I was running out of time by this point and ordered parts to finish. This part here I did in multiple stages between dead spots waiting on parts. etc. My battery box lid was damaged so, I did some plastic welding. You can find good videos on the tubes. I used an old soldiering iron, a torch and black tie wraps.

I first melted the cracks together by heating the crack and then heat stitching it together with the soldiering iron.




I then drop filled a big hole by taping a scrap piece of metal over the hole and melting a tie wrap into it. I the drop filled the rest of the cracks with molten tie wrap. You can do this part with an iron. Like melting solider only not. Feed the tie wrap into the iron and the dead spots. I did get impatient though. I think by cooking the plastic with a torch it cooked out to much of the stuff that keeps the plastic soft. I do not recommend the torch method. Also, this stuff is like napalm on the skin, ouch......







This looks pretty bad for a first go but it worked. Probably more of a brittle fix than it is suppose to be though. I started to sand out the bumps, back fill hole and repeat.







I got impatient again and sanded with a very aggressive grit so, I need to sand again with a finer grit. I really was getting close but still had small holes so, I back filled with super glue and sanded again.

I primed it with a plastic primer and used matte plastic paint. This stuff was way to gloss. Also, the finish was a little rougher than I had hoped so, I will sand this with a finer grit and repaint later with SEM black trim paint.

Overall, It looks way better than it did before. Time to move on to getting this car on all wheels.




The back side is completely unfinished and has plastic globs. I am no really all to concerned about it either.

 

I was getting uncomfortably close to Thanksgiving at this point doing repairs. The weather managed to hold out for me to get the car back on four wheels. This is the last part of this adventure until I start a winter project, hopefully soon. The day after the first seemingly successful start of the engine, I wanted to try again. I turned the key, the car started and immediately died. Same for the next day and the day afterwards. More on this later.

Now that I had two hubs I could order parts and get moving on the rest, for now. I start by prepping the rotors for the front. Most everything is OEM so far so, nothing fancy with most of this.







Next was prepping the new shocks. The day I absolutely needed to get these shocks done, it was raining and kinda chilly. Knowing how bad the over spray of the appliance paint was, I needed a solution, fast. I decided to hang the shocks in my garage with a fan blowing the over spray out the garage door. This worked well in the way that the paint went on super easy. This paint does not like hot days and direct sun, it just dries to a dull finish. Now the really bad part was that I did not prep enough of the area down stream of the fan. Over spay was on more than I was expecting but not super horrible. The paint was drying slowly due to the cold weather but all seemed well, until I noticed a really massive mistake the next day in daylight. I did not move my car away from the garage door. So, over spray got on my daily driver. If you wondered what over spray on a wet car looks like, fear not...... I have you covered!




I had backed my car into the driveway due to a bad clutch slave that would sometime leave me unable to get into reverse easily. This was most of the the worst of it. I did manage to get most of it off with some buffing from a very low speed buffer and the largest cut solution that I had. I did not see all of it though until I had used a rough cut polish, a softer polish and a layer of .
I will need to get some better light in the garage.

I will back up now and try to tell the rest of this without many pictures.

I did clean and polish this part of the power steering. It did acid etch the surface a bit from leaving the phosphoric acid on there. It wasn't bad but it might cause premature failure to the internal seals. Sorry no after shots. To anyone reading this, I accidentally ordered a set of inner tie rods for a manual rack. If you need a set, let me know. I will let them go for the cost of shipping.

 

I started to build the struts next and that went as well as to be expected. When ordering parts I realized that one of the bushings for the control arms were out of stock so, I just installed a spare set of control arms for now. For the most part the installation of the front suspension was uneventful. I did have issues remembering which way the front anti-sway bar was suppose to go. And one of the steering rack boots was to small. I just kept moving ahead with the remaining work. Which was the entire front suspension the brake booster, brake master and part of the steering. I only have these pictures as I was completing this on a short schedule.





After bleeding only the front brakes I felt like I could finally relax a little until....... I saw brake fluid pooling under the car after a day or so. Fortunately. I had just enough time to diagnose the issue. Both of my freshly rebuilt calipers were leaking. The drivers side was really bad too. So, I disassembled the worst one to the seals. I did see some black smears in the seal grove. I either got paint in there or I didn't clean the groove out well enough. The fluid had softened the residue enough to easily clean out the the piston seal groove and I reassembled the caliper. I did the same for the next one and bleed the front brakes. It has been holding, as far as I can tell for a few months so, I lucked out. Also luckily for me the front hard lines in the engine bay were very clean too. I did do some damage to the caliper paint working on them. I will need to fix that later as with the damage I did to the springs. The rough alignment was decent. After pulling it in and out of the driveway, It will need adjusted again. This was the initial alignment.






