Sweet sounds good! I will definitely be keeping my eye out for a write up! FOR THE LOVE OF FIRST GEN LOVERS EVERYWHERE, CONQUER THAT ADD MAN!!

 

I'de love an "82" plate for my WI collector, but will take what i can for "no renewal fees and minimal police harassment"

as for what i did today, i searched around for a 1 bar MAP sensor and TPS for my "GM sensor based" ITB 1st gen project. I may loose low end toeque, but damnit... imma break 200 WHP NA

 

Still no joy on he stuck bolt. I used heat but maybe still not enough. I ended up pulling the bolt holding the lower control arm in place and removing the bolts from the tension rod and disconnecting the stabilizer bar. so I could swing the lower control arm out of the way and get an impact wrench on it. This still didn't work. So I rented a pitman puller and was able to get the tie rod end off as well. The only thing holding the strut assembly to the car are the four nuts at the top.

At least it is off the car now and I can change the spring and shock but the rubber ball joint cover is split and so I will probably end up replacing the lower control arm anyway. I suspect the boot on the tie rod end is also shot. I will look at that today.

 

Took my RX-3 for a 2 hr joy ride at 6AM, still need 250 miles to fully break-in my new 13-b 4port full bridge, driving below 6k rpm on the freeway is boring lol

 

Finally home after a month in Australia, she fired right up and didn't smoke too much. Kinda thinking of going turbo but wanting to keep the Weber.. any suggestions?

 

Did get the bolt out. Ended up taking the Spring off and then hauling the strut over to a friend who has a machine shop with all the bells and whistles. We had to turn the compressor up to 180 psi and plug directly into the tank. We let it pound for a good 15 seconds before it broke loose and came out. It was not rusty but I think the threads were rounded off a little when the bolt was put in. The bolt holes on the steering arm are not threaded but this one is slightly undersized and you can see where the surface of the metal is dented in the shape of the threads. I have no choice now but to replace the lower control arm as the ball link boot is split all the way around. So ordering that today. This bolt is not a standard size. It is 12mm by 1.5 pitch by 30mm long but is not fully threaded and I suspect this is intentional. Fastenal has a fully threaded one. McMaster Carr does not have one in a grade 10.3 which I think this is and doesn't have it in anything but fully threaded.

I did find an 8.8 with black finish and partially threaded at O'Reilys but in a 50mm length. This is probably what I will use unless I can find one in my junk pile but most of that is M10 size stuff.

 

I cold started my 84' GS this morning. The temperature outside was 10 F. I was proud.

 

Degreased and cleaned up everything I took off. Pulled the right front shock apart and removed the guts. Replaced with the tube type shock. Installed the new spring as well. Going to order a new lower control arm tomorrow because the rubber boot on the ball joint is shot and the life giving grease is leaking out.

Next is to inspect the bearings and replace if needed on this wheel.

 

Well, after a deer and a tree caused this to happen last night..




I went ahead and did this today...and began reshaping the fender until I find a replacement.



Fender anyone??

 

Ouch! Neither of my cars has perfect fenders. I did a quick search a few months ago for composite replacements and found a hood but no fenders. I keep thinking I should make a mold and then pull a couple of carbon pieces. But making a mold is going to be near $1000 for a piece that large and a little over that for a hood. The materials for a fender would probably be $100 in fiberglass and close to $200 in carbon. Not really a good value proposition. It would seem that someone will have replacement metal fenders. Maybe talk to a body shop and see what they would do.

 

Mazda will sell you a brand new fender for $160, they have tons, its not even NOS, its just normal parts

 

Do NOT replace a 10.8 bolt with an 8.8, particularly on suspension. That's like replacing an SAE Grade 8 high-strength bolt with a Grade 5 hardware store bolt. See if the original bolt will thread back in OK. Sometimes bolts can stick or "cold-weld" even without rust. It's just been in there for 30 years... Put some anti-seize on it when you put it back in. I've been putting anti-seize on pretty much everything that gets disassembled and reassembled. Big help if you ever need to disassemble again - and I plan to keep my cars long enough that it's a possibility.
As for the split tie rod and/or ball joint boots, don't replace the joint unless it's bad. You can get replacement polyurethane (read: lasts longer) boots from Energy Suspension and Prothane: http://www.summitracing.com/search/p...int-dust-boots

See Energy Suspension's website for which one's to use on your FB: energysuspension.com | Welcome (You have to grab the catalog - they've never fixed their online Application Guide.)

