w00t! I fixed it! I *finally* fixed it! (Jon-sized Novel)
09-10-04, 07:47 PM
#1
w00t! I fixed it! I *finally* fixed it! (Jon-sized Novel)
Hey All,
Well I haven't posted progress on my car around here for QUITE some time, so I'll write an update. Before I do though, I want to say - I FINALLY FIXED THAT FREAKIN' IDLE PROBLEM THAT'S BEEN PLAGUING ME FOREVER!!!
.
You see, when Carl rebuilt my carburetor into one of his awesomely awesome supercarbs, I asked him to re-attach all the mondo-crapola he removed and capped in the process of rebuilding. The reason for this is because in my province, anything even remotely emissions-related has to be "present and intact" but is never tested (no e-test). So Carl secretly blocked off all the connecting ports, and did a marvelous job of camoflauging the Carb to look totally stock. Of course, when you had the air cleaner assembly off you saw that the main carb body was shiney and new-looking (I think it was sandblasted and zinc-plated, but I can't be sure) and the "old" stuff around the outside was rusty and old-looking.
Anyhoo, I went for my safety check (more on that later) and today I decided that I was gonna take all the crap off to make my Rx7Carl carb shine like it was meant to. For the longest time I've been fighting a nagging idle problem. It wouldn't idle below 2k, and sometimes would even run closer to 3k! Three weeks ago, when I had my car out for the week, someone had me check my throttle cable and linkage. Cable was a little too tight and we loosened it, and pushed the linkage properly shut. So we adjusted the idle speed and mixture without the cable attached, hooked it back up, and it idled fine. But as soon as you took it for a drive down the block, the linkage would "bind" and not return to the idle position. Easy enough to fix if you had the hood open (just tap it with your finger, didn't take much) but still a pain.
So Will (this Ottawa guy who hosts the meet in May and knows quite a bit about carbs) suggests that I get a stiffer throttle return spring. I filed that idea away into my brain for when I had time. Then today as I was removing all the crap from around the carb (altitude compensator, AAB-2, primary and secondary choke assemblies etc...) I noticed something odd. My throttle return spring wasn't connected to the throttle linkage directly! It was connected two spots over, where methinks the hotstart spring used to plug! So I moved it to the proper place and boom - no more idle problem! The spring was pulling on an angle, and wasn't pulling on the right spot, so it would get "mostly closed" but not completely.
I took the car for a little not-so-legal drive a few km away, and despite having put my pedal to the floor a few times, it still returns to idle on it's own. w00t!
And now, we get the big update!
BIG UPDATE:
Last I left you folks, my car had just *barely* made it to the road in May in time for the May 23rd Ottawa Meet. This was my project car which had been sitting for FIVE YEARS before I started working on it 3 years ago. I was driving the car on a temp permit for the meet in May and the car had a few problems. One was the idle problem, along with the lack of an e-brake, a slipping clutch, an exhaust overheat problem and a bit of a hassle when starting it. It drove for two days, but the night of the meet it's clutch died and I was grounded at 12:30 at night in front of a PartSource of all places!
So I had the car towed home on my friend's CAA card and it stayed there until August, when I had enough money to replace the clutch.
August rolled around and I saved up a bit of money from my summer job. GlazedHam42 was kind enough to *give* me a clutch disc and pressure plate from his parts car. I was going to use it until I found out what it would cost to have it put in by my mechanic. I decided it would be worth the extra to buy a clutch kit because I didn't know enough about clutches to see how good GlazedHam42's clutch was. (When I got the new disc I kicked myself.. it had almost exactly the same thickness as Jamie's! So now the disc is helping out Taylor, one of the Ottawa guys).
When my mechanic put the clutch in, he found out that the main cat was majorly screwed. He removed it to drop the tranny, but found it cracked, rusted and clogged. That explained the exhaust overheat and the hard starting, since the backpressure/lack of flow pushed against the engine and kept the heat up. The down side of course was the cost. I would have had him straight pipe it, but of course I still hadn't done the safety so I needed to buy a new cat
I also had my e-brake cables installed. I bought the main "Y" cable, but Carl gave me the other two that went into the drums
So the car was back on the road, idle problem still persisting and I put 600km on it in one week! I attended some small meetings with the guys in Ottawa and figured "yeah, it's ready for safety.. it drives great".
