Hey Guys,

Yeah, this is going to be another story about my car... but I have to share it.

You see the last couple of weeks I've been frantically trying to finish up all the loose ends and finish my car so that I can drive it to the meet/cruise on the 15th-16th in Ottawa.

I've got RB springs and KYB shocks ready to go in. Last year I replaced the entire brake system. I've been working on this car for three years while it sat in my driveway patiently awaiting the day that it would start again.

This year I had the carb rebuilt professionally (Thanks Rx7Carl) and installed it last week, only to find out my fuel pump had died over the winter. I bought a new Mallory Comp 70, with a Holley fuel pressure regulator and a pressure guage. I hooked all that up and I've been trying to get it all working for the last few days.

Things were going alright.. and the idea was that today the car would finally run, and I'd be able to drive it to my mechanic's place for the installation of the suspension and a few other things.

So I get it running, but I still have to adjust the pressure regulator, the idle speed and mixture. As I'm waiting for the car to reach operating temp (running at 2krpm because the idle's set high and the regulator is too), a buzzer goes off in the car... I look down and see that my #1 cat is glowing orange.... and catches fire.

I managed to douse the fire before it did anything crucial, but now I'm desperately trying to find a set of replacement cats because my mechanic is expecting the car tomorrow morning! My safety check is scheduled for Thursday, the meet is next Saturday and my car has hit yet another "Murphey's Law" setback.

I feel so incredibly dejected. This car is one of my passions, and I almost lost it to a fire because of a clogged cat today. I don't know where I'm gonna get the money for cats and how I'm gonna get it on the road by next weekend... I just feel like crawling into a corner and crying, because all the hard work I've put into this car has bottomed out one week before the big meet.

*sigh*... well.. at least I'm in Quebec. I think I'm gonna have it towed to Glen's for the suspension anyway, and have him hollow the cats out and do the tuning... That's probably the cheapest way, but I'm gonna have to hope the safety-check guys don't hit the cats with a screwdriver and find that they're hollow, or I'm fucked.

Can you drive the cruise on a travel permit?

Jon

 

I love living in Mississippi where the "inspections" are an exchange of $5 for a sticker.

 

That would be nice.. Up here there are only a few select garages which are gov't-run.... One in Hull, one in Shawville.... And they don't accept bribes.. Hell I'd pay them the full price of the safety check, in cash, directly to their pockets if they gave me a sticker. That's $65 instead of $5!

Jon

 

That really sucks, but at least you noticed it. As far as cats go, the "bonez" ones from rp (rx7.com) are real nice and full replacements for all the stock cats. I had one on my '83 a long time ago and it was...nice.

 

Sorry Jon, I was hoping for good news. What actually caught fire? Hollow that sucker out and hope for the best. Have you looked at it to see thats it is indeed clogged? If you need a used cat, PM me. I may have one somewhere.

 

I can't think of anything else that would make a cat glow orange other than it being clogged... And there was no exhaust coming out the rear at the time, so that would make sense.

Thanks for the offer Carl, but I don't have enough time. I'm gonna have the car towed to Glen's tomorrow morning on a flatbed. Glen is gonna hollow out the cat(s) that is (are) clogged, as well as the rest of the work that I'm gonna have him do. With any luck the safety-check guys won't realize that they're hollow and they'll let me go.

This is basically all I can do right now with my available time and money. It's the last-ditch "let's try and make this work" effort.

At least I know that it *will* start and run now. That's something. It means that the fuel pump and regulator are hooked up properly.. Though the cheap guage doesn't seem to want to work properly... It reads at MOST 1psi, though I know the fuel is flowing a hell of a lot more than that.

Anyhoo, I'll keep you guys updated. Wish me luck, I'm going to need it!

Jon

 

That sucks man
I hope everything works out for you-- I feel your pain!

 

good luck jon! i know how u feel

 

just don't use a catalytic..

hope you get better though!

 

Lose the cats. Do you have to pass emissions or any type of inspection?

 

I unfortunately have to pass a safety-check this week. AFTER that I can ditch the cats (and was planning to). We don't have emissions testing in my province, but they have to be "present and intact" and I'd assume "not glowing orange" too.

The car was towed off on a flatbed to Glen's today. I've briefed him on the changes to the car (new pump, regulator, carb etc...) and hopefully he'll figure things out by Thursday.

If it wasn't for that damn safety-check that I need before putting it back on the road, this wouldn't be so much of a problem.

