nopistonsforjoe

hey guys,
ok heres the story in detail:
after i rebuilt the engine and had it tuned it ran like a dream except i was getting som noise for my transmission bearings. i left it with my dad so he could take it in to the shop and on the way there the car died on him. he was able to get it to the shop but only after having it die another time and having to keep the engine gassed and using the parking break to stop. ok so the the transmission gets rebuilt the mechanic changes the plugs and the car runs fine again....until i get home and pick it up. as soon as i drive off i notice a big lack in power, i mean the thing just felt gutless and as im slowing down for a light ( and have it out of gear) it dies this time it wont start. it cranks over faster and faster to the point where it wants to start but unless you jam the accelerator it wont catch. this thing will not idle to save its life. to get it started again you have to wait 5-10 minutes before you can turn it over with any results. at first i thought it was clogged cats so i took it and had the cat replaced ( i needed to get one for smog testing anyways) and the car started up fine after that but then idled really low. i turned it off and on three times to make sure and it kept starting no problem.... until i left the shop. at the first light i came too it died and we had to push it to the side of the road and wait until we could proceed to drive it home using the emergency brake process i described earlier. i'm thinking it might be a vacuum leak but i really have no idea. is there any simple solution im overlooking? any help you guys can give before i send it back to the mechanic ( i have no time to work on it for the next few weeks and the mechanic knows his rotarys).. thanks again
-joe


ps-=sorry for the novel

MarkPerez

Joe !! what a nightmare, ok. it's had the same problem
the WHOLE time ? trans. fine now? what does dad think ? tired of it yet ? and how many times to your rotory guy ? does the car idle right ? or is it rough?
Did you smog it yet ? (tip) reg. says test only. don't go to a test only, seek and find a gross/repair station.
trust me on this one,,, test only, tech. by law can't tell you what you need to do to pass, if it fails. gross/repair
does tell you what to do. (much better). car had power
untill it came out from trans . shop ? it sounds like a fuel filter to me. or the float level needs tweeking. how many miles are on the 'new' clock ? no vacum leak , it's a fuel system problem. new filter again. you drained the gas tank before starting the 'new' ?? yes,,? no,,?? if no,
new filter. hows your parents doing ? great people.
study,study,study. let me know..

RotorMotorDriver

iTrader: (1)

Sounds kinda weird to me. Maybe fuel problems. It seems to me that after its sat for a while getting work done to it, it has no problems for a little while, then just kinda dies, right? Then you say that if it sits again, it will run? DEFINATLY seems kinda weird to me...

~T.J.

MarkPerez

After re-reading... maybe a vacum leak, but somethings up with either the carb, or fuel system. theres a write-up at mazdatrix about a vacum leak. what else could it be ?? not electrical.

nopistonsforjoe

i dont think its a fuel problem...i have a new fuel filter on there, i can here the fuel pump clicking, and i can see fuel in the float chamber sight glass. the mechanic said to check the float valve, i guess if its malfunctioning it can cause these sorts of problems. the think i dont get is why it would just happen all of a sudden. ahhh the burden of rotaries. how likely do you think it is that its the float valve?...i think he said float valve. he mentioned i can check it by running the car and plugging one of the "holes" in the carb with my finger or something. that sound familiar to anyone?

MarkPerez

No, but check it out. these cars,carbs. have to be one of the seven wonders Lol. in fact the float level had to be adjusted to pass smog. ENGINE FIRES can start, because the float isn't right, so the carb. just dumps gas. depending on how bad, real bad and it floods. pull the aircleaner top.turn car off, look down the carb. if gas
is trickeling down = float

Spieder

Here's what you check:

1.) Pull those plugs and see if they are wet. If they are then you have a flooding/ignition problem, could be bad ignitor. When the car dies, immediately hook up a timing light and check the trailing and leading for spark. If no spark on either one then you have a bad ignitor.

2) If the plugs are dry then you may have a fuel delivery problem.

When it starts up does it blow a big cloud of white smoke? If so then you are flooding or you have an ignition problem. Raw gas is getting poured into the exhaust.

I had a similar problem when my carb went out. The thing would dump gas into the engine. It wouldnt run unless it was floored. It also pushed a steady stream of white out the tailpipe. Changing the carb fixed it.

I dont think you have a vacuum leak, if you did it would be constant. There is a chance your intake gasket is cracked and sucking air. If thats the case, your plugs will not be wet.

I bet your plugs are fouling out because your either getting too much fuel or not enough/any spark. Plugs can foul in just a minute or two. I went through 4 sets troubleshooting my carb problem.

Just a thought, you may have water in your line, did this start right after a fill up or when you ran the tank dry? Go get a bottle of water remover (alcohol basically) and add it and see if it helps any.

Keaponlaffen

I'd definately say floats... my '79 got a new/used '83 engine a while ago. Ran fine for 10 minutes or less of driving, but would die after that. Started with bucking and sputtering, then it'd just die. Pulled the '83 carb and intake off, put on my '79's carb and intake, fixed all the problems. It turned out to be the float levels flooding the engine... and I mean FLOODING... The primaries were completely FULL of fuel... I had to use a rag to sop up the excess gas, let the car sit for 10-15 minutes, start it up,. drive it 2 blocks, stop, repeat... until I got hom.

nopistonsforjoe

hmmm that sounds pretty similar to my problem keaponlaffen....i checked the one of the plugs on top (not sure if its leading or trailing) and it looked in grand ol shape...not sure if thats the one i should have checked but he did replace the plugs less than a week ago when he was rebuilding the tranny. there would be lots of smke if it were flooding right??? because right now the only smoke i get is the normal amount at startup. even after it dies and we let it sit and restart it there wouldnt be any that was noticeable. thanks for all the help and suggestions by the way guys

Keaponlaffen

nope, my car didn't smoke a bit.... only time it really smoked was one time when I was limping it home, I threw in the clutch and tried to rev it to keep it going, and it just created a HUGE backfire... my sister was following me in the van, and she said at least a 3 foot long orange flame shot out the tail pipe and a large cloud of black smoke followed, then the car died half a block later, and fired right up again like it always did. I figure by revving it up with the clutch in it loaded the exhaust system up with all that gas and it ignited.

I would say put in a new fuel filter anyways, they're only like $4, and it'll at least rule that out. You could have a rusty gas tank after all... clogging them up unusually fast. If that doesn't fix it, and you are confident enough, now probably wouldn't be a bad time to buy a rebuild kit and rebuild your carb, adjusting the float levels, etc as you go. I bet if you try both of these, your problem would be fixed. If you're not confident with the rebuild, find a reputable ROTARY specifid garage to do it for you. Just take the carb off and bring it in.

nopistonsforjoe

well my fuel filter is about two weeks old or so and when i drained my gas tank it was as clear and clean as can be so im guessing its go to be something with the carb... ARGHHHHHH ill probably end up taking it to my mechanic he know his stuff and while hes busy with it im thinking about going to the junkyard and picking up an extra carb to practice a rebuild on that way if it goes well i can use it as a backup. gotta love these rx7s haha

TheMoonDog

This sounds almost identical to what I experienced on the weekend. It was all fuel related and turned out to be a combination of three things. The air flow to the carb, the floats were out of wack, and the plugs were bad.

After I fixed that she starts no problems at all.

Just my two cents worth!