all i've learned about tires is that we have no idea how they work. except for them being black and round, just about everything else we know is wrong.

the tire to rim width is pretty easy, there is an optimum rim width for a given tire width, and Mazda likes a 205 on a 7" wheel, but an 8" wheel with a 205 is faster.

we haven't tried changing profiles, we went from a 225/45/15 to a 205/45/15, due to the rules, both on 9" whees. i suspect a lower profile would probably make the tire more sensitive to wheel width, but that is just a guess.

 

The wheels in my pictures above are 16x8 et 25's and fit perfectly with no sort of rubbing at all on stock fenders.

I ran 205/45/16 fronts, and 225/45/16 rears.

 

Yeah, I'm pretty sure 205 is the widest you can go with stock profile springs up front.

 

Last night, I verified all of the ignition wiring with my multimeter. Then I tested out the new gauges and powered them up. w00t! This evening, I put the gauges back in my dash, added plugs to them from my old wiring harness and got the gauge lighting working like a champ.

I'm gonna finish installing my sensors and test each gauge before I commit to wiring those into a P6 plug. Then I'll wire the push-button start ignition panel.

I am waiting on a Battery Tender lightweight battery to arrive. I'll be doing a battery relocation soon. And it won't be to the interior of the car either.

fm

 

This evening, I finished wiring up the push-button start and the gauges in the dash. I took the whole mess out to the car and hooked it up. Flipped the ignition switch and the gauges powered on. Re-checked the lighting and that all worked. Then pumped the gas pedal a couple of times and gave the push-button start a go. I won't be needing this anymore:



fm

 

I flushed the brake fluid, replaced the radiator, and installed new window channels in the black 85 GSL I just picked up a few weeks ago. The right rear caliper is hanging up, I'll have to change that and re seam seal the wheel wells to prevent rust from forming then I can start daily driving it

 

That's awesome, I'm sure you're stoked with the results - I would be!

I'm making plans to finish both my FB TII swap and my brother's S4 FC TII for next spring. It's only a few months away, but I think I can get it done...I hope. Should be rolling around the streets together next summer and I can't wait!

 

Drove to work on this 55 degree rainy day. BF Goodrich Sport Comp 2 does indeed have good wet grip. They're superior by far to the Michelin Pilot A/S they've replaced, and actually ride better too. The Rustoleum Metallic painted centers have a nice glow. I didn't so much like it at first, thought it too bright. But it contrasts the matte paint nicely.

 

I cleaned the snow off of it so if it warms up and melts off I can go for a drive.

Before and After shots.

 

Tried to Drive her yesterday, had some carb problems and she didn't stay running I'm contemplating going out in the snow and de- flooding her and hope the carb freed itself up, or staying inside and looking for a new carburetor. I don't know much about Nikki carbs, but everyone I ask says not to rebuild it. Any suggestions would be great LOL! I know it has to be something stupid because this has happened before, on multiple occasions, and it somehow fixes itself over night.

 

I attempted to get my cluster lights working, had 3 dimmer switches test bad, installed new window channels

 

TheDame84, it might be something related to the carb that is causing the flooding problem. It could be the float bowl vent solenoid getting stuck closed and causing flooding. Maybe due to cold temps. Or maybe your gas tank return line or vent line is clogged. When mine wasn't venting due to a clogged charcoal canister, I pulled the hose off and it fixed it. I also had the stuck solenoid issue, so I gutted it (83-85 style, if that means anything to you, but you can't simply remove it like you can on 82 and older versions). It requires the top to come off, a dremel tool with a grinding stone, making a mess etc.

I would recommend that if you do want to rebuild your carb, you must do a lot of reading. If you replace some parts that you are not supposed to, such as the needles and seats, and adjust the floats, the carb will never work right again. Even the gasket that fits between the main body and the cast iron baseplate in all aftermarket kits is too thin and leaks, but there are fixes and workarounds to all of these problems. Hence the need to do a lot of reading as all questions have been answered.

