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Another quick update After having my car up in the air and doing a bit more inspection it appears a crank sensor plug has a loose wire. I will be pulling my harness to give it look over as it is very possible a mistake was made during my harness simplification. Probably won’t run again before the end of the season tho :/
That could be a culprit to your no spark issue as well
I picked up this Starter (Engine) harness recently off Buyee. It did not say which version or type FD it was from. They reported one clip (to the dynamo) is missing. In any event it is a good reference. imo
^that one does appear to be missing the plug for the alternator. Just replaced mine (for probably no reason), and have the old one lying around. Just in case you need new pictures or want the whole harness.
That could be a culprit to your no spark issue as well
I think you are correct. After pulling the harness and depinning the connectors for the crank, I found that one wire had slid out of the pin. I have new pins and a proper crimper on the way, so I can properly re-crimp my harness connectors.
I hate the cold. Up here in Alberta we’re seeing almost -40°C overnight and it makes wrenching a pain. I was reminded how brittle and fragile old and cold parts can be when a I broke my CAS trying to plug in my harness. I blame the cold and old sensor but maybe I’m just a lot stronger than I think lol No more mounting hole
I don't ever wrench in the winter, just too damn cold. I switch my focus to planning and collecting parts in my office for 4 months
Winter is prime wrenching time for me. But last year I finally broke down and bought one of those heaters to attach to the propane tank to take the chill out of the garage, getting too old for working in this cold crap!
I don't ever wrench in the winter, just too damn cold. I switch my focus to planning and collecting parts in my office for 4 months
This is one of the reasons why I moved to Florida. We sold all of our winter cars and wanted to enjoy our fun cars year round and my old bones don't like the cold weather, especially when they bang against frozen metal.
I got busy with school and hockey, so I had to cut back on my time working on my no-spark issue. Anyways, I tested the resistance on my ign-1a kit (the one my old ecu fried) and my stock coils that worked when I replaced them with the ign-1a kit. The smart coils were still blown as I suspected, but I was surprised to see that my stock coils were showing less-than-ideal resistance levels as well (see below). I have been using my stock coils to test for spark alongside an inline spark tester without luck, so I am beginning to think all of my coils are bad. I have yet to see spark and the tach does not move at all when cranking but he ecu logs and displays RPM signal. I have checked everything else I can think of including CAS sensors, wiring, fuses and relays, fuel system, and grounding but if anyone has an idea please let me know.
I am thinking about selling my power fc, datalogit, and commander to get something more modern like a link or haltech. I have been battling with my old crusty harness for long enough so I think a new harness should be on the list. I also think the updated safety parameters would be good as I would like to drive the car a lot more and a bit harder. grrr cars
Resistance Measurements IGN-1A
-pins D-E measured at 20k ohms
all coils: 0
Stock Coils
leading
a-b: 0.8 @ 200 ohms (initially reads 1.2 but will slowly drop)
L1-L2: 12.25 @ 20k ohms
T1: 1.2 @ 200 ohms
T2: 1.0 @ 200 ohms
Leading coil Leading coil smart coil @ 20k ohms (0) smart coil @ 200 ohms (1.4)
After finding out my coils were bad, I was a bit disappointed, but it gave me the opportunity to go through everything and find the culprit of my no-spark issue. I eventually traced my coil harness and found two small slits where it looked like it got caught on something. I rewired the broken harness parts and picked up some new coils, and then finally put it all back together. I put in some stock heat range plugs, and she fired right up. I proceed to drive 500km under 5K rpm with little to no boost and then do an oil+filter change. I then drove another 500km under 7k with low boost, and that brings us to now. I very happy my engine has passed the 1000km mark and is still driving. I haven't had much trouble hot starting so I am hoping it can make it a while longer I replaced the stock 7/9 plugs with 9's all around. I've had to tighten a few nuts and bolts through the breaking, but it's been a pretty smooth break-in. My fuel map is still a bit rich up top, so the next step is getting the tune touched up. I still have no ac or power steering, but I am honestly just happy it is driving for now. I am also pretty busy with work and studying so I still don't have tons of time for wrenching.
