I do now have a Motive pressure bleeder. And I guess I forgot that the master and calipers were replaced. The master was a brand new part, and the calipers were all rebuilds. I have searched well for any external leaks, and I cannot find any. The last bleed after the booster replacement may not have been good enough, as I did have to take the master all the way out. I'll give it one last thorough bleeding, then proceed to check each individual caliper for issues.

The good news is, they're just brakes! There's a fairly limited number of items that can be the issue.

I think I'm up to almost 18 miles now. My tolerance for the exhaust noise is growing thin, but that will resolve itself in the next month or so with a Christmas present to myself.

 

Does it have ABS? If it does, the ABS pump is probably leaking by now and would make it impossible to get air out of the system. Was the new MC bench-bled prior to installation? I seem to remember having to do that when I replaced mine. With a new MC & rebuilt calipers, it's unlikely that they are bad, but you never know.

Also, another tip for bleeding the rear calipers - there are 2 bleeder screws on the rears and they are both there for a reason: Start your pressure bleeding/flush with with the lower of the 2 bleeder screws. That one won't get all the air out, but based on its position on the caliper, it will force all the trapped dirty fluid out. When the fluid starts flowing out clean, switch to the top screw to bleed the air out.

 

Thanks for the posting those brake tips Pete. I always have trouble with those being spongy unless I shove through about 3 jugs worth of brake fluid.

This is a really good restoration post. I finally got around to reading it. I was thinking of doing one of my own as well, since my car is in pretty rough shape and I still have my engine out. I have been restoring the parts before they are ready to be placed back in. It would be a good time for extra pictures and possibly seeing if we could make some community restoration manuals. A good one I thought of would be making something on restoring the throttle body and getting it working properly, or Vacuum routing with stock systems, and the function of each vacuum line as it relates to it's sources. I'd like to make them as comprehensive and detailed as I go on restoring my car so that new folks, or folks that haven't tried to restore certain parts can have a pretty solid guide on how to do so. Would you guys be interested in helping me make these?

 

No ABS, that has been deleted. The braking system is now equivalent to a non-turbo with the upgraded brake package, booster, master, lines, and all. I thought about the lower bleed screws on the rear, but didn't use them. The master was not bench bled, but has been pressure bled in the last go round.

Thank you for the kind words. In regards to a restoration guide, I say just go for it. If there's anything you think lacks good documentation on the forum, take some pictures while you do it and make a write-up. There's been plenty of good write-ups in the past, but some of the pictures have disappeared (thanks Photobucket, this thread is currently a victim of me not paying them money anymore), so there's nothing wrong with duplicating it.

 

I've been out in the garage nearly all day so far. Inspected the calipers and found that the right front had sticking pistons that were not in contact with the pads. Swapped that out with a spare and bled the brakes. Poor braking performance persisted.

Went through the FSM checks for the booster. This was somewhat complicated by the fact the engine doesn't want to seem to idle again.

Step 1, start the engine with the pedal depressed. Pedal does go down.

Step 2, depress pedal a few times after engine has run for a minute or two. Pedal stroke should be shorter with subsequent strokes. It felt like it failed this test. All strokes felt the same length to me.

Step 3, start the engine, depress the pedal and shut the engine off while keeping the pedal depressed for 30 seconds. Pedal should stay at the same height. It does not - it rose up.

If it fails steps 2 or 3, the FSM says to inspect the check valve first. The check valve seems fine. Air will not go the wrong way, and when I applied pressure to the booster side, it does go through. This seems to point to my salvage booster as a problem.

Currently, I'm back to checking the idle. Pulled the BAC off to clean and test. Gasket tore when I pulled it off, so I guess I'm making or buying a new one.

 

if you need a booster, i may have a good used one. Single diaphragm or double? What is the diameter of your booster?

 

Ah, forgot to update the thread!

