leofd3s

The car is an '84 GSL-SE and after a year of school and work I still haven't been able to get much work done. The car turns on but it takes a couple tries maybe after a couple minutes of struggling it finally fires up with a rough idle. I tried what I could to get rid of the idle started with basics like new fluids, everything, new spark plugs and wires, new distributor cap and rotor, and even changed out all of the vacuum hoses. After I let the car warm up for a while, i'll reverse out of the garage but that's as far as I'll get some times, it'll just die right there. I start it up again and drive away in first but when it's time to shift to 2nd it jerks hard and as much gas as I give it it won't budge at all. When I bought the car it only had 30,000 miles and was never driven. The family that sold it to me did mention not being able to drive standard, and the power loss when shifting happened to my brother when his clutch went out in his civic. Before I try the clutch I wanna see if its something else, maybe its a fuel delivery problem? I just got myself a fuel filter that I'll install tomorrow. When I got the car there was a fuel pump inside one of the cubbies behind the seat, uh oh. But I assumed if there was an old pump it was probably replaced. Old gas was what I thought the culprit could be, I bought a sealant to paint the inside of my gas tank with because of another thread I saw here. I couldn't get the bolts off my tank though and I was hesitant to use a torch since well its gas. Compression is good, I checked using another guide here so thats why I'm leaning towards a fuel delivery problem. I want to get new fuel injectors too or just clean mine out. I posted all this to try and give you guys an idea of the work, or lack there of, that has been done to it. Right now the car is sitting with no gas in the tank and I'm stumped and it pains me to see her just sitting there.
Oh and I spoke to a mechanic briefly, and he told me the problem when starting up could be a corroded ground wire, but could that really be causing everything?

Long story short: it stalls when I shift HELP!
please

LizardFC

iTrader: (1)

It's been awhile since I've fooled with fuel injected RX-7's but I'll try and advise a bit. The fuel filter would be the first thing I would change out. A clogged filter would cause about everything you've mentioned. It'll die before you can reach second because its getting starved for fuel. The pressure drops until it can no longer even sustain idle. You can confirm this by pulling your plugs - if the business end of the plug is white then you've been running excessively lean.

A worn clutch will "slip." The engine will continue to rev up after you've let the clutch out but you won't move much. I doubt the clutch would be bad if it's only got 30k or so, but if the previous owner didn't know what they were doing then they could've burned it up I suppose.

Probably not a good idea to take a torch to the fuel tank. There are ways you can work on them - I've heard draining it and filling it with dry ice works. Personally, I don't like to mess with tanks. I'd replace it before I tried any heat on it. There was a guy here a couple years ago who literally blew up a shop while using a torch on a gas tank. He survived but had some nasty burns.

So yeah, change the filter and see if that helps. If it runs good for a little while and starts acting up again, then you've probably got crap in your tank. If it doesn't help at all, then you may have either leaking or clogged injectors.

leofd3s

Thanks for the quick reply. The old plugs were a bit white. I'll go ahead and change my filter tomorrow and I'll get my injectors out and take them somewhere to get them cleaned. I'll repost here when I have the chance. If anyone else has any suggestions please advise.