I pulled my alternator tonite to do a quick polishing before getting it rebuilt. However when I removed the pressure chamber I noticed that there is what appears to be a broken check valve and a nipple with no vacuum hose attached. I hoping that you guys could help me figure out what is missing. This is the first time I've ever removed anything from that area and from the looks of the oxidation on the nipple it seems that whatever vacuum hose is absent has been gone for a while.
Before the alternator died on me the car drove fine and boost was on par. Aside from the fact that my car doesn't pass emissions test (then again how many FD's do??) and the slight smoking during it's weekly startup nothing seems out of the ordinary.
The check engine ligt comes and goes every so often and the codes correspond to the turbo precontrol and wastegate solenoids. Do these codes have anything to do with the missing items?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.


Jason

 

Nothing go's there. Ignore it.

 

WELL as for the nipple your ok...

 

Phew, that's good news. I was worried that I've been driving around with missing components. Thanks for the replies!


Jason

 

If you want to troubleshoot the check engine codes, the precontrol and wastegate is the pair of green solenoids in the left of the pic. If these fail you can have boost problems. As long as you have good boost you can probably skip this.

Remove them from the car. Get a multimeter and test the resistance across the electrical pins - they should be in the 30-40Ohm range IIRC. Then put them in the oven on an insulated pan at 250F for about 20min (keep an eye on them to be safe, but they shouldn't get too hot) until they are nice and hot, and test the resistance again. Don't waste time since they will cool down fast. The resistance should be higher (say 50-70 Ohms) but not be really high or lose continuity.

The other possibility bad wiring causing your CEL codes, but let's not think about that awful possiblity yet.

Dave

 

just fyi, it's only used when you have an auto tranny

 

No Moshzilla!

 

My car is manual so I guess I'm safe.

Thanks for the tip dgeesaman. I'll check the solenoids while everything is still accessible. Maybe pop them in the oven with my lasagna dinner. I guess a heat gun would be too much direct heat for the test? Trying to sneak car parts into the oven may prove to be detrimental to my health.



Jason

 

Don't overheat them. 200-250F should be plenty to simulate the engine heat.

Dave

 

I always say~~
If you car runs fine without it then leave it. Its always when we start to play with thing that stuff gets messed up and we end up with bigger problems. hehehe.

 

I totally agree with that statement. Other than minor quirks I'm completely happy with the way my car is running. However this is the only RX7 I've owned or driven (plus I'm the third owner) so quite honestly I don't even know how a perfect FD should feel. Maybe my car is running less than optimum and I don't even know it, but at the same time think it's the best thing since sliced bread?


Jason