Damon -

Thanks. I share your concern over the wire breaking. And, of course, it only continues to get thinner as time goes by.
Concerning the shimming exercise, I've tried that but was limited by 2 things:

1) There was not enough adjustment available on the latch. I am considering slightly extending the slots that the adjusting bolts use.

2) In order to initially concentrate on the latch/wire combination problem, I temporally disregarded the alignment. If I tighten up the latch-to-wire "gap," (for example by shimming up the rubber stops), obviously when I shut the hood I need an increased amount of pressure to get it to latch, and that, once latched, there is still always some looseness so that I can push the hood up and down. If I continue to decrease the gap, (fatter washers), I get to a point where it is almost impossible to latch the hood, and, even if I get it latched, it is still possible to push it up and down. Also, the hood release lever gets dangerously tight, (needs a hard pull), and I'm scared of breaking the cable. I'm assuming that this overall scenario is somehow caused by having to clear the full diameter of the wire to close the hood, but then when it is shut, experiencing the added clearance of the worn down part of the wire. I feel that the only solution to this is probably a new or fixed wire.

Note my last 3rd gen (bought new) did not have this problem at all. Perhaps it develops from an initially loose, (incorrectly adjusted), latch, causing the wear in the wire, which then creates the greater problem, which, in my case seems to defy correction by further adjustment.

????

Dave

 

Yeah, mines the same but apparently not as bad as yours. Once the wire is worn a lot it's going to act just like yours: as soon as the latch in the bumper actually grabs hold it's going to be loose since the wire is thinner in one dimension then the other.

Mine for now has been fine and since the hood no longer bounces slightly at highway speeds I don't think it will get worse, but I still hope to replace that section of wire somehow.

FWIW I did have a hood cable snap years ago and they are surprisingly cheap and not hard to replace. I think it was less than $40 from the dealer?

 

this is a very common problem. there is a TSB about it.

 

The hood strikers are apparently of poor quality on all RX-7's. There was a recall on the Mazdaspeed hood because of this. The part of the striker that contacts the latch wears down over time causing the hood to come loose from the first safety catch. I have seen people re-adjust the latch to contact the striker at a different point, but I think that is just a band-aid. I have also seen some that were cut out and a new striker was welded in, but that can make a mess if not done properly.

Joe

 

Glad to see you got your Z06. Looks like a beauty!