My '86 GXL has an idle problem. It has no idle.

- started up, a little high as usual, nothing crazy
- five or ten minutes down the road I'm down to 500rpm
- I took it to the shop, they checked for vacuum leaks
- found one, fixed it
- also checked all fluids and gave me a new oil filter
- I got it back today, it started up fine, a couple miles down the road it DROPPED
- it turned off four times on the way home, I looked around, decided to take it back
- the mechanic says it could have something to do with this fcker:
http://i49.tinypic.com/344xcsg.jpg
Then he started listing 800 dollar parts that could have gone bad and they'd only be able to find out if they've gone bad after I've had the MSD taken out and the stock ignition stuff put back in. Which I would like to do anyway.

Then he recommended I sell the car, which was devastating to say the least.
But I'm not willing to give up so easily.

So, right now, the car is undrivable. You pretty much have to have your foot on the gas when you brake just to keep it on. I've done some googling and forum searching but all the idle problem threads I've found are a little different from my situation.

Advice?

Also, if anyone knows a rotorhead or a shop that works on RX7's a lot in central NC, let me know. I obviously need to go to someone who at least kind of specializes in the Wankels.

 

F**k your mechanic. Douchebag. Check to see that it's installed properly. Heres a good write up - HERE. Read the MSD 6A section on what wires should go to what. I'm unfamiliar with this kind of ignition so I couldn't tell you any way to test it.

But from what I hear the MSD box helps smooth out the idle, stronger spark, and more power (?) ... So it'd probably be beneficial to hold onto it if you can. Otherwise revert to a stock setup, and re-evaluate.

 

Haha. Yeah; I cried.
Thanks for the write up.
And yeah, they're supposed to = more power.. when they're hooked up right.
This car has all sorts of modifications. I'm hoping to very (veryvery) slowly restore a lot of it. Sigh.
Also, I love your Chuck Norris fact.

 

Lol.. yea.. kinda irrelevant because Chuck Norris does not drive a car, he runs in place and spins the earth until he gets where he wants to go.

But ... anyway, start with your problem areas (the ignition in your case) and work out from that. I could almost guarantee the MSD is not wired correctly. Re-do the wiring according to that guide to a "T", and see if that doesn't solve your problems. You should only be running the MSD on your leading coil, by the way.

Probably stupid and half-assed at that. Yea, I'm sure with a little help from these boards and a little time under the hood you can get your car running right again. No need to pay a some fucktard who doesn't know anything about rotaries to work on a car he doesn't know anything about

 

Ohhh you went there.

I hope that's it. The guy told me he didn't know anything about how the MSD works/why it would be murdering the idle. I don't know if that means he also doesn't know how it's supposed to be installed or what.
That's my plan. Apparent problems then least to most expensive.

 

Ain't the MSD if you can keep the engine running by keeping your foot on the gas pedal. End.

If it were the MSD the car would die whether or not you kept your foot on the pedal.

IF they cut stk wiring when installing the MSD............good luck on reconfiguring to back to stk. But then again, it is not the MSD keeping you from a good idle.

For an idle you'll need a half *** good timing light to set the timing..............the ability to see if the BAC is working or not (most likely it is not) and the ability to adjust the variable resistor and the air screw on top of the dynamic chamber. And a download of the FUEL AND EMISSIONS section of the FSM.

When did the car die when you drove from the repair shop? While crusing on the freeway? Driving down the street at 40mph? or when you came to a stop sign?

 

After they fixed the idle whs the idle set screw adjusted and the tps properly set? If the car had a vac leak that would have let extra air past and kept the idle up enough to run. Also might not be a bad idea to check the operation of the bacv.

 

common issues that cause low idle issues are:

emissions removed
5/6th ports wired open and actuators removed
tps improperly adjusted or faulty
timing improperly set
vacuum leaks
low fuel pressure
low compression
idle set screw set too low(screw it counterclockwise to raise the idle)
someone monkeyed with the throttle body

 

uuuugh.
It just dies when it's stopped or going really slow.
I adjusted the air screw; no improvement.

 

^The easy way out would be make it idle off the throttle cable... Just loosen where the throttle cable attaches to the throttle body, and pull it back some until it idles higher.

*This is NOT the proper way to fix it, but it will at least make it drivable until you find the cause of the problem.

 

Ah, thanks.

 

So I'm pretty sure it's the BAC or something very close to it.
It turned on and stayed on this time, idled high at 3k for a bit (normal), then fell and stayed steady at 1k.
I turned the idle screw and it kind of made it worse. It dropped to 500 and kept shuttering and pulsing up to 1100ish.
That's all I could do since it got dark. :/

 

Which idle screw did you adjust? The one on the center of the tb? There is also one next to the tb that can be used to stop the butterflys from closing as far(like adjusting the idle with the cable but easier to undo).

The pulsing idle is a common trait of a vac leak or tps out of adjustment. There are plenty of places that vac leaks can come from on these bastards. Im actually gonna be pulling my im just to replace all the old lines. You should(if capable) consider that also, side benefit is making sure the primary rail fpd gets replaced.

 

Just the one in the center. What side is the other one on?

 

Hold on. Ill try to grab a pic with the phone at commercial(family guy is on). got it...

 

Ah haa!

 

i have a BACV off my S5 that im parting out, from AZ its 1k$ dont buy it from them... if you want it, pm me and we can work somethin out.

(i dont need it, my car dont have a BACV installed)

 

Every time you adjust the idle screws, you should readjust the TPS (make sure your up to operating temp also).

 

that's the secondary throttle stop screw. using that to set the idle higher will cause more the idle to fluctuate worse.

 

Even with the 6 ports wired open on my car I can play around with that and get a solid idle.

 

It idles now and it's drivable. It's just too low and fluctuates all the time.

 

What did you actually do to get it to idle? The biggest issue is still a potential vac leak and all the bandaids in the world won't address the real issue. Its prolly idling like **** because of running lean, they always seem to idle like **** for me if the afr's arnt fat. Should really fix the problems before it becomes worse.

 

The guy at the shop said they checked for leaks and fixed one. I feel like the words were something along the lines of: "one major one" which may mean they decided not to fix other, smaller ones.
I've located the other screw and will test that soon.

At-home vacuum leak test?

Off topic. Can anyone else take their key out of the ignition while the car is running?

 

I got some carb cleaner and sprayed the dirt out of the BAC valve and some little hoses. And played with the idle screw.
I also got some test leads and tested some plugs. They seemed to be alright.

 

Check the wiring to the coils. I had a similar problem and it was loose connection. i rewired the leading coil and everything was fine after that.
good luck