Safety check got done and I failed on:
- Minor exhaust leak where the pipe meets the muffler
- Mal-adjusted e-brake cable (went up too many notches before engaging, but DID engage)
- Nickel-sized rust hole on the driver's side rocker panel
- Obstruction of the windshield with fuzzy scented happy-face *****
- Burnt rear right side light
and the only serious thing
- Tension Rod and Idler Arm bushings with too much play.
So they ripped my registration in half, handed it back to me, and told me that the car could not be driven until I brought it back for a re-safety. They told me that I couldn't even take out any more temporary permits to drive it to my mechanic's! I had until 8am the next morning to find a flatbed tow truck to get it out of their parking lot or they'd impound it (my test was at 5:30pm on a Thurs).
Anyway... I've since fixed all problems except the steering and the exhaust leak. The leak will be handled by my mechanic for free because it was his stupid helper who didn't re-attach the muffler properly when they re-mounted the exhaust. It was also his stupid helper who just neglected to adjust the new e-brake cables, but I did that on my own.
Bushings.... well those will have to wait until spring 'cause I'm outta cash.
But at least now it drives well. In my opinion it drives like a dream, but I know I still have much tuning to do with the carb and fuel system. It's just grossly tuned right now, and my 0-60 is about the same as my dad's sunfire.... but that's no matter, it runs!!! And I've put almost a thousand km on it this year, which is 1000 more than it's seen in the seven or eight years before!
Anyhow, thanks for tuning in to my novel
Jon
Well I haven't posted progress on my car around here for QUITE some time, so I'll write an update. Before I do though, I want to say - I FINALLY FIXED THAT FREAKIN' IDLE PROBLEM THAT'S BEEN PLAGUING ME FOREVER!!!
.You see, when Carl rebuilt my carburetor into one of his awesomely awesome supercarbs, I asked him to re-attach all the mondo-crapola he removed and capped in the process of rebuilding. The reason for this is because in my province, anything even remotely emissions-related has to be "present and intact" but is never tested (no e-test). So Carl secretly blocked off all the connecting ports, and did a marvelous job of camoflauging the Carb to look totally stock. Of course, when you had the air cleaner assembly off you saw that the main carb body was shiney and new-looking (I think it was sandblasted and zinc-plated, but I can't be sure) and the "old" stuff around the outside was rusty and old-looking.
Anyhoo, I went for my safety check (more on that later) and today I decided that I was gonna take all the crap off to make my Rx7Carl carb shine like it was meant to. For the longest time I've been fighting a nagging idle problem. It wouldn't idle below 2k, and sometimes would even run closer to 3k! Three weeks ago, when I had my car out for the week, someone had me check my throttle cable and linkage. Cable was a little too tight and we loosened it, and pushed the linkage properly shut. So we adjusted the idle speed and mixture without the cable attached, hooked it back up, and it idled fine. But as soon as you took it for a drive down the block, the linkage would "bind" and not return to the idle position. Easy enough to fix if you had the hood open (just tap it with your finger, didn't take much) but still a pain.
So Will (this Ottawa guy who hosts the meet in May and knows quite a bit about carbs) suggests that I get a stiffer throttle return spring. I filed that idea away into my brain for when I had time. Then today as I was removing all the crap from around the carb (altitude compensator, AAB-2, primary and secondary choke assemblies etc...) I noticed something odd. My throttle return spring wasn't connected to the throttle linkage directly! It was connected two spots over, where methinks the hotstart spring used to plug! So I moved it to the proper place and boom - no more idle problem! The spring was pulling on an angle, and wasn't pulling on the right spot, so it would get "mostly closed" but not completely.
I took the car for a little not-so-legal drive a few km away, and despite having put my pedal to the floor a few times, it still returns to idle on it's own. w00t!
And now, we get the big update!
BIG UPDATE:
Last I left you folks, my car had just *barely* made it to the road in May in time for the May 23rd Ottawa Meet. This was my project car which had been sitting for FIVE YEARS before I started working on it 3 years ago. I was driving the car on a temp permit for the meet in May and the car had a few problems. One was the idle problem, along with the lack of an e-brake, a slipping clutch, an exhaust overheat problem and a bit of a hassle when starting it. It drove for two days, but the night of the meet it's clutch died and I was grounded at 12:30 at night in front of a PartSource of all places!
So I had the car towed home on my friend's CAA card and it stayed there until August, when I had enough money to replace the clutch.
