I have been driving my 85 12a daily for about a month now. It runs great and that's thanks to a lot of good infromation on the forum. It also has slightly erratic idle. I think the mixture is off, and I havent figured out where the hell the mixture screw is yet. I also suspect that the clutch fan might be going bad because somethimes the fan stays on all the way up to redline. I really hate that. Is that normal? Could a tired clutch fan cause a very regularly timed fluxuation in idle speed? The search I did tells me that you guys usually just trash the clutch fan and go electric. That's all fine, but, as you can see from my name, I don't like to spend money - especially if it doesn't improve perfomance.

 

if the fan sounds like a tornado, its stuck. if you can find an unstuck one then go for it. sometimes it is easier to get an electric and it saves some room in the bay. plus it can add up to 2 hp.

 

Turn the fan by hand to insure that the clutch is okay. You should feel some resistance, but the fan should not be either locked-up, or spin TOO freely. The fan clutch acts a little like a slippy automatic transmission, it uses viscous coupling.

 

If the clutch is bad...

Can you fix it? Or does it definately need replacement or a switch to electric?

 

the only way to fix it is by replacing it. either go back with new clutch or do electric conversion. mine almost overheated when mine went out and i just put an electric one on

 

i went electric when mine got stuck in tornado mode.

 

I read somewhere that you may rebuild the fan clutch by taking it apart, and replace the internal hydralic fluid with STP Oil Treatment or something.

If my fan clutch goes out, I would definitly try this first since I don't have anything to lose. A bottle of STP is ~$3. But I need to do some more research on the detail.

I remember reading the STP thing from a Datsun Z car related website.

 

in terms of electric fans, i know a fiero fan is pretty poular as well as taurus and tempo. are there any others that i could grab that will bolt in w/o much modification to anything? just to keep my options broad when i hit the junkers this weekend...

 

I thought I heard someone mention a black magic fan once...

 

pay for shipping and you can have one of mine, works great

 

I've fixed an '85 fan clutch and now it works as it was designed to. If you want to replace the clutch, buy the Flex-a-lite replacement. It's much cheaper than the Mazda clutch.

 

Derale...

 

Which Derale fan are you talking about? The Tornado?

 

Hah, get rid of your tornado-mode clutch fan, and install a fan called the tornado.

so that's what they mean by irony!

 

Last night, I bought the electric fan out of a Lincoln Continental. I found that it was burned out when I got it home. That may be why the Lincoln was in the junk yard. So I drove the RX7 to work this morning fanless. It was nice to hear what a rotary engine sounds like. Nice. It also seemed to have a bit more pep, but that may be me. I'm glad I took the fan out, but the regular flux in the idle still occurs. Maybe I should start trying to figure out where the mixture screw is.

 

Not reccomended unless there are no lights or stop/go traffic. You need constant 25+MPH to compensate for no fan.

 

thast what i was thinking but kept my mouth shut. hope boise's been pretty cool still.

 

It's only 4 miles to work and only two stop lights. The car rarely even gets warmed up on my daily routine. That brings me to another question. I want to be lazy about this and just use a manual switch for the electric fan. My idea is that I can keep an eye on the temp and flip the switch when necessary. Does that sound okay? Or should I breech the radiator and put a temp sensor in it?

Boise is a great town.

 

if you don't use a sensor then you will basically just flip it on about 1/4 of the temp gauge and leave it on. just don't forget one day in a rush. i highly doubt you'll do the flip on/off more then a week.

 

Another BTW: I have been thinking about the sound the original clutch fan makes. You guys say it sounds like a tornado. I can't say I have ever heard a tornado, although I have seen a couple in Idaho. I think the fan makes more of a '43 Willey's Jeep sound.

 

You should be able to install a sensor in the water neck, or possibly replace the level sensor in the top of the radiator with a temp sensing unit. Just a thought.

 

Okay, thanks. I shoulda got one at the junk yard. They gave me a Chevy Cavalier one to replace the Lincoln fan. Sad, huh. It would have been fun to call the car an RX7/Lincoln Towncar hybrid, but I don't think I will want to identify with the Chevy. it's a good strong fan, though, wich makes sense because Chevys need all the help they can get.

 

the aftermarket fan controllers use a probe that you stick between the fins of the radiator, no breeching needed....

 

Exactly...Jeg's has a $25 setup that will even control when the fan goes on and turns off that you can adjust to your liking...

Replacing mech fan with electric fan = guaranteed 5 extra HP to turn wheels instead of hugely parasitic mech fan.....

 

Okay, here is what I did, and it seems to work. The Chevy fan wouldn't fit anywhere handy in the original fan position because the water pump gets in the way. so I changed the polarity of the fan and put it in the front of the radiator where the air con radiator was. So it blows through the radiator instead of sucks. Then I just wired a switch to the dash where the power mirror switch once was (on of the things I lost to the previous owner who had mine as a parts car). I like having total control over something as annoying as a radiator fan. So when I am waiting at a stop light, and the thing starts to heat up, I flip the switch. It's great. I am also pretty sure I believe in the additional 5hp. It is faster.