By this point it was time to get the car started so I knew that I could move it out of the garage. I took off the intake up the the throttle body and tried to start it. It did run but was backfiring. Satisfied that I could at least get it out of the garage, I came back to it Monday, this was Saturday. With Monday came my first day of a week long vacation. I washed my daily in preparation for a prewinter treatment and some CorrosionFree.

I decided to put the intake back together and give starting the car a proper try. I did the disassembly kind of hastily and lost a clamp for part of the soft intake. I did put it together enough to get it started properly. What caused the earlier issue was never solved, it just fixed itself. All of these months later the intake is still not completely assembled. I need to give the garage a good clean in warmer weather to find the clamp.

I then washed the 7 for the first time in 10 years or so. Surprisingly it did not acquire that much dust before this work I started a year plus prior. I did have a cover for the last two years that I did not use for the duration of this work. Wow, was that a gigantic mistake. There was a layer of metal grinding/cutting dust mixed with regular dust and over spray from all of the appliance paint.

 

I had metal flake over the clear coat and on the windows. It is easier to laugh than get angry at the amount of work that this will take to correct. Even after a wash it only cleaned off so much.




This was the after.

I needed to leave the car out in light snow and very light rain for 5 days or so. It fired right up in 20 something degree weather and It has been in the garage ever since.

I did get the daily in the garage to give it a buffing, some clear coat protection and replace the clutch master/slave. The clutch master and slave didn't finish easily either. While the car was torn apart I found out there was a death in the family right before Thanksgiving too. Just a word of caution, when you have a couple feet of hard line and a small piece of soft line to connect the slave to the master, double check that your lines are tight. I had a loose connection after not building pressure for at least 4 hours of hand pump/foot pedal bleeding and 8 hours of gravity bleeding. I did finally find the leak, much to my relief, just in time for my vacation to be over and there was no time left for an actual vacation.

I have a few winter projects to do hopefully. I need to start ordering parts soon. I still have a way to go, just to finish the front end. When I can compile a list, I will try to post it here.

 

I missed mentioning a few things that I finished up. I reinstalled most of the heat sheilds and reinstalled the drive shaft with new hardware. I also installed the spring, ball and cap on the shifter housing thanks to a forum member here. I think it works as a lockuot for first gear. It also keeps in the gear oil.

How about before and after engine bay pictures?




For the amount of work that I did it isn't night and day, more like afternoon and evening. The most annoying thing is the strut covers. I need to de pin my old adjusters and use the rubber covers. Unless there is an aftermarket option.

I have a lot of work to do yet. I just needed to get this to drive out of the garage and back again before the cold weather set in. And in the event my daily breaks, another move back and forth. My days of changing an alternator laying on rocks in my driveway with the weather in the high teens and a stiff wind are over for me. Having a car that runs, can be removed from the garage and a door to open between the house and the garage for heat is a major upgrade. It is still cold in there, it just isn't dangerously cold.

 

I was able to get some work done in the garage with some warmer weather. I cleaned up the mess that I left in the late fall. I jacked up the front of the car to remove the front tires/rims. This is what happens to your tires after driving with worn rear steer bushings.




I burned through two partial sets of rear tires and less than two months later new $150 a piece Firehawks. This was in 2011 or so and that was a good bit of money for me. These tires were on the rear of the car when last driven in a major downpour of rain to buy a daily driver. Not only was the rear end very unstable due to the bushings, I had very little grip. I felt like I would spin out very easily so, don't be dumb like me.

I also found the clamp for the intake hose on the air box in the engine compartment. I put that back together too.

I checked for leaks and the oil pan and front calipers are holding, as far as I can tell. Further investigation is needed though. It does look like I might have a power steering leak so..... we'll see.

I have started ordering parts as spring isn't to far away now.

 

1. Order the remaining bushings for the front control arms and install them to the arms. Replace the current spare set of arms.

2. Order front outer bearings, repack with grease and tension.

3. Cut off the old front rotors from my spare set of front hubs. Prepare for an inner bearing replacement, this part will be finished later.