 

Here ya go - this site has an actual application guide, and is an authorized dealer: Energy Suspension Parts: RX7, Mazda RX7 1985

 

today, I sent some of my old parts to a new owner I hope Ray makes good use of them. The funds acquired will go towards my next "to buy" list

 

1st day with the 84 GSL-SE. Since it won't be used this winter I decided to take the battery out. Now, what the hell are these two wires attached to the positive terminal? Each wire has an inline fuse wrapped in black electrical tape (this doesn't look stock to me). I checked the FSM but didn't find anything. Are these the "fusible links" I keep seeing? The wire broke when I was separating it from the battery.

 

Haha no those are not fuseable links! Those are aftermarket installations for something electrical... I know, duh... but would probably go towards a stereo, e-fan, something along those lines.

I gotta get a pic of the FB with all the snow on it here. Poor thing.

Researching for my parts list

 

Not a damn thing..... But yesterday I pulled the RB exhaust and test fitted the turbo. Tomorrow is pull the tank, fuel system, remove beehive, drop tranny and pull engine.

 

The threads are badly rounded and won't go back into even a clean nut. I have a die that is the correct size for this and I could clean up the threads but that never seems like a good idea on a hardened bolt. I am pretty sure this was ruined the last time someone put it in. The clearances on the hole in the steering arm are very tight for this bolt hole. The other hole in the steering arm is looser. It would seem to me that what you would want would be a close fit on both of these. Best guess is the bolt with the larger amount of slop was put in with an impact tool and then the second bolt was put in and forced into place with a little misalignment thus rounding the tops of the threads. The bolt hole in the steering arm has thread impressions on the surface now. I am pretty sure this was not from the original assembly in Japan. When it warms up I am going to look for a better bolt in the stuff I pulled out of the other car. Maybe a transmission to motor bolt would be an exact match to the original.

Thanks for the tip on the boots. Too bad I already ordered the replacement lower control arms.

 

Those go to some after factory device. Usually a car stereo amplifier or a car alarm. So if your after market alarm or amplifier has stopped working you know why. If you don't have any aftermarket stuff it is probably because it was removed before you bought the car. I spent a couple of hours cleaning up a wiring mess from an after market alarm. There is still a box zip tied to the steering column which is supposed to disable the vehicle if it sees a heavy shock (like someone breaking the lock mechanism.) I am concerned that removing this will break the car so I will need to trace all the wires going into it and reconnect them back to original. It is kind of a hairball of wires next to that thing. The fusible links are on a bakelite block that is just in front of the left front wheel well and behind the ignition coils. If you follow the lighter of the two wires from the positive battery terminal it will connect to this bakelite block. The heavier wire from the positive terminal runs down to the starter assembly.

 

Thanks!

I believe the previous owner at some time had both an alarm and a stereo amp. What confused me was that the wires went into the factory wire loom (I guess at the time of installation they tucked the wires in there?).

 

found a brand new (probably 10 year old) clay kit in my garage and clay'd the car today. Other than that still daily driving her :p

 

i'm tempted to go start mine

 

Yeah, if it's messed up, either run the die down it or replace it. I don't think running the die down the bolt to straighten the threads will affect it's strength, but if you're worried about it, I'm sure someone here would have a spare or parts car they could pull one off of for a nominal fee. This is one of the two bolts holding the bottom of the strut to the bit with the taper for the ball joint, yes?

 

I'm starting to polish my Enkei Apache's!
Once the lips are done I'm sending one down to a powder coat shop to have a "test subject" made to see if I want silver or gold.

 

Finished buying the parts on my end to do the 2nd gen front brake swap only to find out I'm not the only one having issues getting a hold of re-speed. That and working on pulling the wiring harness.