I'm a green owner of two '85 GSL-SE's. The first one I bought hadn't been started for about two years. It has about 174,000 miles and a mysterious toggle switch on the dash that kills the engine when it is off. After around five minutes of sputtering and a big cloud of while smoke I got it running fairly smoothly. But when i turned it off, had a hard time getting it going again. Then when running, it would die suddenly. I was able to drive it two miles to my house. Turned it off and that's the last time I heard it fire. Tried all day and couldn't restart it. Put five gallons of fresh gas it the tank, had 12 volts at the coils, the plugs were wet but I didn't see a spark when I turned the motor over with the plug outside and grounded.

I'm really clueless about RX-7's. Is there some part that I should be testing or replacing? Are there any other places I should be checking for voltage?

Thanks for any help,
Robert

 

Chances are the engine is heavily flooded.

Check out that switch and you can use it for your benifit. If the switch controls your fuel pump, switch it off and try starting the motor.... this will clear out the chambers of gas. Then turn on the fuel pump and the motor should start. You could also clean your spark plugs that helps sometimes.

The bad fuel from when the car was sitting there could cause soooooo many problems. Fuel goes bad after a year. It can clog your fuel fiter and cause the problems you described. And it could kill your fuel pump. Clog your injectors etc... you get the idea.

 

If you search my username, my past few threads that I started you will see that I spent aprox. 15 hours trying to figure this out.....

I took out plugs,on 5-6 different occassions and cranked engine for 20 seconds ATLEAST to get out any extra fuel. Wire brushed my plugs a few times, sprayed with brakeleen about 10 times, over and over and over and over I messed with thing and it would not blurp/fart/****/anything through the exhaust, sounded as if I had no coil wires going to the cap, all cranking.....

Solution....after about 15 hours,Disconnected fuel pump.... I put some starting fluid down the carb and it coughed, I had it wanting to start up for like 20 seconds but wouldnt, I ended up going back one tooth on distributor and it fired up at Wide Open Throttle with starting fluid. It died, hooked up the fuel pump and started that baby up, blew it out......

Conclusion...I was flooded beyond clearing out capabilities, and getting the motor deflooded. It was starting fluid or never gonna start at all. Try it, get back to us. I will never deflood a rotary ever again without trying starting fluid first. For whatever reasons are motors flooded so bad, hopefully it doesnt happen often as im sure starting fluid cant be the best thing to put down a rotary, but there was no choice! Sorry for long rant

EDIT By the way, I had taken out distributor, and rotated this....dont do that, so I had to find my old position.Also I did the oil in spark plug trick for compression...didnt work....ether(starting fluid is the only way for me from now on)

 

Thanks for your replies. I'll bet your right about it being serous flooded. The spark plug I took out was loaded with gas, some oozed off ithe plug onto the surface I laid it on. I've had problems with a flooded two stroke motorcycle also. After many frustrated hours of kicking and cleaning the plug, it would just start like nothing was ever wrong.

I may buy some new plugs, these have black deposits on them. Before I try ether I want to get a spark. I have started with ether before, mainly an old Gallion diesal road grader that was hard to start on cold mornings. Ether always started it, usually with a big plume of black smoke.

I'm letting the seller of the other '85 keep it until Wednesday. He needs it until he flies back to Thailand. It's in better shape, only has 154,000 miles and has been maintained. I figure with two cars I'll be able to keep one running.

Robert

 

Best way to start one that is flooded it to pull start it. Chain it to a tractor and pull it down the road as far as it takes.

 

It is probably the same thing that is wrong with my car. It might not have any compression, so you need to take the engine apart and put new brushes in the engine, and new gaskets and belts. I am doing that with my car and at the same time I am putting a light weight flywheel and a stage 1 upgraded clutch.

 

hrmmm....brushes and belts inside the engine.....I kenw I forgot something when I did mine!

 

NEW plugs go along way, I know they are expensive, but many times for me they fix my problems. I flooded her recently and it would not start with the plugs I had in it. Switched the plugs for new ones, it chugged for 15 seconds, then woke up. A bad fouling will not get cleaned up with a torch and wire brush, I know this from experience with 2 stroke motorcycles. Good luck.

 

Thanks for the advice. I haven't tried to start the first one again but if I do I'll definitely buy new plugs. Picked up the other '85 several weeks ago and have decided to get it legal. It runs fine, starts immediately, and is in better overall shape but the leaking catalytic convertor failed it on inspection. I have to get it inspected to get it titled. That's my top priority right now. I'll have to say that driving a rotary is a different experience. The 13B pulls much better at low revs than I thought it would.

Robert

 

... do you mean "brushes" like on the starter or something?

Does your engine cut off sporadically, or when you get(got) the RPM's up a little higher, does/did it start to choke and perhaps buck a little? My brother's fuel pump was clogged on his Suzuki Samurai (off-roading toy only ), and it bucked like all hell until he ran no filter (just back to camp, that's all). Then it ran perfect.

And, from what i understand, flooding on these engines is a BITCH.