4. Order nut/bolts for the front anti-sway bar and links and install.

5. Order catalytic converter(s) plus any hardware/gaskets paint and install.

6. Start the car and run until fully warm. This will crack open the thermostat for the oil cooler and the coolant, add more if needed. Set the TPS, check for leaks.. exhaust, fuel,vacuum and coolant.

7. Order and have front tires installed/balanced. Same for the rears if they aren't safe for state inspection.

8. Take the front fender to have the dent repaired. This is way above my skill level. Upon return primer/paint the fender. Re-install all front end plastics, etc after i add some truck bed liner to strategic places in the wheel well.

9. Prepare the front bumper for primer/paint and reinstall. Order and possibly paint the front lip spoiler, then install.

10. Troubleshoot my horn install, they aren't working.

11. Order and replace shifter bushings.

12. Re-install rear speakers and bypass the stock amp in the buckets.

13. Install an old in-dash mini-disc player with extras.

14. Re-bleed all of the brake lines and check for leaks.

15. Test the e-brake, adjust as needed.

16. Check all critical hardware on the car for proper torque.

17. Add a ground to the vacuum pressure sensor. Add a ground near the ECU... connected to chassis and the ground wire bundle.

18. Change the rear diff fluid/trans fluids.

19. Clean up the paint and the rocker pinch welds, prime/ paint

20. Spray the inside of the frame or others that haven't been treated will Corrosion Free.

21. Have a fuse block mount fabricated.

22. Get the speedometer repaired, it is 10 mph off. I do have a spre one from an auto trans if needed. It does have higher milage though so.....

23. Clean over spray off the windows.

24. Get an alignment and then a state inspection.

25. Fix any inspection issues and move on to cosmetics.

26. Enjoy driving this car!!!!

Two very big elephants in the room minus anything that I may have forgotten.

1. I did not index the diff and sub-frame bushings to factory specs. I will need to devise a way to remove the bushings without destroying them. I have some ideas about this. Any input is very welcome. If this is the direction that I decide to go, this will get done first. I am tempted to leave it alone for now though.

2. Removing the upper and lower intake(s) to clean/paint add new gaskets where I feel comfortable replacing. Send the injectors off to be cleaned and have new rubbers added. Replace some or much of the vacuum lines. Replace the fuel dampener before it fails and creates a large hot dog cooker.

Between the idle set and this, the rough idle should be solved unless I have partially bad compression. So, a rotary tester will be needed or rented. I did have 120 on both rotors on at least one rotor face so, that is partially good news.

I really wanted to hold off on the extra grounds to see if any of the work done so far has solved the 3,800 hesitation this car always had. I think it's just the TPS, I suppose we'll see.

I do have a future list of mods and upgrades I want to implement over the next couple of years. I really just want to drive a mostly bone stock car to verify that it runs and drives as it should before I make to many changes.

Any suggestions on missed items or/and recommended upgrades are welcome, thanks!

Edit: I need to refurbish/install the engine undertray and seal up air leaks in and around the radiator, too.

 

That is a long list! for the diff and subframe bushings, ive had luck tapping around the flange with a hammer and chisel. since you want to put them back, you need to be gentle, and go around as much as you can
also once there is enough room, you can put a hose clamp on the bushing and compress it, which helps too.

also with the grounds, they all go through the body, and for a steady state load, like a light bulb this is fine. however with things that have to turn on and off like the injectors and solenoids and such, it does help to add grounds. since you're trying to lower impedance, the ground needs to be really big.

 

It is a long list and I missed some things, too. I hope to be done by the end of June.

Thanks for the tips on the bushings. I saw you mention that in another thread, excellent idea.

I can not believe that I missed the engine ground, thanks for the reminder.

 

With some warmer weather, I was able to knock some tings off the list, I am starting to stack up some L's and will work around them for now.

I was able to get the windows cleaner with some wax and grease remover, the not safe for paint type. It worked well except for the spots where I stupidly let dirty rags on the windshield and the rear window. The marks that are left appear to be able to be removed with some aggressive buffing. I will need to wait until I get a better rotarty buffer.

A before and a picture of the marks.





I finally was able to find a small selection of 4awg ferule lugs so I added some to the new fuse block. The smaller connections were tight enough to not need them. I used the new crimper that I bought to crimp the lugs. The quality of the die sets in the kit are poor at best. I did what I could with what I had to work with. It looks not great... but it's completed.





