dStoltenberg

Hello All. I recently purchased my frist Mazda and first rotary engined-car, an '84 12a Rx-7 GSL. I'm having problems with getting the car started.
I replaced the battery terminals and cleaned the ends of the battery wires, and replaced the battery. A voltmeter across the battery and the voltmeter in the dash read 11.5 volts, however when cranked the engine sounds like it wants to turn over, but then the voltage drops down to zero and the starter just clicks. I Attempted push starting it, it would start for about a second but it wouldn't stay started. Jump-starting did nothing. I removed the starter and will have it tested tommorow. The Previous owner said he thought it was the coil.
Any ideas on what could be wrong? I'm going to pick up a technical manual before work tommorow and see if theres anything in there that could help me. The coil perhaps? the ignition module? a short in an ignition wire? the sooner I can get this worked out the better. Thanks!
-Dylan

DAVID GRIMES

Go to Trochoids sig and find the links to read the FAQ's and the FSM's.

Sounds like you need to read a bit. There are two "coils" (plural). There are many threads on getting a 7 started, including one in the FAQ's. Read first, ask later if needed.

Welcome to the forum.

Rx-7Doctor

iTrader: (13)

Dylan, welcome to the forum and congrats on your first 7.
At the top of the page you will see some tools that will help you in the futrue for questions like this. One of them is the FAQ, the other is the Archives and the last is the search function which takes awhile to get used to. Most of the answers you will need are covered in the 1st 2 areas.

When you stated that the battery goes down to Zero and the starter just clicks. That is an indication of low voltage from the battery. That can be caused by dirty terminals on the battery posts or the cables. First thing to do is clean the cables. The starter needs a minimum of 9.6 volts to energize and our cars rely heavily on cranking compression to start. The reason you cannot jump start your car is because the battery either has a dead cell (which is very likely since the volts go down to zero) or is completley discharged. What you have to do to try and jump start if these conditions exist is the following. Instead of taking the negative cable from the jumper vehicle and attaching it to the negative terminal of the battery being jumped, you have to attach it to the alternator adjusting bracket. This is because if the battery has a "Dead" cell it cannot complete the ground circuit.
Best thing to do is take your battery to a Auto parts store and have it tested. More than likely it is time for a replacement.

bliffle

Have the battery tested at the autostore before you replace it. IIRC, half the time I've replaced a battery it didn't solve the problem. In fact, two weeks ago my (incompetent) apprentice mechanic announced that the battery in the REPU had a dead cell and it needed to be replaced, in spite of the fact that the battery worked just fine an hour earlier. Unconvinced in spite of his aggressive assertions, I told him to get out the voltmeter and we'd check the voltages along the 12volt circuit, both unloaded and loaded (while cranking). We found a loose and corroded negative clamp, fixed that and found a short in the positive cable. I finally fired the guy because he didn't chase the short down and fix it, he just jiggled the cable until the REPU started.

Make sure you've pinpointed a problem before you make guesses about replacing parts.