For example this ha been answered before but I'm sure it's buried by now so here it is again:

The ONLY parts I use out of these cheap common aftermarket rebuild kits are:
• the top gasket, after careful trimming of the misaligned screw holes
• the included long travel accel pump diaphragm for the Sterling accel pump mod
• sight glass window rubber o-rings and gaskets-needs trimming
• sometimes the aluminum crush washers if they're needed, same for the copper ones-needs annealing before use
• the too-thin baseplate gasket is used as a template on a thicker blue gasket paper material found at auto parts stores in a multi-pack of gray and cork materials as well (I use the gray as accel pump gaskets for the Sterling accel pump mod)
• maybe a cotter pin or two if needed

If you use any other parts from the rebuild kit, your carb will be ruined. Accept this as fair warning and dig into your carb at your own risk.

Now for something a little lighter hearted. There are some people out there who know a lot about these Nikki carbs and can mod them to make more power than stock and even more power and better driveability than the popular aftermarket replacement carbs like Holley, weber etc. The Nikki can even be as nice to drive as modern fuel injection, if modded properly. It can also handle boost which is what I've been messing with lately. Rather, a combination of all these aspects into one carb. And they are very nice as daily drivers and cheaper than aftermarket carbs and far cheaper and/or less time consuming than EFI unless you swap all the ancient garbage from a GSL-SE or FC in, which I've done and would not recommend, now will ever do it again.

This is not an advertisement or anything. I'm just saying what is possible with the Nikki, and it only took us (the rotary community) 30 years to figure it out. Have fun and good luck getting your car to run right again.

 

Jeff20B, So I noticed that it's happening on only humid days. What I want to try first is cleaning out the float bowl and putting in a new charcoal canister. I want to avoid rebuilding it or wait and have it rebuilt this summer.
The other info you gave on what to use out of aftermarket rebuild kits was really helpful and will be info I save for reference this summer. Since it seems like you have a lot of knowledge about these carbs, are there any good tips you have for cleaning the float bowl? Thank you so much!

 

The problem with just getting to the float bowl is that it requires the top (air horn) to be removed. Removing it without doing damage to the carb is somewhat difficult unless you own an impact screwdriver and know how to use it. These screws haven't moved in a really long time. The main ones that sandwich a gasket aren't the problem. It's the others that hole two or more pieces of metal together that will give you fits and are prone to damage if you try to get any of them with a philips (especially a US-spec philips on a JIS screw) so I always use a flat head or slotted screwdriver whenever I apply any torque. Then I spin them in or out with the philips. This still works a lot better than replacing the screws with idiotic allen head screws like Yaw, Sterling and a few others would do.

There is a lot of stuff that needs to come off before you can get down into the float bowls to clean them, like the bulky choke pieces which are hard to get back on right due to the bi-metal spring being a spring and acting kinda springy.

If you can handle all that and want to risk it, just know that the float bowls probably are fairly clean and probably aren't the source of your problem. In fact the OEM strainers which fit on the banjo bolts up at the fuel rails on the air horn (top) do a pretty good job filtering out rush chips and stuff. Then there are the smaller strainers which fit directly on top of the OEM seats. These trap any tiny particles that could clog a .40mm hole. Yeah, tiny. I remove all of these for the boost prepped carbs because:
a)the strainers are a restriction
b)there are no holes in my boost prepped carbs smaller than .95 to .118mm
c)I have never had any problems with chunks or chips or anything else found in my float bowls causing a clogged jet in any Nikki, ever. Of course your mileage may vary. But I can tell you this about the old school 13B Hitachi carbs. I have had one of them get a clogged jet by a grass seed that somehow got into th gas tank, then got through the filter and fuel pump, and finally got past the needle and seat, to end up in the float bowl and perfectly plug one of the primary jets. Before you panick, you need to know that there is a fundamental design difference between Hitachi and Nikki carbs. The Hitachi has jets that are indented, or machined down slightly lower than the float bowl floor. This design is prone to jet clogging. On the flip side, the Nikki has jets that are quite elevated above the float bowl floor, and if you happen to have a typical US-spec Nikki within the 81-85 range, it will have some deep unmachined bosses originally intended for a richer solenoid circuit or power valve (wankel=awesome has a carb like this) which had the tiny .40mm orifice which clogs easily, being down low in the float bowl like it is. But you will just have a deep hole there which acts like a moisture and particle trap. So in other words, I highly doubt your float bowl has any debris in it. And if it does, it probably isn't clogging any jets. However if there is some kind of strange debris and/or coating in there, it probably is due to bad gas or moisture in the gas, and if so, it's not a carb problem but rather a gas tank problem.