The brakes are sorted. I ended up ditching the manual master and booster and going back to the turbo versions. Due to my ABS delete, this required a couple of universal lines from the auto parts store, a couple of fittings, and some bending ability. From the front port of the turbo master, I wrapped a universal line around back and down to meet up with a tee fitting that the two front lines also met up with. For the rear fitting (which is on opposite sides from a non-turbo to turbo master), I wrapped a line around and below the master and joined it with a female-female union fitting for the rear line to go into.

Before I installed everything, I cleaned up my original turbo booster, put some POR-15 over the rust, and then top-coated with satin black epoxy paint.



My original check valve hose got cut when I initially went to the non-turbo booster, so I made a nice new one using one of these:



It's a hose that has 45, 90, 135, and 180 angles for you to use as you see fit. It made a great new check valve line:



Everything seems great so far with this setup. I took the car this morning to get an alignment and my RB exhaust is on order and has already been shipped. I can't wait!

And, finally, even though it's a few days later, Merry Christmas!



I guess a final update or two is in order once I get the exhaust on. I've got 54 miles now post-restoration and they've been pretty trouble free, all things considered. There's a decent sized list of minor things to fix, but they won't hinder enjoyment of the car in any way.

 

Man - I feel like we are nearing the end of an era. I remember reading your thread when I first got my FC and it really paved the way for my own. Great work Jerry. I hope you keep us updated on the future with this car. Glad you will finally be able to enjoy it now.

 

It's been a hell of a decade!

I'm excited for the exhaust to get here, because only having a downpipe and presilencer makes for a loud car! I think it's the main reason I don't have many more miles already. Initial tracking says 1/7, which seems lengthy, but it is two large boxes traveling cross country. I'll work remote the day it arrives, because there's no way I'll be able to leave that on the front porch, because of both peace of mind and the fact I will be too excited.

 

Heck of a thread, Hell of a job on the car after all these years your dedication shows. Great work and Happy new year.

-M

 

Is it the weekend yet?

 

Giggity

 

So, now that I've had time to take it for a drive, I can say that I love it. The left side hangs a touch too low, but I'm not worried about that at all right now. I can now hear myself think in the car. I took both of my boys one-by-one for a spin around the block and we were able to talk in a normal voice. We couldn't do that last week when I took them for their first ever rides in the RX-7. I took it to the gas station to fill up and it's ready for a nice long drive tomorrow morning. Going to hit up some of the better roads around here that have nothing on mountain roads, but are pretty decent for the flat as a pancake portion of Florida I live in.

There's lots of little things to still address (no clock, cracked windshield washer bottle, etc.), but it feels complete to where I can truly enjoy myself in it now.

 

Looks great .

 

I bought the racing beat system as well. Nice and quiet. I can hear my crappy radio. And like you said talk to the passenger.

 

I've taken it on 80 mile drives the past two weekends and the major items have performed flawlessly. Now I really need to get to work on my list of minor issues.

Here's a trio of shots of it out in the middle of Polk County.

 

Looking good! It's like my FC's twin

BTW, I wouldn't be parking her on that dry looking tall grass, especially if you're running a catalytic converter - don't want to turn all that hard resto work into a car-b-que!

 

I almost didn't pull off there because of that. However, there was a good bit of morning dew and I stayed for only a minute to take those quick pictures. Also, currently no catalytic converter.

 

1,000 Mile UPDATE:

I've now passed 1,000 miles since I've been driving the car again. The car has been running very well in that time and I've taken it on a couple of longer trips/drives. In the beginning of February, I drove it to Orlando for the Central Florida Rotaries meet at Ace Cafe. At the end of February, I drove it to Sebring for the Cars and Coffee at the track that was part of the vintage race weekend. After that, the world hit the pause button, but I've taken it on some drives to keep exercising it. A week and a half ago I took it on a two hour drive and even managed to hit a rain shower. Wipers work great!

