Spent yesterday fixing problems


Symptoms:
Clunking over rough surfaces / tons of noise. --> worn rear pillowball bushings
Sloppy driveline. 'Flex' in the driveline / Shiftknob moving with driveline / clunking and banging with throttle on and off / grinding metal sound with driving. --> cracked powerplant frame.


Replaced the PPF.

Mine was cracked almost completely in half


New PPF is on top.
Old PPF is on the bottom. The frame was quite twisted, no longer straight, and you can see the crack near the front (left side).


The otherside of the PPF.
New PPF is on top.
Old PPF is on the bottom. Again you can see that the solid steel piece is almost completely cracked threw the whole width.

Also replaced the rear pillowball bushings.

End result : No more grinding/clunking/shifter moving/driveline slop. Wheel hop is gone. No 'crunching'/banging noise when lifting off the throttle.

I wish I addressed this years ago It is like having a new car

 

nice when you finally figure out something like that huh? did you get the new one reinforced in any way before installing it?

 

Check your motor mounts too. If you have stock motor mount and all that play in the drivetrain (pillow ***** and cracked ppf), the mounts are probably all torn up too.

 

I already have polyurethane engine mounts.

Theorie: Well I knew what the problems were, rather just didn't have the time to address it. I would just drive the Subaru when the RX-7 got me frustrated. I bought the parts to repair it 4 years ago, but just put things off I put less than 1000 miles on the RX7 last year.

Went with the stock PPF, but added a diff brace. Everytime a Mazdaspeed PPF showed up, it was already sold.

 

wow this thread scares me... i htink my ppf is cracked and i know my pillow ***** suck and cause massive clunking... i should hop on this...

 

HeHe he said ***** suck...HeHe

 

Since you have it out you should weld in some reinforcements.
https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...&highlight=PPF

 

Damn I need to find those pics again and repost them. My old thread is a waste without pics.

 

It gets the basic point across. If you find them upload them to 7club so they stay forever.

 

were you able to see the damage from under the car or just knew the signs? (ppf)

 

I could not see the damage from underneath the car.

Symptoms were pretty clear:

In neutral the shift **** did not move at all with revving the engine (upgraded motor mounts).
While driving, the shift **** would move with all throttle input. Also there was a ton of clunking/banging/grinding from underneath the car with lifting the throttle. There was also alot of 'slop' in the driveline.

In retrospect, the PPF was twisted and I could appreciate it only after seeing how the 'new' PPF looked when installed.

thesaint