I removed the pins from the adjustable suspension harness connected to the front strut covers. I bought a removal tool that I used many times on Molex connectors. This did work but not very well. I ended up using a very small screwdriver. These pins were held in place by the connector, not he lug. Just pushing the screwdriver through to the plastic catch was enough.

 

I stared on the radio install, worked on some other stuff throughout the week and finished this on a Saturday. I really never found a good translation for all of the wires besides the FSM and that didn't have wire colors unless you are good with schematics. I did bypass the stock amps and the rear antenna so this color code is useful to some and not everyone. A relay is needed to work the rear antenna motor.
Following this below will leave power to the stock amps so... beware. Also, If you have the wire harness adapters that I did, this is not very useful as they are plug-n-play. I will not be going over the removal of the speakers or radio, there are plenty threads here to reference.

Follow along on page(s) 50-118 in the FSM.



Blue/White = Switched 12v
Blue/Red = Battery
Red/Black = Dimmer
White = Amp Turn On (If not bypassed)
Blue/Yellow Stripe = Antenna Relay
No ground Wire

Front Speakers (Light Green)
Green/Red = Front left (+)
Green/Black = Front Left (-)
Green = Front Right (+)
Green = Front Right (-)

Rear Speakers
Brown = Rear Left (+)
Brown/White = Rear Left (-)
Blue = Rear Right (+)
Blue/Red = (-)

I started by removing the old stuff in the dash. I had it wired like this:
Radio speaker output.....
Aftermarket amp under the front seat for the rear speakers.....
Stock amps.....
Speakers....

How this ever worked and didn't blow up, I will never know. Most of these connections were twisted by hand and had tape over the splice.




This harness was hacked when I bought the car. I found a junk car many years ago and added the stock connectors. This was almost 20 years ago now and had limited knowledge and money. After this was mostly removed minus the amp wiring, I needed to properly connect the stock connectors to the harness. I decided to solider the connections. I wanted to use the new heat gun melted splices, I did have some horrible thought that if I tried, I would accidentally melt the dash.
I tried to tin the wires in the dash without flux and only what was in the solider, that was a giant mistake. It didn't work well, I took a beak and soldiered the radio harness to the adapter harness. I did use flux on the old adapter harness with much success. look at all of the oxidation that came off.

Just to add clarity to the supplemental harness part, for the most part the colors matched the Excelon harness. I only realized this after laboring over the harness and schematic trying to transpose the colors.




I then went back to the dash with flux and tried again. I one to one spliced the stock harness back together. I added normal heat shrink and now have a long tail. I then wrapped it in tape. The tail is a bit log but I will take it.

 

Now for the adaptation process. I wanted to take the stock amps completely out of the circuit so, I bypassed them, starting with the rear buckets.

Knowing the color code now, I used a DMM set to tone to trace the input for the speaker through the bucket. These buckets had been modified before and I fixed them 20 or so years ago with what I had available. I really didn't have extra wire to cut after the butt splice that I added so, I removed the wire from the circuit board.




I can't remember nor did I write down which is + or - so, just use your DMM or other.

I then solidered on some wire that I had laying around to the board. I bought lugs and a crimper to add lugs to the wire. Alternatively, you can desolider the stock ones and reuse them if you want.

The crimp die is kinda poor so the crimp is just OK not very good. My strip lengths weren't great either but it works. I need a better die set so, if you have any suggestions here, it would be apreciated.

Some assembly/disassembly pics.












Just some clarity as to why I kept the buckets. Without them, I thought the shock towers would be rattle traps and that is unacceptable.

 

Now for the front, this was interesting...
The amp/speaker is on the passenger side below the glove box. Once open, I needed a good plan. I thought of making an adapter harness and modifying the circuit board. I decided to modify the circuit board.

Follow along on Page 15-133.



This is the connector on the box. Looking at the male side of the connector or the rear of the female side.





Next you will find the wires that aren't the power wires, see below and remove them from the circuit board.




If you are good with tracing circuits, you don't need to de-solider all of these, just the input side. I am not one of these people so.....

I wasn't sure how to proceed exactly so I took a guess and thought that the pins on circuit board lead to the pins on the harness, this is partially true.




These to me looked like wire wrap pins. I had wrapped thousands of these a week in a prior career. Not having a wire wrap gun I thought to use these to add some jumpers. I figured someone made jumpers and found jumpers made for breadboards.