August rolled around and I saved up a bit of money from my summer job. GlazedHam42 was kind enough to *give* me a clutch disc and pressure plate from his parts car. I was going to use it until I found out what it would cost to have it put in by my mechanic. I decided it would be worth the extra to buy a clutch kit because I didn't know enough about clutches to see how good GlazedHam42's clutch was. (When I got the new disc I kicked myself.. it had almost exactly the same thickness as Jamie's! So now the disc is helping out Taylor, one of the Ottawa guys).
When my mechanic put the clutch in, he found out that the main cat was majorly screwed. He removed it to drop the tranny, but found it cracked, rusted and clogged. That explained the exhaust overheat and the hard starting, since the backpressure/lack of flow pushed against the engine and kept the heat up. The down side of course was the cost. I would have had him straight pipe it, but of course I still hadn't done the safety so I needed to buy a new cat
I also had my e-brake cables installed. I bought the main "Y" cable, but Carl gave me the other two that went into the drums
So the car was back on the road, idle problem still persisting and I put 600km on it in one week! I attended some small meetings with the guys in Ottawa and figured "yeah, it's ready for safety.. it drives great".
Safety check got done and I failed on:
- Minor exhaust leak where the pipe meets the muffler
- Mal-adjusted e-brake cable (went up too many notches before engaging, but DID engage)
- Nickel-sized rust hole on the driver's side rocker panel
- Obstruction of the windshield with fuzzy scented happy-face *****
- Burnt rear right side light
and the only serious thing
- Tension Rod and Idler Arm bushings with too much play.
So they ripped my registration in half, handed it back to me, and told me that the car could not be driven until I brought it back for a re-safety. They told me that I couldn't even take out any more temporary permits to drive it to my mechanic's! I had until 8am the next morning to find a flatbed tow truck to get it out of their parking lot or they'd impound it (my test was at 5:30pm on a Thurs).
Anyway... I've since fixed all problems except the steering and the exhaust leak. The leak will be handled by my mechanic for free because it was his stupid helper who didn't re-attach the muffler properly when they re-mounted the exhaust. It was also his stupid helper who just neglected to adjust the new e-brake cables, but I did that on my own.
Bushings.... well those will have to wait until spring 'cause I'm outta cash.
But at least now it drives well. In my opinion it drives like a dream, but I know I still have much tuning to do with the carb and fuel system. It's just grossly tuned right now, and my 0-60 is about the same as my dad's sunfire.... but that's no matter, it runs!!! And I've put almost a thousand km on it this year, which is 1000 more than it's seen in the seven or eight years before!
Anyhow, thanks for tuning in to my novel
Jon
09-10-04, 08:03 PM
#2
I'll Apex YOUR Seal
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Location: Mississauga, Ontario - Canada
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great stuff J happy things are workin out for u...my cars in the same position as ur ex situation 
but it drives....im planning on rewiring it this winter while it sits in the garage and take off all the unnnecessary stuff like the hot start and emissions and stuff
but it drives....im planning on rewiring it this winter while it sits in the garage and take off all the unnnecessary stuff like the hot start and emissions and stuff
09-11-04, 01:32 PM
#3
I removed most of the crap off a guy's car in Cornwall in one afternoon. We removed hot start, sub zero, his cruise looked dead so it came off, we trimmed the carb down a bit, plugged some of the rat's nest, and basically took it down to the intake mani and built it back up again to get it running right.
I'd be willing to come down and give ya a hand some weekend if you wanna help with the gas cash I love taking road trips, and you're only like 5hrs away. Besides, while I'm close to TO I can pick up some "BuzzWater" and visit a friend of mine
Drop me a PM and we can keep in touch. I'm getting much better at this carb stuff the more time I spend with it
Jon
I'd be willing to come down and give ya a hand some weekend if you wanna help with the gas cash
I love taking road trips, and you're only like 5hrs away. Besides, while I'm close to TO I can pick up some "BuzzWater" and visit a friend of mine Drop me a PM and we can keep in touch. I'm getting much better at this carb stuff the more time I spend with it
Jon
09-12-04, 02:10 AM
#5
Yeah, I'm looking at passing it in the Spring.
For now though, I'm satisfied with all the work I've managed to do. I've basically done a pretty comprehensive overhaul of the major systems of the car in the last three years. Brakes, Suspension, Intake... unsiezed the engine... So I'm quite happy with how things have turned out.
