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Hi All, I know this may not be the specific thread to comment this in, but I'm very new to working on cars, especially an old rotary car... I need to replace my front left control arm, along with the bushings and ball joint. So just the whole thing. The problem is that Mazda doesn't make the control arms anymore... Does anyone know if I can get one anywhere? :')
If the control arm is ok, the bushing and ball joint are available on rockauto. Thats said, the ball joint is not designed to be replaced. So it will have to be popped out, the new one put in and most folks do a tack weld on the aftermarket ball joints to secure them in the OEM arm. Otherwise, you can check with atkinsrotary or mazdatrix to see if they still have control arms. Looks like atkins has the right side but not the left. Mazdatrix doesn't stock them at all.
Finally had to get my rx7 towed home, it drove fine on the freeway but after sitting in a long traffic jam it began to cut out when accelerating over 1200 rpm. Got into the park I was visiting and had even more problems because it was very steep and the car would not go up the hills without cutting out. My brother brought me a new fuel filter but it didn't help.
I figured out one of the primary venturi boosters that I accidentally broke loose in 2021 but glued firmly in place had finally broke loose again and misaligned which was causing all the problems. Makes sense as it started running better once the rpms got high enough because the secondaries finally opened, usually not how it acted when it was fuel starved before. Not sure if I can find just that venturi piece from someone or maybe I'll try soldering/brazing it together this time.
While diagnosing the issue I removed both ignitors, plunked the screws into some vinegar, cleaned both ignitors then applied fresh cpu thermal paste to them to help keep them cool for better longevity.
Took off my refurbished Mazda OEM leather steering wheel and reinstalled my wood steering wheel on my RX7. I like having the OEM steering wheel, and will put it back on when I decide to sell my 7 however, I had the wood steering wheel on my car for over twenty years, and to be honest I missed it. It's just a personal preference for me, I have always liked the look and feel of a wood steering wheels and have had them on other cars I've owned over the years.
@yeti Thats a great idea. Mounts extra gauges without cutting anything in the interior and can be reversed as well. Let me know if you want to make more for willing people <wink wink>.
Created a center dash gauge cluster: Looks like I should have spent time dusting/cleaning the car instead.
Additional pictures in the spoiler. I didn't want to hog the thread.
Spoiler
That's pretty dang cool.
Heck, I just need the bit that retain the radio plate - my car was missing it when I got it.I just have a crafted bit of aluminum holding it in position.
Working on making the car less musty smelling. It was missing vapor barriers on both doors so I made some out of the plastic sheeting we use to seal our porch in the winter and sealed it with silicone, then hooked a Damprid bag to the headrest for good measure.
The back straight at Circuit of the Americas couldn't do it, but 70mph on the freeway ripped the top windshield trim from the car. Clips were only about 10 years old.
Next one I find is going on with 3M trim glue as well.
Finished detailing my RX7 for the local car show tomorrow, I always have a good time at this show, and lets face it, who doesn't like talking about their RX7? Seventy degrees and sunny tomorrow and no rain anywhere! :-)
When I put the Nardi steering wheel back on the other day I didn't really notice how tired and worn the twenty-five year old screws were. But I noticed today and I replaced them
Amazing enough to me that I have decided not to sell her after all Toruki, at this point she's family to me. Going on thirty-plus years it's also my most successful relationship to date. I still have a few "to-do" things on my list but by and large I have it just the way I want it now, and it's just a joy to own. I'm honored to be the caretaker of this RX7, and when the time comes I do have to let it go I hope the next owner treats as well as I have.
Finally tore down the free transmission I acquired a few years ago. I disassembled the bellhousing and tailshaft back in March so progress have been slow.
New bearings need different shims in the middle plate and most of the snap rings deformed upon removal so reassembly can't happen just yet.
I found a factory puller set on ebay. The big socket was acquired from a Japanese vendor before all the tariff shenanigans so it was cheaper than Atkins' price or to pay for fabrication.
My local dealer is such a ripoff. I looked up prices for the shims and other misc. items on parts.mazdausa.com. I could stomach MSRP plus or minus a couple dollars but the dealer's prices were over twice that.
So weird that I come out way ahead paying shipping from another dealer across the country who also would have to get them from the corporate hub.
Ray Crowe is great. Bought a bunch of things direct from him through email and phone. I usually send him a list of part numbers from the fiche. Non freight items used to ship at a flat rate of $15 per order.
I used Ray for the first time yesterday. That guy knows his stuff. I emailed all the part numbers and mistyped the prefix for one of them but he knew which one I meant.
Usually I google part numbers and that brings up dealers that sell online, quite a few are cheaper than MSRP. I went with Ray because I've had a dealer cancel an order for a part that's NLA without notification so I'd figure he'd make sure.
More of an update on where my 83 stands today. Started as a formula white 83 gsl with a sunroof. Many hours later, fc subframe, se rear, hard top, a matte black paint job and now it’s a very nice spark yellow banana. Can’t thank 82transam enough. Excellent work all around 👍👌 looks great. Now on to the interior.
That was a bit fiddly. Can confirm, if you don’t start with the front, you get to do it twice. Color change next, reinforcing the edges and noise and thermal insulation. The SA headliner clips in nicely into the front metal, side moldings and rear hatch seal. No clue how it will interface with the b pillar s2/s3 lower panels.