Hopefully that wasn't too confusing.

As for cleaning the float bowl, I would tear a carb all the way down to make cleaning it easier. Oh, there is a way to heat up a tooth brush and bend it 90 degrees but I found the bend has to be right up at the bristles because the one I did hardly fits. So I just use a regular toothbrush now. Then if there is a hard buildup, I'll use a brass brush bit in a dremel or something to really clean the floor of the float bowls.

 

Finally got all of the bits and pieces to the mount my new enkei 92 15x7/8. Love them so far and felt the change right away first drive. Next step is to lower it down an inch or two. Also replaced my exhaust insulators. Not OEM but hopefully they hold up.

 

Today I put new weather stripping on my driver side door and passenger side door. I also plasti dipped the edges of my doors and front of my hood so the salt doesn't destroy them this winter. Then I changed my spark plugs, distributor cap and rotor. Lastly I located another nikki carb to start rebuilding and I'm going to pick that up tomorrow.
I'm in love with this thread BTW

 

Be sure to have an impact screwdriver handy because you need to preserve the bolts and hopefully not damage any of them. When you take off the unneeded dashpot, some of the screws from other areas can be used to hold the throttle cable bracket to the carb, because they are short enough to work, once you notice the slightly longer ones which were required for the dashpot, won't work. It's things like that, which seem obvious, but can trip up someone who hasn't worked on a Nikki before.

Be extra careful if you decide to take off the banjo bolts at the fuel rail. These can strip the soft aluminum threads in the air horn. Either apply pressure at each rail to allow the bolt to turn easier, or take off the center banjo bolt that holds the rail to the air horn itself, which relieves pressure, but requires more work and you have to get it back on straight. And if you are wondering, the banjo bolts need to come out to remove the strainers. So if you think your strainers are clean, and you have a good fuel filter that you trust, maybe the strainers don't need to come out.

Along with the finer strainers above the seats; these seats will not move unless you shock them with a vice grip and a hammer. Do not try the slot as it will tear out, even if your screwdriver is the exact right width and thickness. Been there, done that, so I use a vice grip every time because you have to. It's not pretty and makes the brass look ugly, but I haven't found a better solution. The rebuild kit does come with a spare set of thin aluminum crush washers inside each bag with the garbage aftermarket needles and seats. Only use the crush washers from these. You will need to remove the old crushed washer from the air horn. Don't forget this step! They are hard to see. A little pick-like tool or tiny screwdriver can pry then out. After the strainers are removed, be sure to have a properly sized screwdriver on hand to tighten the OEM seats back in (you will notice a difference in design style and quality compared to crappy aftermarket seats). Don't over tighten as they are just brass going into aluminum, and only need to crush the soft aluminum crush washers. So don't tear the brass slot out, OK? But be sure they won't come loose during use.

Lastly, to do mechanical secondaries, you can wire the linkage together. It's reversible if you don't like it. Study the linkage while opening the throttle blades and you will discover which linkage to wire together. Don't make it too tight because it can bind. When I weld mine for to boost prepping, the linkage is sitting kinda neutral so I don't ever get a binding problem as the steel parts are tacked together while the thick wire (which you'd be tying) has no pressure on it. This never gets any binding. Welding is difficult to reverse though, but necessary, in my opinion, for boost. Since this is your first time and you're just experimenting, don't worry about welding anything.

