peejay

Well fellow rotorheads, today I drove home a brandy-new (to me) '85 GSL. And it's LOADED, every option including power steering (oh well, at least it has a quicker ratio 'box!) but not leather seats (yay! no leather).

And with every new car comes questions...

Car has no power... now I know the trailing ignitor is inoperative... me an' Denny spent a good long time first replacing the fuel pump (it died 1/4mi down the road yesterday! but that's a long story) and then I rewired the fuel pump to the cig lighter fuse, so the fuel pump gets power with the key on. That part works great... and I know this car is a bit heavier than my SA was and my SA didn't have things like power steering or a clutch fan... but you have to slip the clutch a lot to get moving from a stop, and the throttle is almost floorboarded at a 65mph cruise. I KNOW the car should have more power than that, my SA wasn't even in the secondaries until about 80mph. Meanwhile, this car won't even go over 70, not that I'm tryin' yet Keep in mind that it does have a header and a decently free flowing exhaust, too, and we KNOW the fuel pump is big enough as it's the same one that fueled ol' WT.

It doesn't feel like a blown engine, starts right up and idles nice. Can a shutter valve fail in such a way that it's stuck completely closed? That could cause it to have good cranking compression yet only run on one rotor. I'm also entertaining the possibility that the throttle cable is mis-adjusted (the pedal just feels too low to me) or that the pedal pads are interfering with the floor (they're comin' off anyway, I keep taggin' em with my big ol' feet... not safe to go hit the clutch and get a footful of brake instead!) or that the secondaries are stuck closed. Lotsa stuff to check out. First things first.... my "spare" dizzy is gettin' stabbed in there, and this time I promise to put it in lined up right!

Also... it's got the ol' "wonder steering". I know the info on the fix is over at mazspeed.com. But the LSD definitely works, I'm gonna have to re-learn how to drive all over again... with the P/S 'box you can easily turn in too sharply, and with the tight LSD the rear end breaks loose more easily, and with those hard old Viper tires on it it slides around real nice Not that I'm tryin'... but it reminds me lots of when WT was relatively fresh. It was interesting driving it on the snowy streets of Cleveland.

And after all that I gotta figure out two electronic bugaboos... the dash lights don't work (prolly just the dimmer unit, grab another from a junkyard) but also the HVAC controls don't work... the fan works OK but the lights on the pushbuttons don't light up after you hit 'em and it is stuck on fresh air to the vents and heat to the floor. Fine and dancy 'cept that I need a good defroster for the morning. Hmmm.... and we know all the underdash fuses are good.

I'm really REALLY happy with the car... it's hard to believe this is the same basic chassis as the SA. The SA was a really light, boingy car, while this one is a lot more serious, while it's heavier it also feels more substantial, has great seats and interior, all the power accessories, the first decent factory stereo I've EVER heard. If the SA was like a MGB-GT then this FB is like a 924/944, especially with the all-red lighting arrangement on the dash. This is more of a "needs a turbo or 13B with midrange grunt" car than a "needs a bridgeport with super high revs" car... now all you GSL-SE types make sense to me

Ok, 'nuff rambing... I have some reading up to do on this newfangled FB stuff!

Pele

iTrader: (28)

That heater control, Is it a lever for flow with buttons for recirculate and A/C or all push buttons? There is a tester available for the all button type, as it controls motors for the dampers. The lever type pulls a cable to move dampers.

The lights on the pushbuttons could just be loose. Try replacing them. Remove the HVAC control unit. (Logicon) and you'll see them in little grey holders. I had that problem on mine on the VENT button, as it's the one that's on all the time.


No power could be lots of things. First take care of what's wrong. (Ignitor) Then work with the carb adjustments, as those are probably the culprit. The shutter valve can be checked. I don't have the shop manual on me at the moment, but the basic idea is to find that pic that I have lying around and feel over that pipe. Rev the engine to something like 4 grand and let it spin down. It should suck air as the engine is decelerating and stop sucking at like 1500 RPM or something.

Felix Wankel

Only S and GS models have the lever.

peejay

Swapped in a spare ignitor, took 2 minutes including swinging the alternator up and out of the way... yay! we have a tach again! and the engine also runs MUCH smoother, and doesn't tend to stall out at idle. I think part of the no-power problem was also due to the emissions computer not seeing the engine running, and therefore didn't control all the million little solenoids and valves and whatnot. Car now easily goes 65-70 but it still feels to me like there's not much throttle pedal travel. Had a co-worker mash the gas and it looked to me like the primaries weren't all the way open, but I couldn't make 'em open up any more by grabbing the linkage. Maybe I'm just too used to the ol' ported engine and MSD? Maybe I should next try setting the timing.

Next on the to-do list are the I/P dimmer switch repair and the HVAC unit repair... yes it has the electronic pushbutton type, and it's not just the lights not working because the buttons don't do anything, it always blows fresh air thru the dash vents/heat air thru the floor vents. And buff out the paint. And set the alignment. And then work on the niggling little stuff like the lazy passenger window. (Why is it always the passenger window that binds up? My SA's was so bad it was grinding glass-on-metal)

Pele

iTrader: (28)

You might have a fried Logicon. Theres a tester available (At least the tools section of my factory manual says so.) for it. Take it to the Dealership and see if they have the tester.

Double check that the harness behind it is connected tightly and that the damper control motors are hooked up.

peejay

Bah... the dealerships don't even wanna look up parts for these cars 'cos everything before '86 is on microfiche. At least, that's what I always ran into in Cleveland, dunno about Columbus. Anyway there's a junkyard (aka "shopping mall" ) 'round here that has a half dozen or so 1st-gens, looks like i'm goin' shopping this weekend! But first I gotta get a new manual, one that is RX-7 specific.

Get this, one of the local yards let me have a Suaru throttle body (TPS/IAC/injector as well as the TB itself) for only $15! WITH 30 day warranty! And there was an FC with "BAD TIMING BELT" written on the side and I asked about how much for an engine, and he said $75 for any engine plus a $25 core. $100 for a 13B, not bad at all even if it does need rebuilt! Now if only they had some 12A's, then I'd really have somethin'!

Denny

Glad you're happy...
I agree with the secondary problem. I blew out the line with compressed air when trying to figure the fuel pump problem, also cleaned the screens where the fuel lines split and meet the carb. Timing should be fine. Max7 and I concluded that the secondaries were the possible problem back last Summer.

Oh, if you don't want the big pedals I'll take 'em back.

Best to yuh, Cowboy
Denny, from the 'ol corncrib...

peejay

I'll prolly have 'em off Wednesday, then. I manually worked the secondaries, no problem, nice and free moving. I'll try removing the spring altogether, WT seemed to like that little change a lot back when it was all stock and fresh in my hands! Well, on second thought, maybe I won't go THAT far, just go with a cut down spring (have several) instead. I've forgotten how "fun" it is to work on these when they still have the rat's next in there!

It's really confusing... starts right away, idles great, runs around town great, but it just doesn't have much power. WT would easily go up to license-threatening speeds with just a tickle on the throttle when it was stock, so this car with a header and free flowing exhaust should be much more betterful. Ah well, as m'stepdad says, I'll figure it all out given enough time.

By the way... all four rotors are nice and shiny now, all the rust has been burned off