i went and bought a brand new interstate MT bat. and dropped it in the 79' today to see if it would start for the first time in 3 years. last that i have heard it started(3 yrs ago) with out any real problems.so i went to turn the key and all i got was a 'click' sound(almost reminds me of when my starter died on my park ave.). the pulleys spin freely by hand , so i dont think the motor is carbon locked or anything of the such. my dad told me to give the starter a good hit/tap or two and try again...'click'...nothing again. what part of the starting system could it be?just a dead starter?are there any relays or solonoids (that aren't part of the starter assembly) that could be shot?

 

Lol, make sure you've got some gas in there...

 

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i highly doubt its a fuel issue seeing that i cant even get it to crank

 

I would pull the starter off and turn the armature by hand a bit. It may have built up some junk between the armature and the fields - this would break it free. Also, you can eliminate any other wiring issues by jumping across the terminals on the back of the starter and see if it works.

 

thx, ill try that next time i go out to where the car is.

 

check all your ground points... sounds like a bad connection. wouldn't hurt to make sure the clamps are tight on the battery terminals as well.

 

Sounds like one of the two brass bolts on the back of the starter soiloniod are correded. I would think to clean it with a wire brush. Maybe you can just spray some battery terminal corriosion killer on it. Whenever you get the starter working, don't pump any fuel into the carburetor. If that gas is three years old it will probably be jelly-like and will mess up your fuel system. If you end up taking out your gas tank, replace the fuel strainer/sock which is $18 dollars at Mazda dealer. I cleaned out my gas tank and replaced the gasket and really super cleaned the fuel pickup assembly but used my old strainer, then later the car stalled out, so I had to take off my tank and replace the strainer and clean everything again. Anyways, you should read some stuff on www.HowStuffWorks.com. And, read the FAQ on this site, there is one about restarting a stored rx7.