Now that you know the color codes, it was on to tracing the circuit.

Red = Front Right (+)
Brown = Front Right (-)
Pin J to Pin B = Front left (+) Jumper
Pin I to A = front Left (-) Jumper




This is the location of the jumpers. These jumpers were very tight but worked. I didn't push one on tight enough based on the picture.

I do not have disassembly or reassembly pics so have a look on the forum. When finished, seat all connections except the radio and test with the DMM.

 

It was time to test to old aftermarket radio. I had an adapter for the front antenna but I still needed a ground. I just used the closet one that I could find. I used a extra piece of wire that I had lying around. Because the main power is 10awg I needed a 10awg ground, I think that this is 12awg.






Not a great splice but is sufficient. The other side is near the acceleration pedal. I will add a ground block for this later.

Now to plug everything into the harness. I used an old Excelon MiniDisc player. I forgot that the back side of the flip plate was missing the cover and looked pretty beat up. At least I don't have to worry about the radio getting stolen. This unit has a disc changer cable so, I looked to see if someone made a Bluetooth adapter for a 20 year old player, and they did. I wired the adapter power to the antenna trigger wire so the module would only turn on when the head unit was turned on.




Now it is go time, all was mostly well. I had intermittant issues with the constant power and the battery. It seems the old adapter harness was a bit wonky. After some cleaning, it seemed to hold memory and turn on. I can set the lights to red based schemes but these are green. It looks kinda terrible but free stuff in the garage is welcome to my pocket book. The old EQ is still in for now and is bypassed. I will likely get a double DIN Android radio when I have the extra money. I really don't plan on listening much anyway, maybe on longer drives on the highway. Shorter drives it is nice just to listen to the car and the wind with the sun roof open and the windows down.

How does it sound? The Bluetooth didn't sound any different than the MiniDisc so, the discs will stay out of the car mostly. I have aftermarket speakers in the rear and they are a bit harsh. The fronts need replaced with aftermarket as well. Both will eventually be replaced with 3 way speakers. The overall sound quality with 45 watts to the speakers is adequate. I would like a least 100 per speaker though. The rears bass response sounded like you would expect, like speakers in a small box. it was kinda underwhelming. I have a in dash 8" sub in my daily, it makes a world of difference.

With crossovers in the head unit, it really does help with bass and over all clarity. However, I do want possibly a bigger speaker in the rear. I have adapter plates from my second 7 in there now, 5 1/4" maybe? So new bigger rear speakers with better bass response and matching fronts.

I need to reassemble the front stock speakers and the rear aftermarkets soon. Besides the beat up radio and old EQ, any ugly stuff is hidden. This doesn't look very good but it works.

 

There are many threads on the horns and the CPU. What was missing with a short search was pictures.

https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-gen-arch...ay-fix-607781/

My new horns were not working nor did I hear a click so, time to diagnose the issue.

Follow along on page 50-58.



The CPU is behind the lower kick panel on the drivers side.





With the harnesses disconnected from the box, you can jumper the connector to test the wiring. per the drawing the green/orange and green/white are the relay coil. With the connector off, these don't have continuity. The connection is made with the coil. Now looking at the remaining wires, green/red goes to the horn and green/white is hot, given that the fuse is good. Jumper these two together and the horn should work. If it doesn't, test the wiring and/or put 12vdc directly to the horn. If this passes, test the switch. After this, disconnect the battery.

I can' remember how I tested the switch. Maybe green/orange to ground? I did see a small blip, it wasn't a hard connection but they worked.

Next was the circuit board. Time to open the box.This is one of the tabs... I used a very small screw driver, pry carefully.




Get at it from the top.




Then slide the rest apart from the slots. When this was apart, it was time to look at the PCB.




All of these are the large harness pins. I re flowed the solider at these connections. As you can see, there are many cold joint on this.




These are the relay coil pins if I remember correctly. I re flowed those. too.




This what I will call the trigger wire, probably the wrong term. Do this one, too.

To double check this yourself, the relay on the left when the relays face upwards is the one to look at. Just look for the relay connection on the board.

At a second look at the pictures, there are multiple other pins that need attention as well. It would be a good idea to just do all of them. I will probably do the same later on.

After this, reassemble the CPU box and install it where you took it from. Reconnect the CPU connectors and the battery. Your horn should work now, mine did, if your doesn't, maybe an electronics tech could take a look, this PCB is very basic.