Known issues I have fixed since it's been running:

• High idle - replaced the throttle cable and adjusted to an 800 rpm steady idle
• Turn signals not auto-canceling - cam was out of alignment
• Front washer bottle leaked - was leaking at grommets. I couldn't find new grommets that would work, but replacing the bottle and reusing the old grommets worked

Known issues I still need to fix:

• Check engine light at cruise - replaced the O2 sensor, but that didn't do it. Can't seem to get any codes to display when I ground the test connector. Needs more diagnosis
• Click, click, vroom - not sure if it's starter relay, solenoid, or what. It eventually always starts though
• Right turn signal fast blinks - all bulbs good, double checked grounds. Probably going to replace CPU and then see what happens. More on that below
• Clock doesn't work - cold solder joints, not too worried about it now
• Cruise control doesn't power on - still need to dig further, but I did replace the broken clutch switch and stopper as I found those during early diagnosis. Would like to fix this eventually for longer trips
• Power antenna doesn't go up - not a huge issue, low on the priority list
• AC not functional - huge issue, especially in July in Florida. Replaced a few o-rings, replaced the drier and pulled a vacuum. Has leak somewhere, need to find, fix, and try again.
• Driver's side seat belt rail - yes, the recall item. Unplugged for now
• Windshield is cracked - this was always an issue. Now that I'm driving it, the crack has expanded some. Need to bite the bullet eventually

Unforced errors that led to me panicking and performing a compression test:

• Took out the washer filler tube when replacing the bottle. Unknowingly created a massive vacuum leak in the stock TID. Engine sounded awful next time I started it. Couldn't for the life of me figure out what I had done. Ended up doing a compression test, which came back mostly fine

Issues I hadn't really noticed until somewhat recently:

• No beeps for seat belt warning, lights left on, doors open, etc. I think the CPU needs to be replaced

Other than that, everything is great! Back in March or April, I washed it for the first time in probably 11 years.

Here it is during a parade lap at Sebring:

 

Click, click, vroom. I had a very similar issue. It was the neutral safety switch, and easy way to verify it, would be to jump the switch out and try starting it

 

Car looks really really good man. Great job all that work paid off.

How far of a vacumm can you get to on the HVAC? I was only getting down to about -24 and was frustrated. Eventually Pressurized the system with a can of duster just to find the leak and it was the front seal of the compressor. Had it rebuilt and reinstalled, pulled -29 HG right away, 10 mins later -30. I let it sit at -30 for 12 hours with the gauges hooked up to make SURE it was good LOL. Summer in Florida is brutal. 2 cans of Duster later and i'm getting mid to low 40's from the vent. I'll take it! Tap the first can LOW for liquid. Second can tap it high up for vapor. I only put in about a little more than half of the 2nd can of 152a. Good since March! have fun and enjoy the car man.

-M

 

I got to nearly 30" of vacuum right away, but once the valves were shut, it started dropping instantaneously. I think once I get around to it, I'm going to get a CO2 tank and pressurize the system and check for leaks that way.

​​​​​​I've taken a bit of a detour and today I started doing some further paint correction. It's a garage paint job and I'm not a professional, so it was never going to be perfect, but I can get it better. When I sanded last year, I never went further than 2000. Left a lot of micro scratches that polishing didn't take out. I got some 3M Trizact 3000 and 5000 and went to work on the headlight covers today. Very pleased with the results so far after going from 3000 to 5000 and then following it up with compounds and polish.




Always improving!

 

Looks like Racing Beat still hasn't fixed the droopy left exhaust. Wasn't there a guide to fixing that?

 

They have not fixed it and I do believe there are a few threads on how some have fixed it. I was so happy to see a shiny exhaust on there, that I haven't worried about it yet. It's low on the priority list.

 

I just used a small piece of radiator hose cut in small sections and used it as "spacers" on the exhaust hanger to bring the muffer up towards the bumper. It doesnt take much to make them very very close to each other.

-M