When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I replaced all of the clutch hydraulics after what was likely the original slave blew up, and learned a few things:
Rockauto sells a master cylinder advertised with the correct thread pitch for an early SA. It may not actually have that thread pitch. Same goes for the slave cylinder.
Autozone not only carries a master cylinder with that thread pitch, they had one in stock locally.
Threading the clutch hard line into the wrong pitch master cylinder is a bad idea.
Rethreading dies are amazingly useful, because you can't get a formed hardline anywhere, and hardly anyone sells m10x1.25 brake line nuts.
Also, the top bolt for the master cylinder is a lot easier to get to if you take out the seat and put your head right under the clutch pedal.
That's all really great info, thanks for sharing! A couple points/questions.
Who sells the m10x1.25 brake line nuts? I have to redo my brakelines.
I also ordered a new SA master cylinder from Rock Auto and it turned out to be the incorrect type, I'll try Autozone, thanks!
You're absolutely right that it's easier to access the clutch and brake MCs with the seat out. Four bolts can save hours of pain and frustration!
Took my RX7 into the shop today for some much needed TLC.
Fixing a boost issue, replacing the brass button clutch to make it a bit nicer to drive in traffic, and sorting out a noisy diff.
Looking forward to driving it again a bit more often.
Discovered that you can't put a Dell'Orto carb on an Atkins intake manifold and have it clear a 12A exhaust manifold. So it looks like that $250 chunk of aluminum is going to go on the shelf and I need to buy a Racing Beat S4 upper.
Dangit. I really wanted to run the flat manifold but I also really don't want a header because I want a pleasant to drive car.
(A 12A exhaust manifold fits a 13B just fine - Mazda apparently made only one manifold casting and drilled the mounting holes 5mm offset one way or 5mm offset the other way from center, and the ports are so large that there's no mismatch on either engine)
After hitting that wall, went to flush out the front brake fluid so that I could try using my reverse-bleeder setup and noted that the left caliper is plugged solid with gunk, and both flex hoses look like garbage anyway. Have new calipers and hoses on the shelf (yay parts hoarding!) but I am reminded that pulling calipers on an FB sucks hard. I sprayed the strut mounting bolts with Kimball-Midwest penetrating oil and went home in disgust.
The life and times of getting a car that sat for most of a decade roadworthy again...
TIG welded manual trans mounts into my 1985 auto. I used a floor jack under the trans and bolted the manual cross member to the new brackets to determine position. Then tack welded, removed trans, and continued to weld everything. Not pictured, I also primmered, seam sealed and undercoated the area.
Will be putting the trans and exhaust back in this week once I get new exhaust gaskets for all joints.
I'm liking my new Lincoln Square Wave 200 TIG.
Drivers Side
Passenger Side
Last edited by KansasCityREPU; Sep 10, 2017 at 05:57 PM.
Pulled the calipers off and noted - wow - the wheel bearings feel like gravel.
Of course, I want to try driving the car with the PO's suspension setup (some kind of strut and 200lb-in coilovers) so I'm going to replace the (Series 2) bearings, instead of just throwing on any of my surprisingly large stack of (Series 3) rotors...
Dangit. At least the strut bolts practically fell out. Gotta love Southern cars. (Ignoring that the wheel bearings were rustier than any bearings I have ever seen and I work on cars for a living)
Well, after having the car sitting for nearly two years I finally went to the DMV and got a new plate for it, so it's actually legal to drive again! That's a start.
Questing for a bit more braking authority; my old stock rotors and pads are pretty badly glazed after around a decade of minimal driving between long periods of sitting, so off they come for a while. Rotors will be cleaned up and turned, then set aside as ready-to-go spares.
Oh, hot tip for the SA guys: the Raybestos caliper rebuild kits for the SA also include the no-longer-available-from-Mazda caliper pin boots - - even though they don't show them in the photos. Almost worth the price just for the boots, which deteriorate over time due to heat and exposure.
Now, if I could just find a retail source for NEW front-wheel grease cups.
Questing for a bit more braking authority; my old stock rotors and pads are pretty badly glazed after around a decade of minimal driving between long periods of sitting, so off they come for a while. Rotors will be cleaned up and turned, then set aside as ready-to-go spares.
Oh, hot tip for the SA guys: the Raybestos caliper rebuild kits for the SA also include the no-longer-available-from-Mazda caliper pin boots - - even though they don't show them in the photos. Almost worth the price just for the boots, which deteriorate over time due to heat and exposure.
Now, if I could just find a retail source for NEW front-wheel grease cups.
Nice tip on the Raybestos kit. If those Hawk pads dust too much for
your liking, get the Centric Ceramics from rockauto, hardly any dust,
no fade, and they perform to almost the same level as the Hawks. I had
the Hawks for awhile with the slotted rotors (RB) andthe squealing and
dust drove me nuts.