My new horns sounded very modern. No more meep, meep. I kind of miss them now.

As for the cold solider joints in these cars. Many posts seem to think that the great people building these parts were awful at soldiering, I take issue with that assumption. I worked in manufacturing in and around PCB's. And what many uninitiated don't realize, many boards are done on machines and not by hand. You hand(sometimes a machine with modern stuff) assemble the board and then goes on a conveyor belt to be heated. How this works exactly, I am not sure.

The machines were probably not dialed in perfectly and you get these boards that have issues later. I do not blame the assembly workers, only the people that set up the machine, the QC department and the people that trained them. Hopefully they learned their lesson. Perhaps I am wrong, I'll take the heat if I am though.

I had a coworker that was in quality control for another company that checked machined boards for a living. He noticed many boards were not to standard and would likely have issues later on. The bosses said to just let the boards pass, he declined because he has morals and he was fired for it.

Edit: as a side note I drew red lines on the photos of the PCB. If you zoom in, they are easier to see.

 

For those of you that care about such things, I used a very basic solidering setup.




To be perfectly honest, I used the hottest setting. Don't do this, you are asking for trouble. If you are worried about melting wires and lifting solider traces, this will get you there in a hurry.

 

i find with dirty old wires hotter is better.

 

I did some more work on the stereo setup. For gits and shiggles, I tried the rear speakers without the buckets. While it wasn't a rattle trap, the buckets do sound better. Maybe a bit boxy but better.

Also after some thought, I looked at passive head units... they are cheap for single DIN without a disc player. DOH.... With that you need a four channel amp.. or not. I saw a thread about the stock FD amps in the doors and thought that small PCB's were available and... they were. I might mod the rear buckets for new amps and and a stereo one to the front. Another project for some other day.

I added these things called boom mats for the front speakers. I was concerned that there was some phase cancelling going on in the front driver side speaker since the rear of the speaker is open to the air. It did work to reject the reverse phase of the speaker and cleaned up the sound from that side some. I didn't need one for the other side but added it anyway. If you do this. some modification is needed to the mats. I still haven't figured out how to get the driver side speaker cover on perfectly, if is good for now though. Also, just loosely tighten the speaker mounting screws, the mat will keep it from vibrating. The plastic in the dash parts is very brittle and stuff will crack if over tightened.





I need new front speakers, later though.

It looks like someone had cut these wire before that lead to the passenger speaker. I did not want to open this can of worms for now.

 

Well, as things go, I could not get the catalytic converter(s) that I wanted. So... a rather large and annoying compromise was made.




I bought a Davico setup from Rockauto. As soon as the boxes were opened, I was in serious regret. These are pretty terrible looking. The welds aren't much better.

Despite my buyer regret and a $600+ dollar hole in my pocket, I decided to keep them. Part of the reason was this.....




My old set was in really bad shape. And at least this new set will be quiet, unlike some of the other aftermarket ones. I will not use the new ones very long and will either have something fabricated with a high heat metal substrate or wait for RX7.com opens back for business.

I sanded and painted the new set.








I should have ground off the welding blobs..... . I will bake these later and install after I clear my fuel line of way to much premix. I also will partially use the old ones to get the car to idle better. I really don't want to trash a new set with my poor tuning abilities.

A nice side effect is that these new cats can be saved for if and when my county starts doing emissions or I need a quieter exhaust for a short time. Over all, I am not pleased but this will have to do for now.

 

While the cats were drying, I installed the heat shields.





I broke two screws during disassembly and use some aftermarket ones. The picture is missing one and one is blak. I will add the missing one and paint them grey. These sheilds are pretty messed up but it is bettee than melted carpet and shoes.

I added the Y pipe back in and installed the cleaned/treated ground strap to the chassis. I scraped the paint, added no-ox and put it behind the rubber muffler mount.






As you can tell, I added the mufflers back in at some point, I forgot when.

 

For those of you reading along and have done this work before, you might be asking, "why did he add this stuff back in when the rear bushings in the sub-frame and diff need realigned?". Well... I made the executive decision to not try my luck with the bushings. I have a second sub frame and I will get it sandblasted and powder coated. After that I will get competition bushings. This will happen with most parts in the future. I will move to an aftermarket or Mazda comp bushing in another few years hopefully. I just want a mostly stock car before I start blindly modding things.

Next I started to work on the rear e brake setup. One side is tighter than the other. despite my best efforts to correct the issue. it persists. I will need to consult the FSM to finish the tightening process.