 

Just brought this home!

 

Ah very nice. That looks stock. Do you know if it's ever been opened up?

Just from looking at this one picture, I'm going to say that is from a 1983.

Please take your time tearing it down. Spend an hour or two. It isn't a race. Keep all the screws, and use an impact screwdriver on the stubborn ones. Do not use a phillips to break them free. Only phillips to spin them out.

Watch out for the OMP rod that's till attached for some reason. Try to straighten the steel linkage if it got bent. Look at your other carb to get the correct angles.

Are there signs of any water damage?

There are two ball bearings (check *****) and two brass weights in these carbs. They must not get lost. There is also a small c-clip that holds the accel pump lever pin on. It has to come off to get all four screws off, if doing the accel pump mod, or doing a simple new accel pump diaphragm replacement. This c-clip likes to fly away so you need to be extremely careful. I've lost a couple of them over the years. The rebuild kits don't come with the right size. So be careful.

What were your plans with this spare carb, again? Any plans to do some cool mods like some of us do? Like hogged out? Air bleed mods? Accel pump mod? Mechanical secondaries? These mods wake these carbs up and don't use all that much extra fuel because they are quite tuneable. If you don't want it running rich, it doesn't have to. Pretty simple, really. And all the primary jets you need can be purchased. Then a set of micro drill bits with a digital caliper and a little practice can get you some nice size custom secondary jets for fine tuning. I range from 140 to 150 myself with my air bleed mods for mechanical secondaries. These mods are so stable they handle boost and NA. And my primary jets are whatever size is needed for whatever size venturis I went with for whatever application I was building the carb for. So anywhere from a stock ported 12A to a 74 ported 13B. And I'm sure streetported and bridgeported with and without boost is possible. why wouldn't it be? People have been using stockish Nikkis on engines like that for years, so I'm sure some good carb mods could wake those engines up too.

 

Jeff is the man.

I have a Sterling Nikki that a forum member is shipping to me that I just bought:

https://www.rx7club.com/1st-generati...stuff-1091933/

Jeff expect a PM later with some questions. This Sterling will go on my stockport 12A with a full Racing Beat SP Exhaust.

My current setup is an rats nest delete and I am running an old school early rotary 12A intake manifold (RX4 I think) with an early Nikki (that still has OMP lines going to the float bowls).

I think you already told me my intake is great and flows better than an FB one....

I figured the Sterling was a good reason to get rid of my old Nikki that has seen better days and is need of a rebuild anway!!


I am hoping that the Sterling delivers exactly what I am looking for.. OEM reliability, great drive-ability, and a better increase in power. I even hope my engine likes it more.... no lean spots and better OMP lube delivery since its not into the float bowls!


Also coming with the carb is an intact/oem carb spacer that will be a nice addition. Hopefully provide a proper vacuum signal for dist. advance which I dont think I have currently. Or crank case vent either.

 

Today I grabbed some 1 1/2" aluminum angle and started work on a bracket for my fc fuse box. Once I get it mounted in the car and cleaned up I will powder coat it.

 

Fixed the dash lights on my 85 gsl

 

Was fixing a trunklid on a 08 honda accord today at work and had to take the spoiler off and had an idea



Since it was black, i would see how it fit on the 7, here's how it looks from the side, its just taped down. It actually fits really well, the hatch clears it, as well as the power antenna





Here's a pic from the back, the third brake light is even perfectly centered with the taillight filler panel

Let me know what you guys think

 

Looks good.



I see in the background its "ericks Shop"

 

New wheels to replace the waffles so I can get some good rubber on the road.

Konig 15x7 silver:



The waffles with the RWL tires will be relegated to dressup days only.