Kind of a ramble today but I am just so happy to have my fd running again. Here are some pics: New Holley coils on left, Old drifinjim coils on the right New black lugs Break-in plugs T1 T2 L1 L2
She survived a track day I went out to a local open day to test some more cells on the tune and see how the engine handles a bit of abuse, and it went great. I had minimal issues hot starting and only had to adjust a couple of lean cells. I, unfortunately, had to cut my fun short due to an oil pan leak. I have ordered a brace and plan to reseal the pan in the car when it arrives. Sorry for making a mess on the track. V8 swapped RX-8 Little bro's roadster
Unfortunately, after fixing my coil harness short it appears I have another somewhere. When driving home from my gf's I blew an ignition fuse for the first time in a long while. I chalked it up to a hot day and old fuse but I was left stranded on the road when my replacement fuse blew. I was able to make it back home eventrually but I have been blessed with more electrical issues. Now my right signal will be very weak and flash as if a bulb is burnt out but only while the headlights are on. I am guessing there may be another short somewhere in the coil harness or in the charge harness so I will look into that soon. I have also put off changing my oil pan for now as school has me swamped. I am going to pull my engine this winter to re-seal the oil pan and a couple other places. I want to figure out all these electrical issues put it feels very diffucult to make progress on them. I have recently replaced the alternator because of voltage spikes and drops that led me to believe it was bad. I most recently went through my coil harness so I think I'll start by going through my charge harness.
Winter is back here in Alberta, so I decided to pull my engine. There is nothing big planned, I just want to reseal the engine so it doesn't leak as much fluid. I have swapped to a metal front cover gasket and am installing an oil pan brace to help minimize leaking. The right stuff will also be used instead of red permatex this time, so I am optimistic I will leak less. I am also going to go through the charge harness and coil harness to make sure there are no shorts or problems. I'm pretty busy with school and stuff, so unfortunately car stuff does not take priority. I'll be working slowly but surely. Hopefully I can make it out for some more track days next summer. Clean oil pan Sketchy engine stand? Metal front cover gasket and OMP delete resealed Cleaned block
Among the things I have planned for my car this winter is changing to a GM 3-bar map sensor. I purchased a sensor, GM pigtail, and all the pieces and pins for a male map sensor plug instead of buying a kit to save some money. I looked at a few posts that documented the wiring process and then attempted it myself. The wiring was pretty straightforward; my harness now just needs to be loomed. I need to remember to order some loom so I can get that done soon. All that is left to do now is adjust my setting in fc-edit and mount the new sensor. I will include the part numbers for the oem map sensor plug below.
Power fc:
Set scale to 41800, and offset to 0.
The wiring is:
GM 3bar | Function | Rx7 Factory Wiring
A | GRND | Black/Grey
B | MAP SENSOR VOLTS | Green/Yellow
C | 5V | Brown/White
Conversion harness (minus loom) Test fit put on my oil pan
Time for a small update that is slightly overdue. I have not been active this year/summer because I moved away for law school. I do not have a garage (yet) at my apartment, so I did not feel comfortable bringing my rx7 to a new country and leaving it outside for months on end. Additionally, law school is fairly time consuming, so leaving it behind for my first year was probably a good idea. I am now looking into finding a garage and bringing my car down because I have been missing driving and wrenching. Unfortunatly money is still tight since I'm a student, but I will figure it out haha.
Also, I am undecided on if I should drive my car down or throw it on a truck and trailer. Any advice would be appreciated.
Happy 7's day everyone!
P.S. If anyone sees this and knows why my badges aren't working please let me know
After having my car up in the air and doing a bit more inspection it appears a crank sensor plug has a loose wire. I will be pulling my harness to give it look over as it is very possible a mistake was made during my harness simplification. Probably won’t run again before the end of the season tho :/