I do have a leak at the rear brake block so, I tightened the new line connections and I will keep my fingers crossed.

I only finger tightened some of the suspension in the rear last year, it was time to torque it down. All went well until I got to the axles. I bought all new JIS hardware for most everything in the rear. I bought flange nuts with lock washers. There were not enough space for both. Off came the lock washers. The flange nuts do not have the rough back for locking so, these will do for the short term. I might just get a shallow non-flange nut and a lock washer though. I like the flange with the rough back better though.





As I torqued the one side that didn't have good e brake tightening, the axle spun so... I used a wrench brace wedged on the nuts and the diff mount. Not a great idea but it worked. You can see the nuts screwed on the axle deeper without the locking washer.




I worked about 10 hours on the exhaust and rest of this underneath work because I was working slowly and did some yard work on a very warm Saturday. I did feel pretty stiff the next day from laying on cardboard and concrete all day but it was well worth the effort.

I need to plot an awesome way forward now. I will probably add the old exhaust and start figuring out the low and uneven idle. Then add the new stuff on and test. Pulling off the UIM and LIM without fixing as many problems as I can before the UIM and LIM is removed is a recipe for disaster.

I will try a smoke test, vacuum pressure test and as many FSM tests as needed to correct the issue. If that doesnt work, it is likely an issue with the throttle body, LIM, UIM, injectors and any stuff impossible to reach without taking it off. Since I need to get to the injectors, it will come off anyway.

 

Not many picture this time. It will be a text wall for the most part. I bolted the mufflers to the Y pipe with standard sized bolts from Tractor Supply. I should have bought grade 8 but did grade 5. I bought the cheaper gaskets for the Y pipe. I used the more metal ones before and they rusted to the pipe. I decided on the cheap gaskets and high temp exhaust paste.



I forgot to add lock washers so, the two permanent connections will need washers added later. I temporarily added the old cats back on without gaskets or sealer. It was now time to start the car.

I started the car with the old cats installed and it hit the accelerated warmup as usual and bogged out and died. I tried again and I feathered the throttle long enough to get the engine to not die per usual. Once the accelerated warmup is completed the car always goes into low idle and dies. This seemed worse than normal this day. With the engine constantly stopping, getting this incredibly lumpy sounding engine to full operating temp would be unnecessarily difficult. So, I decided to use the throttle cable as a helper to raise the idle some. I decided to go with 1,100 all the way to warmup. I thought that the needle in the dash needed to be at half... I was wrong. It goes to about 1/4 of the way up when warm. It ran very poorly, worse than what I remembered. Just for kicks, I decided to get out the timing light. This where it got very weird. The engine was running on just the leading #1 coil. The others were not firing at all. I researched some here on the site and @RETed stated that if you partially remove the coil wires, it will cause the coil to arc to the wire. I did that to the #2 leading without much difference in idle but the timing light did read it was working now.... very interesting??? This was a very weird issue. Now when I went to the #1 trailing, the engine RPM instantly jumped and the very rough idle stabilized better. I tested all wires and they all now worked. I then lowered the idle with the cable and waited for a full warmup.

I used the two light method to set the tps and also monitored with a DMM. Once that was done, I loosened the throttle cable and started the car. Besides the slight stumble or possible misfire this car always had, it ran better than it has in a while. I will never go back to the Ohm method, I tried that years ago with this car and I never was able to get it to work. I ran out of time so, this was all I could do that day.

The next day I checked fluids and topped off the oil. After the oil cooler t-statr opened the oil need topped off a little less than a quart? it seems a little low considering the size of the cooler and the lines. i will check again later. I started the car cold and it held idle for the first time ever since I owned this car 20+ years ago, what a relief!!! The TPS settled a bit and needed set again. During the process I noticed that the lights would flicker and the relays would flicker as well. I had heard this before with the key turned and never figured out what it was. After very little searching again, i discovered the TPS connector was the culprit. Time to properly pull apart and clean the connector.




That's pretty bad so, I started to use some elbow grease and ScotchBright... the lug just fell off the the wire.




Fortunately for me, I had an extra TPS on my other engine. I installed the other one on the engine and did the set procedure... no more flickering. Good enough for now... time for the smoke test... hopefully I will find some leaks and fix the lumpy idle.

