hennessey

Hi, I'm new to the forums but not to Rx-7s. I have a problem that no one seems to know what is going on. There is a pretty nasty vibration when I am parked and especially when I am driving. Hills are killer I feel like I am gonna grind my teeth to nothing! I had an pretty nasty oil leak which I recently got fixed but I fear I let the oil light come on one too many times and screwed up one of the rotors or something technical.

I called a specialist since I am in a place close to nobody with any knowledge and he said it might be a water pump. There isn't a real noticable difference in power and my temperature gauge is broken so I can't check that. Sometimes the coolant light and sound(especially when I've drove it a nice distance) comes on even though there is plenty in there. Does this sounds like water pump to you? Thanks.

vaughnc

Does the vibration happen when it's out of gear / in neutral while in motion?

Is the gague broken or is the coolant temp sensor just not hooked up?

hennessey

The vigration occurs while in motion and if I have the clutch in and rev it up it still vibrates. It's funny though because sometimes when I take it out it won't vibrate as much as other times. But going up inclines really makes the vibration increase I dunno if that tells you anything.

I think the cooling temp sensor wasn't connected when I had the engine installed a few months ago. I dunno how to check it and as you can tell I'm not real mechanical so if the problem is easy to check please let me know how to reattach it.

Thanks for the help.

Audiofight

Does the motor seem to "move" at all while it is running? Pop the hood and check. If the counterweights in the motor itself go bad or are somehow damaged, then the whole car will vibrate horribly and more so going up hills because you are causing the motor to labor even more. Kinda like a Harley Davidson, vibration to beat all hell.

I can't understand why a water pump would cause the whole motor to make the car vibrate that noticably, unless you are making it sound worse than it really is.

First and foremost, find the temp sensor and hook it back up so you know the temps. Or, buy a new temp gauge and wire it in properly. The engine temp is an important thing to keep and eye on. If it wasn't for my temp gauge warning me, my 13B would've blown sky high when one of my heater hoses blew. I saw the temp gauge start to climb, pulled over and killed the engine before it hit 3/4. Looked under hood as steam started billowing out. Saw a loose heater hose and it was mushy. Managed to patch it for a couple days while new ones came in to the parts store.

Good luck.

Keith

You should be able to find a yellow/white stripe wire in the back of the engine by the oil filter. It will have a single-wire push-on connector on it. That connector should be pushed onto a hex bolt type thing with a pin on top screwed into the engine in the same place. This is the water temp sender for the guage.

Irv, Keith's dad

ReZ311

iTrader: (4)

Hey man. I get the same damn vibration you do. It happens above 5,000 RPM. Clutch in. Same thing. Clutch out, same thing. Does the same thing in all gears also.

I got my new motor put in on october. series 5 89+ in my 87 T2.
I have 10,000 miles on it now. It still vibrates like it did before I popped the original motor by busting a cooling line.
I swapped t2 transmissions b/c mine was going south and was due for a rebuild. Didn't help solve the vibration problem. I am either thinking it is the clutch and flywheel makeup (I have a 9lb aluminum flywheel). I know I have the correct counterweights for 89+ and for the lightweight flywheel. I know this. WTF is the problem? It seems to be the same as hennessey's vibration problem.

5K vibration. The million dollar question is.... what is causing this?
Water pump./ Hmmm. I dunno. ...... clutch fan? I dunno.... flywheel and clutch???////..

Remember, clutch is in, rev the engine past 5K, It vibrates.

Also, I got my driveline balanced and serviced. That is fine too. Differential works great too. (But not the diff b/c clutch is in)

If the motor is not balanced good, then I figure the motor would have blown up by now. I race the **** out of itto 7K alor with the vibration too. I want to fix this!!!!

Anyone?

Snufelupogus

iTrader: (2)

My car is vibrating pretty badly as well. It does it all the time, in gear, outa gear, moving, stopped, etc. So its not anything like the driveshaft or wheels or anything like that.
I had the engine rebuild recently, while this was happening they had the flywheel machined down a little to get any "waves" or ridges out of it. I put a new clutch, pressure plate and release baring on while the engine was out. I used the clutch centering tool and torqued it all down to spec. The clutch works fine, engages and disengages perfectly fine. However, when I put the engine back in (tranny still in car) it took like 15-20minutes to giggle the engine into the transmission for it to mate properly, is that a problem?
The only other things I can think of, other than messin it up while puttin it in or forcin it in or something (i dunno), is the counter weight on the flywheel is the wrong one, flywheel wasnt machined properly, counter weight on the engine is messed, there is a baring inside the engine that is busted, or wrong rotors were used or something like that.

Any help to help solve the problem would be great!
Thanks guys!

aka_rocket

don't know how old this thread is but recently i've started having the EXACT thing happen to me. 1986 gxl. i have approx. 12K miles on my rebuild, pretty much the same thing as snufelupoqus in terms of what was changed, installation.i i used S5 internals and took the parts out of the S5 motor itself so i know i have the right stuff. it's been running good until last week. vibration aroud 4K rpm and up. seems like its coming from the transmission area. this sucks. anyone solved their problem yet. i have another tranny and PU mount and driveshaft to swap in but too much work if i don't have to.

Darkmice

I dont have an answer to any of the questions so I thought id join the wagon. I have an 86 n/a auto with 48k original miles on it and it vibrates when driving or just idling. Weird!

Kory_yahi

yup. me too. vibrations. Lightsteel flywheel and a racing clutch put in.... but at the same time the engine was raised out of its mounts for a little bit... thinking it didn't settle back into the mounts properly?

mazdaspeed87

i had a bad vibration like BAD at 6000 i couldent see the #s on the tach. and it was just me being a newb when i did my tranny i put the wrong bolts in the wrong hole to mount the tranny and left one loose. so if you did your tranny check those. good luck

badhabitsseven

My engine vibrates in motion and sittin still. I have changed all mounts. Vibration is still there. I keep hearing it could be the essentric shaft. I do not have any idea how to check or how to start this process. Has anyone found a solution to our problem????? If you do and want to share, I would greatly appreciate an email. thanks.