Next year, I get bushings and steering components, fix the rust hole and exhaust leak and get it on the road first. Then I'm probably going to replace the Rad at some point, setup DLIDFIS, get a good guage to tune my fuel system and make a big road trip to see Sterling to tune my carb... he just doesn't know that I'm planning that one yet
(I just recently found out he *MAY* be close enough for a road trip).
Anyhoo, I'm gonna post a pic of all the crap that you don't typically find on an Rx7Carl/Sterling rebuilt carb in a bit.... I layed out all the parts I removed on the table and snapped a shot, I just have to find somewhere to host it.... I wonder if my school's webdrive is back up yet...
Jon
For now though, I'm satisfied with all the work I've managed to do. I've basically done a pretty comprehensive overhaul of the major systems of the car in the last three years. Brakes, Suspension, Intake... unsiezed the engine... So I'm quite happy with how things have turned out.
Next year, I get bushings and steering components, fix the rust hole and exhaust leak and get it on the road first. Then I'm probably going to replace the Rad at some point, setup DLIDFIS, get a good guage to tune my fuel system and make a big road trip to see Sterling to tune my carb... he just doesn't know that I'm planning that one yet
(I just recently found out he *MAY* be close enough for a road trip). Anyhoo, I'm gonna post a pic of all the crap that you don't typically find on an Rx7Carl/Sterling rebuilt carb in a bit.... I layed out all the parts I removed on the table and snapped a shot, I just have to find somewhere to host it.... I wonder if my school's webdrive is back up yet...
Jon
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09-12-04, 10:02 PM
#8
I managed to get a friend to host some pics, so I'm gonna add them in here. You have to open them in a new window 'cause the forwarding thing doesn't work properly to post them as pics.
This is the money shot. The area in green is where my throttle return spring *was* connected, and you can clearly see where it is connected now:
http://********/nex/pix/SpringPlacementSmall.jpg
Here's a good side pic of my Rx7Carl carb now that I've stripped all (or almost all) of the extra crap off. The only thing I'm not sure about is the vacuum diaphragm squared off in green. Carl had added the other stuff back on at my request as "camoflauge" in case any of the safety ***** decided to throw a fit because it didn't look like a stock carb. Now that they don't have to go back into the enine bay, it looks like this:
http://********/nex/pix/StrippedCarbSmall.jpg
I also took a pic of my fuel pressure for the carb experts to have a look at. This was taken at idle, and I don't know how much I trust my guage... but Carl said the pressure should be between 2.0-2.5psi
http://********/nex/pix/FuelPressureSmall.jpg
This last pic is of my FPR and guage setup. I traced the feed line to make it easier to see
http://********/nex/pix/FuelSetupSmall.jpg
And for those whose modems are capable, I randomly took an mpg showing some light revving, to show that it now returns to idle despite pressure on the pedal. I've got the idle set at about 1,000-1,100 right now because I was having some stuttering problems below that when not fully warmed up. I assume those will go away once I've adjusted my timing, but I'm happy with 1,000rpm!
http:// ********/nex/pix/ItIdles.mpg
Enjoy
Jon
This is the money shot. The area in green is where my throttle return spring *was* connected, and you can clearly see where it is connected now:
http://********/nex/pix/SpringPlacementSmall.jpg
Here's a good side pic of my Rx7Carl carb now that I've stripped all (or almost all) of the extra crap off. The only thing I'm not sure about is the vacuum diaphragm squared off in green. Carl had added the other stuff back on at my request as "camoflauge" in case any of the safety ***** decided to throw a fit because it didn't look like a stock carb. Now that they don't have to go back into the enine bay, it looks like this:
http://********/nex/pix/StrippedCarbSmall.jpg
I also took a pic of my fuel pressure for the carb experts to have a look at. This was taken at idle, and I don't know how much I trust my guage... but Carl said the pressure should be between 2.0-2.5psi
http://********/nex/pix/FuelPressureSmall.jpg
This last pic is of my FPR and guage setup. I traced the feed line to make it easier to see
http://********/nex/pix/FuelSetupSmall.jpg
And for those whose modems are capable, I randomly took an mpg showing some light revving, to show that it now returns to idle despite pressure on the pedal. I've got the idle set at about 1,000-1,100 right now because I was having some stuttering problems below that when not fully warmed up. I assume those will go away once I've adjusted my timing, but I'm happy with 1,000rpm!
http:// ********/nex/pix/ItIdles.mpg
Enjoy
Jon
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