As it is, we can probably hollow them out and they'll be considered "present and intact" unless the safety-check guys hit them with a screwdriver

Jon

 

If your worried about the screw driver, see if you cant find some heat shielding from another car in a junk yard or something, and place that around the cat so they can't directly tap on it You could use large hose clamps and wrap some of that reflective heat sheilding found under car gas tanks on there too to muffle the sound if they whack on it. They can't really make you pull it off if you don't have any tools with you either

-Shannon

 

hmm.. I'll suggest that Glen do that while it's over there... I'm sure he's got some metal shielding handy that he can rig up Thanks

Jon

 

The good news is, the cat isn't clogged!

We're getting good flow out the exhaust and the car runs fine at higher RPMs...

Still other problems though, but instead of re-writing a whole bunch, I'll quote where I posted in the Canadian Section (and in a PM to Carl):

----------------------------------------

At about 6pm today I ended up at the mechanic's place (on bike.. what a ride!).

I tried every adjustment I could possibly think of, to no avail.

The good news is, the car is *drivable*. Two pumps of the gas and hold the key all the way and she starts right up under her own power. Revs up to 2kRPM and won't come down. Not for turns of the throttle screw, not for turns of the mixture screw. Not even for turns of the regulator screw. But she drives just fine.

I had it up to 80kph and it runs fine though all the gears. The only problem seems to be at idle.

The cats don't glow red anymore. I adjusted the mixture. It's sitting at about 2.5 turns out, maybe 2, and they don't glow anymore... but they sure do get hot fast. Not hot enough to trigger the alarm, but enough that it smells burnt in the car now.

The exhaust has no restriction. We're getting good flow out the back, and it drives fine up at higher revs, amen to that!

It strikes me as a vacuum leak problem (thanks Rxcetera, looks like you nailed it!). We used a propane torch (unlit of course) to check for vacuum leaks in the nest or near the intake manifold and got nothing. No surge or dip in idle after/while spraying propane everywhere. I'm thinking maybe something in the rat's nest is hooked up wrong or not working... or maybe it's leaking from somewhere else that I can't think of.

The car's got 15km on it today (I reset the trip od before leaving the mechanic's place). The exhaust and engine bay seem to heat up like the dickens, but the guage for the coolant registers low/normal temps, and the oil pressure guage maintains a solid 4. The engine bay is only hot on the exhaust mani side so I'm thinking there's still major problem there. The vaccuum leak/running rich/idling at 2krpm problem is probably related to the uber-heat problem.

I can't think of what else to try! The guage I bought for fuel pressure isn't working. It won't register past 1.5psi but I *know* that the car can't run that high/well on only 1.5 psi. It makes me wish I had an AFM dial telling me what my intake looks like. I'm afraid of the damage that might be caused by driving it as it is (either really lean or rich, I haven't decided which yet).

I cancelled my safety check tomorrow afternoon. The other news of the day was that my new e-brake cable couldn't be installed. I bought the cable from the handle to the rear (the Y-shaped one) but the ones that actually go INTO the drum are also rusted/shot. The only places I can seem to get them are Coté or through my mechanic. Coté can have them same-day but they're $50 each. Same price though my mechanic.. What a bugger.

I'm gonna get a transit tomorrow.

Another problem appeared when I started driving it - The clutch master (or release I'm not sure which yet.. maybe both) is/are shot! The clutch pedal sticks to the floor intermittantly and has to be pulled up with my toes. YES I did bleed them when I was at Glen's place. Twice. No air in the lines, just solid squirts of fluid. The kicker is that my original ones were shot, so two years ago I bought these used from.. you guessed it... Rx7Hell. I need new ones.

If the car is still driving like this Saturday, I'll take it to the show-and-shine, but I'm not driving the cruise in this condition.

Tomorrow I'm going to take it to a local shop called Takaki Motors. They specialize in Japanese cars, and Kunio the owner has owned an FB before. Kunio trained my godfather (who apprenticed under him until he threw his back out many moons ago) and so I've got it on good authority that he can probably fix FBs. It's better than taking it to Rx7Heaven, though if it's my last resort I MIGHT make a trip down there. Takaki is expensive as hell.. like $95/hr if I remember correctly. But if it fixes this, it's worth it.

So the list of things left boils down to:
- Clutch Master and Slave replacement
- E-brake cables (L/R in the rear with drums)
- Mysterious Vacuum-leak-like problem

and of course.. trunk pistons hardly a safety-check item!

Thank you for your offer Will. I understand that with the meet only days away that there obviously wouldn't be any time with work/school or whatever. I just thought I'd put the plea out there. Anything I'd PM is in this post, but if you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them

The Rambling One,
Jon

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Jon