peejay

*sigh*... yeah I miss WT already... just came back from a diagnostic drive in the new car... backed off the master cylinder pushrod, brake pedal is still extremely high and hard and the brakes drag enough that it'll hold itself still on a hill, but it's a little better... removed the secondary diaphragm spring entirely, car now will go over 80 but it feels like it doesn't want to be there, it has the power but it doesn't feel comfortable there.

i wonder how many people would get upset if I put the manual steering box, dashboard (WHY did Mazda make the steering wheel off center on FBs?), transmission (shifter lever is too short & feels really odd), and rear axle ( rear discs... lots more maintenance than nice, easy drums) out of what's left of WT and put it in the GSL. And the driver's seat too, and the headliner... and the brake pedal (much too far away from gas pedal)...

This is the part I hate about a new car... new cars are never as good as the outgoing one, y'know? Even my POS Ford was the best thing in the world after I stopped driving it.

yayarx7

I say do it!

the more you personalize/customize your car the more it will be a part of you

Felix Wankel

Heh if you want drums so bad I'll give you my drum brake rear for that disc rear.

peejay

I dunno what's up with the lack of power problem... sometimes you floor it and it tears your head off over 4k... other times the cruise control has the throttle mashed to the carpet just to maintain 65mph. I'm really at a loss... and sometimes it idles smooth and other times it tries to idle on one rotor at about 500rpm, blip the throttle and it goes back to 1100 again, and you can hear the shutter valve working like normal when you let off. (Yes I know that's a bit high of an idle) I think maybe the shutter valve might be failing, but there are no unusual noises. Is it possible that the shutter butterfly broke free of the valve? I also notice that when I let off, the engine actually revs UP for a couple seconds while the shutter valve does its thing.

But it runs great SOMETIMES, which leads me to believe that the problem lies deep in that rat's nest, or again possibly something amiss with the shutter valve. I think I have the solution, it involves a ported '80 manifold and my desmogged '80 carb. (Hey, it was good enough for WT, wasn't it?) But then removing the air pump means I'll have to get an electric fan (gank it off of WT), and I'll have to make an ACV cover plate (already have the sheet stock and gaskets), and I'll have to plug the air passage in the center housing somehow... Basically a lot of stuff would have to be done all at once and it's just too cold for that right now. I know the header is also probably a restriction, fortunately I have a collector (from WT) that already has the flashing ported out, AND has an O2 sensor mounted in it. Alternatively I have a cast exhaust manifold laying around, I could make a race-style exhaust with 2.5" pipe and a Dynomax muffler... hey it's good enough for Spec 7, it's good enough for me, right?

But I tell ya what... I finally figured out how I was sitting in the car wrong... now my right knee doesn't try to take the same place as the steering column, and heel-n-toeing is easy again, and judging by the reduction of coolant temps, the increase in heat, and the increase in oil pressure (!), the car just LOVES the WaterWetter I gave it last week!