Robert the Swordsman

A bit of history first...

...two Fridays ago, I was driving on the freeway with my '84 RX-7 GSL (about 130K miles on it), and all of a sudden, everything just got real squishy; when I revved it, it revved real slow and took a while to get started, and whenever I shifted gears, it rocked a bit and took some time to get running smoothly.

I pulled it over and it was idling terribly. It was sputtering, but still running. Luckily, I wasn't too far from home and I was able to make it back without any problems. The next morning, however, it wouldn't start.

I had it towed to a mechanic (called "The Mazda Place", on Overland and Venice in Los Angeles... anyone heard of it?). He called me later that day and told me two ignitors in the distributor had gone out; when the first went out, that's when it started to lose power (on the freeway), and after the second one went out, that's when in wouldn't start.

He fixed it and I picked it up the next day (cost about $450 which I barely had), and it seemed to run okay, but here are some issues:

1. It takes FOREVER to warm up. I'd had a problem with it before, but it usually only took six or seven minutes at the very most. Now it's taking something like fifteen before I can step on the gas without it stalling out. The choke had been disconnected (due to non-functionality) prior, and the mechanic said he re-connected it.

2. It feels like there is something wrong with the carbeurator... or maybe it's the fuel filter. In any case, it simply feels like there is something wrong; when I press on the gas, it usually "skips" unless I do it very gradually, and the colder it is, the worse this problem is. When it's fully warmed up, it doesn't do this unless I step on the pedal very suddenly, in which case it'll skip for about half-a-second and then rev just fine.

3. This is the most annoying one: for the first while, it drives very slow. If I start driving it for the first time in a day, it'll just be extremely sluggish and slow. After a good twenty or thirty minutes, it will "break out" of this slowness and start driving pretty quick (you know when this happens because the car literally lurches forward and starts flying). I had this problem before as well, but never to this degree of severity. This is super aggravating.

Please keep in mind, this is not an attack on the mechanic. He seems really honest and did a good job of making my car run again, which is something I'm grateful for. He mentioned that the carbeurator needed work, but like I said, before that fateful Friday evening, it had never been quite this bad.

My apologies for the length of this post. I'd initially intended it to be pretty short.

Thank you very much.

FB II

hmmm, change thermostat, rebuild carb/ adjust accell pump, and check your timing..... but first, check your compression.

Robert the Swordsman

Yeah, I suppose I should have assumed that it'd cost some tremendous amount of money to fix.

I was looking for the quick and easy way (which is probably nonexistent).

Thanks, though.

SparkienSuggah

personally id check the timing, as well as the ignition vaccum/centripital advance systems,

furthermore, see if he attached the leading ignitor to the trailing coil, and trailing ignitor to the leading coil.. if this is backwards it will retard the timing by ten degress at a minimum, and foul up god only knows what.

and get him to undo whatever he did to the carb.. it worked good before, and now it works less good after... smells funky to me. this is the time you buy a haynes manual or FSM (or download it off the net, theres another thread to this affect on the front page) and see how easy all my reccomendations are. money is best kept for upgrades and fuel

d0ntdreamit

Some racers run w/o the 2nd igniter. The 2nd igniter is mostly for emissions. Running without the trailling ignition doesn't affect my engine.

Your problem smells of vacuum leak somewhere. One mechanic had a neat trick. He used a propane can and flexible hose to diagnose and locate my vacuum leak.

Fuel filters are cheap and easy to replace. Replace it for the hell of it. Also check the fuel flow rate, something else that is easy and cheap to do.

Finally, check your spark plugs (easy and cheap to do).

RXnFX

im no motor head ,but i had close to the same symptoms on my 83, and it all led me back to my air pump belt was not tight so the secondaries wouldnt open , but in your case it may not be the belt but maybe the old pump is on its way out , no clue if this is the problem but takes two seconds to check it (discon the big hose commin out of the pump and while runnin put your finger over it check for Vac) and if it isnt well theres one thing you can check off the list

hanman

The secondaries open off of vacuum.
I would do a complete tune up, including a carb rebuild. AND make sure that you don't have any vacuum leaks, because that is what it sounds like.
As far as the mechanic, he replaced your ignitors, and the other problems you already had, even if they weren't as severe. I would want my choke to work, especially if you live in a colder part of the country. But, in LA, you could get by without it.
How do you pass emissions with the car running like that?

hanman

BTW, when I stated the secondaries open off of vacuum, I was trying to say, the air pump has nothing to do with them. I have no air pump at all, and my secondaries work fine. There is a rubber diaphragm that can leak and cause problems though.

Robert the Swordsman

Thanks very much, guys.

Now I just gotta' get some money.