Also, as you know, make sure those rear drums are up to snuff and
adjusted right. That makes about 50% of the brake feel in an SA.
Nice tip on the Raybestos kit. If those Hawk pads dust too much for
your liking, get the Centric Ceramics from rockauto, hardly any dust,
no fade, and they perform to almost the same level as the Hawks. I had
the Hawks for awhile with the slotted rotors (RB) andthe squealing and
dust drove me nuts.
Also, as you know, make sure those rear drums are up to snuff and
adjusted right. That makes about 50% of the brake feel in an SA.
Thanks for the tips re: brake pads. Will keep that in mind.
The speed bleeders are without a doubt the best $7 I've spent in a long time. I bought another pair immediately (1 for the rear brakes, 1 for the clutch slave) after discovering how stupid-easy they make bleeding/fluid exchange. Literally 5 minutes to bleed both fronts through to new fluid, solo, once the car's up and wheels off; and I'm betting I can do them just using ramps from now on as we can skip the tedious undercar wrench-turning.
Braking seems quite improved with the new front setup, & thus far noise is not an issue. I adjusted the rear drums recently when I changed out the e-brake cables, but I'm sure they could use a bleed too.
What speed bleeder kit did you get? I'm gonna have to do this exact same thing within the next few weeks, and I never have a helper around to help me bleed.
On topic: Yesterday now that my GSLSE is legal again I actually drove it around the block! I went first to the gas station to use their air pump, and immediately had a couple guys pull up wanting to buy the car, hadn't had that happen in a while.
My brakes are trash from the car siting, probably time for new everything.
Oh man, what an afternoon. I finally had a few hours alone with the car and a box of parts from Rockauto.
I cleaned the engine bay a bit (as well as the outside of the car,) then installed a new battery, new belts, new radiator and gas caps, and new spark plugs. I also got to open up a box of FC and FB NGK plug cables to figure out which goes where since I have a 2nd gen leading coil.
Cranked her up and she puuuurrrreeeed. I don't remember the car running this smoothly in a long time, idle was rock solid at around 800 rpm, no bounce or stumble at all. I tried to take it for a spin around the block, ended up doing an extended circle around the county.
The brakes worked a little better since I probably knocked some rust off the rotors, but I still probably need new rotors, pads, maybe a master cylinder. But man, it felt so good to be driving a car that doesn't suck again. At least until it does something to **** me off, which it will, and probably on my way to work.
What speed bleeder kit did you get? I'm gonna have to do this exact same thing within the next few weeks, and I never have a helper around to help me bleed.
Dorman Quick bleeder, #12708 work for SAs. Two to a pack, needs two packs.
Dorman Quick bleeder, #12708 work for SAs. Two to a pack, needs two packs.
Today: There be louvers here.
Correction; I forgot that the rear drum bleeder is larger diameter than all the others on the car... above type will fit front calipers, clutch slave and brake master, but not the rear drum cylinder.
Got my wife and 17 year old son to help me put the transmission back in the car. The newly welded in manual trans brackets worked great. Was even able to install the auto trans mount on the auto trans brackets to help stiffen up the body.
Ordered four the the speed bleeders for my 79 yesterday. Just need to find out what size the one rear drum bleeder is so I can order a speed bleeder for that one.
Got my wife and 17 year old son to help me put the transmission back in the car. The newly welded in manual trans brackets worked great. Was even able to install the auto trans mount on the auto trans brackets to help stiffen up the body.
Ordered four the the speed bleeders for my 79 yesterday. Just need to find out what size the one rear drum bleeder is so I can order a speed bleeder for that one.
It looks to be the same size & thread pitch as the brake line fitting.
The rear cylinders have two holes each, same size; on the left side, there are two lines attached (one from master, other across the axle.) On the right, one hole serves the line, the other serves the bleed screw.
Installed the new clutch line and bled the hydraulics, reglued the knee panel vinyl down before reinstallation, and then drove a Miata to see if I could handle having super slow 4 turns lock to lock steering.
I finally cleaned out all the crap in the passenger side of the car and gave it a good vacuuming. Now I can actually have a passenger! More importantly though, I attempted to install the new hatch lift struts so that the hatch would work again. I got one of them in just fine, but the outer nut piece on one side was bent out of shape and unusable. Oh well, at least the hatch will stay up with just one strut attached, even if it won't actually lift on its own.
I also tinkered with the throttle cable just a touch and accidentally fixed my cruise control. No idea why the slight adjustment made it work or why it didn't work before, but I'll take it. It's kinda weird, in the last two weeks I think I've done more to improve this car than I've done in nearly 10 years.
