This October marks my 1 year anniversary with Smooth, my 1980 SA Anniversary Edition with an automatic transmission. I am celebrating this event with her very own build thread. I plan to have it pretty well developed by the end of the month. I hope to look back on this, the first year, as the hardest one.

Thanks to a lot of advice and some spare parts from club members, she has gone from a desert backyard waste (the PO got 'er running and sold her fast) to my daily driver. I have impressed my hubby with her progress (even though I had to hire some of the work out).

I've gotta build my image stash in a dropbox account so I can relate the first year with full illustration. I did shoot a lot of pics. And I have the original craigslisting that suckered me in.

 

Most definitely interested to see what you have accomplished. From what you have posted elsewhere it sounds like it was quite a journey.

 

Forward HO. I THOUGHT I would back-build Smooth's thread to demonstrate our history together. No time for that. I am going to start looking ahead, as challenging as it might be. When I actually have some FREE time I will share how we got through our first year.

Right now I have called O'Reilly to arrange to pick up a compression tester loaner.

 

What can I say? I am so sad, though I guess I knew all along I was trying my best to get her to limp along on her last leg. I sure learned a lot...

A compression test verified today ZERO compression for both rotors. I was trying to eek out a little more as she was going, with short drives (1/4 mi?) from the driveway. I actually got a little joy ride that probably finished her off.

It's amazing that I managed to drive home, turn off the key, and not even suspect that She would not EVEN TRY to spark the next day.

I don't have a plan now. So it's not the plan to give up. I know there are a bunch of 12As out there, and my husband has been really supportive researching what he can find. Fact is, she's already put us in a financial tight spot, and speculating further investment seems foolish.

PRAY, LAUGH, CRY, Pray some more.

 

I'm gonna say it here, then I'm gonna post and ad in the trades section:

Will trade graphic design work for good 12A motor.

 

Sorry to hear that the engine finally gave up. What did you do on your "joyride" that you think contributed to the engine letting go? RX-7s (like most cars) are never a "smart" monetary investment. They're a passion, but not a good investment.

Good 12A engines and parts are getting harder to find nowadays. Which is why I ended up swapping to a 13B in mine. Rebuilding yours may be more advantageous, depending on how many of the parts are re-useable. Which you never know until you tear it down. It may be something as simple as stuck apex seals, hopefully.

 

That's the honest truth right there. Sorry to hear that smooth is out of commission for a while. Hopefully you can come up with a replacement or crack that 12A open and find out that is was something that is relatively easy and inexpensive to fix. I haven't done much research in the way of 13Bs, but from what little I know they are more readily available than 12As, and sometimes even cheaper.

Good luck and keep us posted with status. Lots of great people on the this forum that are willing to help out!

 

Well, since I got the distributor to loosen up and get free range of motion for trailing adjustment, I thought I would reach for the extreme she never knew, just to see what's what.
She finally was shifting gears at 4500 rpm instead of 3200... Then she kept going up toward 5k not wanting to shift into 3rd. I was evaluating the results of that experiment, when she would not start the next morning.

 

have you changed the tranny fluid? that may help ... when I first got mine she would not shift into third for nothing .... fluid and some spirited driving and shifting is not a problem anymore

 

She had tranny work done AFTER I changed the pan and changed the fluid. So it's been refreshed twice... I AM curious about how differences in her timing are causing differences in her shifting bands?

 

duh @ me forgot your running an automatic tranny

 

I'd like to forget that too... I can see at the fire wall that there is a rough cut-out for a clutch pedal... Someday she may transform (again?)... NOT this year!

 

I am glad to hear you got her running again. Did you figure out what it was or did she just wake up when you were compression testing?

 

She just kinda woke up during her test. I think the flooding settled (though the plugs were still dripping). Everyone reflecting on flooding got me to turn the fuel adjust WAY down. Historically I would always turn the fuel in a lot when she was warm, then she would not start in the morning and I would have to let it back out. Now she's good with it in (where I think it belongs), except for needing a slight choke to keep running. The idle is the most stable it's ever been as the tac reads. I haven't taken her out for a real drive which might clear things up and get her in the zone. The roads are really dangerous right now.

 

I gotta say that these recent SA build threads are super inspiring...having acquired a 79 not too long ago and started work on it already...I also am an fb auto owner and fully committed to keeping my 85 that way as I feel there is a certain charm to to that car in that configuration. Keep up the good work. I look fwd to reading about your progress as well as seeing some pics.