin male and female connectors. If you're going to be running your main harness through the framerail, the smaller connectors will probably save you some aggravation and frustration in the long run by eliminating the big bulky X-01 connectors. I'm not sure exactly where yours will end up, but I can imagine the smaller connectors could benefit you no matter where it is, especially if it's hidden from plain sight. Just a thought...

If you've removed all your emissions crap, the wires you most likely have left in your X-01 are: 1) a BW alt wire, ignition hot, current sensing wire for powering up the alternator, 2) a WB alt warning light wire, negative when alt instrument cluster warning light is on (should have been connected to the Choke & Check Relay before the emissions removal), 3) a BrY oil pressure gauge wire, potentiometer/voltage divider to ground signal, 4) a YW water temp gauge wire, potentiometer/voltage divider to ground signal, and 5) a YR oil level sensor wire, SPST switch to ground signal when oil level is low. I believe that's all I ended up with after all the factory carb and emissions wiring was removed. The terminals/pins connected to those wires in the X-01 connector MAY be compatable with the OEM choke male and female connectors, but I'm not sure. I haven't had much luck removing the pins from the flat, long black "X" connectors; my usual pin removal tools don't work on those and I haven't found the trick to them just yet. I just cut the wiring from mine (one at a time of course and only after complete verification), removed what I didn't need, and stripped the ends of what I'm keeping in preparation for the Weatherpak connectors I'll be using.

I'm pretty sure that's all I had left, I hope this helps you. I've become quite intimate with all of the wiring in the car recently so if you need any other help I may be able to share my experiences with you. One thing that really helped me was printing off a copy of BOTH the '83 FSM section 16-Wiring Diagrams AND the '85 FSM section 50-Wiring Diagrams. The S3 diagrams have really helped me with the S3 dash swap; I'd be a mess without it! If you haven't already, print you off at least a copy of your model's diagrams and mark out what you've removed with the emissions and any circuits that you've added-that could save your *** down the road when you need to go back and change, add, or modify some circuit that you'll surely forget the details on if you don't record it somewhere...

Just my thoughts, opinions, and experiences-I hope you can benefit from them.

Please keep us posted on the progress, I really want to see how you'll be running your engine harness, hiding your alternator wiring, headlight wiring, and all the rest! It's a very interesting project!

Jeezus

iTrader: (4)

Bizzump!

Been hella busy lately and hardly got working on the car since the last update. But I have some good news!

I was talking to Billy from ReSpeed about making a custom bracket to bolt up my 2nd gen coil to. Gave him some measurements and it came in the mail a few days later. THANKS BILLY! The part is perfect! It houses the 2nd gen coil and will be anchored where the trailing plugs used to be. I will have a bolt in each plug hole welded to an engine dowel pin (sounds ghetto, but looks great and is threaded) with this bracket being held to it and a bolt in the backside. Here are a few mock up pictures. It was hard to hold the camera and mock it up at the same time, but you get the jist of it:

Mock up: Ignore the spark plugs



And here is the part! I had the holes slotted on the outside in case I later went to a 13b. It was hard to hold this so it looks kind of twisted:





And no, I will not be using those screws . Those were there for checking the mounting of it. The coil will actually be flush with the bracket, or close to (since it is a rounded surface)

Slowly but surely I am getting there. I will be needing to extend the wiring a bit to reach to the passenger side markers and headlight, extend the wiring for the X-01 connector to keep it hidden, and find a way to hide the brake fluid connection as well. That should take care of pretty much all the wiring, then I have to scrape the paint off near all the holes and prep it for welding!

More pictures when time permits!

Jeezus

iTrader: (4)

Things I need to do left:
1. Pull headlight motors and paint
2. Pull Radiator and shrouds and paint
3. Pull E Fan and paint
4. Paint brake booster and clutch master cylinder
5. Remove charcoal line
6. Cut bracket off that held windshield washer fluid canister
7. Remove rust from under battery tray and rustoleum over it
8. Lengthen Passenger side wiring to reach headlight and turn signal
9. Push AC lines behind firewall
10. Weld all unused holes in the engine bay
11. Prime and paint engine bay Titanium Silver Metallic

On 1 2 and 4, I am tossing the idea of painting them either black, or the same color as the car. Anyone have any input? I am leaning towards #1 being black and the others being body color...

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

on 1,2 and 4 you can't go wrong with black.

Jeezus

iTrader: (4)

That is what I was thinking.

Well I got the headlight covers off, the headlight lids seem to be stuck in place. I have it soaking in some PB right now. While I had the covers off I decided to paint them. When the car was repainted, whoever painted it went overspray crazy.




Got some gloss black paint on one of them so far, letting it dry now:



More updates as I go along

ray green

iTrader: (14)

Looking good Stu. I'm still scratching my head on that coil mount, let's see it when it's done.