It only takes one layer of paint or primer to block the flow of current. A poor ground isn't going to cause a drain issue. But it could prevent the charging system from recharging the battery completely. From completely dead about the fastest you can recharge a lead acid battery is 90 minutes. It would take longer at idle.

Look for a stuck switch that leaves a light on somewhere. Glove box or storage bin. You have the issue of the refrigerator door on these things. Does the lamp really go out when the door is closed? A few months ago I didn't get the passenger door shut and it left the dome light on. The batteries are not all that large. A 1 amp load would flatten a typical car battery in 30 hours. The running lights draw 6 amps so just leaving the running lights on with the headlights off would flatten in about 5 hours assuming the battery is in good condition and charged at the start.

 

Saturday: Got the diff in, axles in, fluids filled, brakes bled, and was heading in to take a shower before test-driving, when I got a call from the wife - - a small group of crooks had shoplifted her store and she needed me to come pull video for for the police, and print out photos for other local store owners and the neighborhood watch in the community. Killed Saturday.

Spent Sunday further beefing up security at the store, which she'd only owned for about a month. Killed Sunday.

Tonight I have to finish some cable terminations and a few other covert surprises for anyone else dumb enough to try to rip off a store owned by the wife of a guy with 25 years experience designing government/industrial/financial security systems.

Possibly by Wednesday, I'll get to find out if the diff swap improved things or not.

Real life is incompatible with hobbies, sometimes.

 

this is 110% true.

 

Almost ready to reinstall the AC in my SA. Guys building the hoses got 3 of the 4 fittings in
that were correct. Damn metric hose connectors. Took my compressor in to verify all the
fittings before they commenced with hose fabrication. Turned out to be a smart move. So
now I wait until Wed to see if the right fitting comes in.

My plan is to reinstall and then fill with 152a possibly by this weekend.

 

I took a couple of days break from the car to deal with home interior stuff...hanging a couple of lamps, putting together a couple of counter stools, etc.

Today I have off, but I'm still waiting on my brake hose. For a change of pace, I went out and rented a carpet cleaner and cleaned the carpets in the FB.

fm

 

I drove her to work, to lunch, on an errand, home from work, back out on another errand. Hot start, cold start, giddy up and go. The difference in performance since I made a ground contact is AMAZING! I think I'm up to about 90% of her potential and ready to tweak and tune... (and minimize smoke which is really almost under control).

I will still look for other electrical gremlins.

I am finally having FUN driving her! It's like I woke her from a coma.

 

got home early today, new wheels finally arrived, bewdy, had a beer and painted 'em. came up pretty good I think, but the close up photos don't do it any favours, I don't have the patience to do that good a job. should look good on the garage shelf

 

Also did a cruise on the weekend, nearly every genre of mazda rotary was represented, this is the only pic I could find of mine, getting **** blocked by random soccer mums and dads, im grinning like an idiot because I only just arrived at the meet up point and it was time to move off, and theres sick rotaries wastegating up the street in front of me , I got to give it a few squirts up the highway with a few of the big boys in their more drag oriented machines, as well as a brief blast through some twisties - can never get over how awesome these cars are. Gonna sign up for the next track day, its been waay too long.

 

I cut out a horrible welded-in garbage exhaust from the red one. It will eventually get a long primary with presilencers and stuff. For now it's just getting a decent full 2" system with real RE glasspacks, not the parts-store-special louvered trash I removed today. Glad to see those go away.

 

Earlier today, after steam-cleaning the carpets, I decided to fire up the car on jack stands just to hear the new exhaust. I just couldn't stand waiting anymore! I'm very pleased with the sound. I do believe, however, the old header gasket is leaking. I knew I should have gotten a new one. Oh well...Atkins Rotary, here I come. I've given them so much business, I expect a Christmas card from them this year.

Then I went a little crazy this eve and re-dyed my rear mat burgundy in the bathtub. The carpets came out very well in after steam cleaning. NOTHING was going to help that sun-faded, tired old mat. I'd run it through the wash twice. Then used a carpet spray/scrubber and went to town on it and hosed it down outside.

That's when it dawned on me that what the thing really needed was re-dying. I took it inside, filled the bathtub with RIT burgundy dye and hot water and dropped it in there. It literally looked like a blood bath in there...like a giant placenta...my wife would have been horrified if she'd seen it. Good thing she didn't. I'd be sleeping on the couch. Rinsed it off outside and I'm going to run it through the wash again and we'll see how it comes out in the morning.

That dye really didn't want to come out of the tub. With a good amount of bleach, I got it 90% out...just a little tint. I imagine I can get it 100% with another go at it with bleach, but my sinuses are shot for the night. She probably won't notice. Probably. Maybe I'lll be sleeping on the couch after all.

fm

 

Major congrats!

 

Drove her yep that's right she is a legal..... well legalish. next step is to save up for some wheels and tires. and this winter it goes into a body shop to get the small amount of rot taken care of.

 

Pulled the mat out of the dryer this morning. It's certainly not new looking, but it looks a lot better than it did before. I'll be putting the interior in later this week.

fm

 

I just threw a competition tranny mount in the red one. The old one came apart. Complete separation of rubber from steel. Who else has had this pleasure?

 

I installed a MSD ignition box thanks to rx7club.com for all the info on the subject Best mod ever!

 

Cleaned the bac and acv valves adjusted the tps and put in new plugs.

 

I dropped my 83 GSL at my mechanic's garage for a much needed clutch upgrade.

 

Diamond Racing's website is finally back up so I ordered some new wheels and tires to go with them.

 

I ordered a headder gasket. After 2 weeks of a new exhaust system, I have an exhaust leak... I tightened it up... today I can see old gasket creeping out at the seams. Exhaust fab guy says he should have gotten a new one...

 

Wow diamond racing is amasing im bout to snag some wheels

 

Had that happen once, many years back.

 

Ms. DIY I"m SOOOO glad to hear she's running a champ! Get that exhaust leak fixed and boom!

So, i'll give a last-few-days update. I decided last saturday that it was time to go EFI, for REALS. So i pulled off the carb and intake, got ready to bolt stuff up, and noticed some of the black paint that the PO had sprayed over 3/4 the block was kinda chipping away. I had a plastic brush so i scraped at it a bit, and it flaked right off..

Well.... shoot! I'll just rub this stuff off!

Yeah, the flaking very quickly ended and the rest of the paint was fused into the iron. Not really but it was on there good. So instead of having EFI and being out there tuning it - i'm taking steel wool to the engine block and polishing it up

I did upload a video with the new exhaust:

 

that sounds really nice! really mellow... you live in a nice area, i want to live on your quarter panel now

 

hahahah get a little suction cup seat mount for ya back there. thats a great image

The area itself is great. the podunk town i live in - not so much.

I'm really pleased with how the tone turned out. It sounds totally Mazda, without the obnoxious 130db of open header!

 

Finally got to test-drive the car with the diff (my original, 100,000mi+) that I swapped in on Saturday.

Smooth as silk. Lash seems to be gone. Silent on curves and straights. No shudder under declutching or reversing uphill with partial clutch. The annoying bearing whine that didn't go away when I swapped axle bearings last year is now gone, too.

I'll know more once I can drive it more than a half-hour, but at this point, I'd call her 100% again.

Yay.