 

I did the smoke test with surprising results. I used a cheap Amazon one that only work 8 minutes or less at a time. I found one... yes one... leak on the engine??? Surely with such a bad idle there would be more. Perhaps with the vacuum test I did, it was only a bit low, I should have known. Considering the idle was so lumpy, it is hard to tell if the gauge reads accurately. I ran the test until the smoke came out of the intake past the filter. I need to smoke it again with the engine warm. Maybe, I will have different results. The leak that i did find was at the ACV, right where the sensor screws into the body, the only part thhat I didn't re-seal.... This all needs to come apart again to remove the UIM and LIM so... not that much of a bad thing. I suppose the smoke machine paid for itself. This leak would have been very difficult to diagnose.

With the smoke test, I assume that you can't test the EGR for leaks or the secondary throttle setup. I did somewhat check the double throttle setup a little, it does stick some, as does the entirety of throttle body linkage. Setting the idle when warm, I need to bump the throttle to get it to settle in. Other times it will just relax on it's own. It makes it very difficult to set the idle. During this process of checking the secondary throttle plates, I found this on my extra engine....?

In the car.....


Extra engine....


I did some searching and there is little about the other style secondaries. I thought both of my engines were 87's???? I like the extra linkage one a bit better. Any advise here as to which one is better would be greatly appreciated. The one on the runnung engine surprisingly holds vacuum, at least on a not so good test.

I really got some anxiety after this and started to think how incredibly stupid I have been for not doing a proper compression test. Could I have one apex seal on a rotor bad causing a bad idle?...... maybe.
I would not think such a small leak would cause such a stumble at idle. So... I ordered a DIY compression tester from Australia.

In the meantime I realized that when I did a non-rotary compression test, I did not hold in the gas pedal. . That is embarrassing.... next is to acknowledge your mistakes and move on. I did another very basic compression test without holding the button in and got about 95 per rotor. That is at least one rotor face at 95, not the 120 I foolishly got before. I thought that 120 was a bit high for an engine with 118,000 miles.....
When corrected for altitude, the new test increased from 95 to 98. Now considering the cranking speed is not 250, one rotor face per rotor is likely close to 100, hopefully, fingers crossed.

I am not sure why I got this far without doing this properly? This mistake is so incredibly dumb.... live and learn, I suppose. If I need to pull my engine, it will be of my own doing so.... we'll see????

The one issue that I had when testing sensors at the beginning of this journey at the ECU, was the relief solenoid. So.... next is to do a smoke test with the car warm and to check for any difference from cold. Then check the FSM for a solenoid test and hook up the test lights to the ECU. Then, I should be ready to take off the LIM and UIM. Even if the engine needs a rebuild, taking off the top of the engine will make removal easier so... it will come off anyway.

 

For a bit of humor to cap off these posts. I forgot to add this...

While looking for smoke, I found an unused connector under the termowax area?? Confused, I traced it as far as I could with no good results. So, I thought about when removing the injectors on this side and adding the new O2 sensor.

I then disconnected the 02 sensor wire and traced it to the bell housing. I found my missing ground wire to the firewall.

The other wire was the 02 wire. I didn't see two connectors when I did the injectors and the 02 sensor so, when I hooked up the sensor, I just used the one that I saw that was easily available. I thought that the fit seemed a bit off.

I was not upset...at all. All I could do was laugh and be happy I found the mistake now.

With the throttle body, LIM and UIM off, I hopefully would have caught my blunder then, too.

 

Where to start. I have been slacking posting progress. Some wins, some losses and most important.... progress.

I am looking ahead in this project to reinstalling my fender so, considering I am not a body man, the cost of fixing the front bumper id is a bit pricey and the first person I called did not want to work on just a fender,he wanted the entire car. I then started to look for a fender and found one 75 miles away for $125. I drove to get the fender and realized that I forgot to ask about any damage. Sweating bulllets I got there and received the fender with the trim and the front signal light too, that's a win. I also got an inner fender for that price too. I think I have an extra so, I gave it back to them. Now... I can remember if I have two or one. At a quick glance, the arctic silver fender looked almost perfect, surprisingly. After having it home and being able to see the fender in better lighting, there is a dig in the fender where it flare out. This repair will likely cost more than the one that I already have. The good news is that it is OEM and has the bottom textured section intact unlike my aftermarket one. I will come back to this later......

I was curious and gave my car a drink of water through the vacuum system pressure sensor hose. It seemed to get something out of the engine and the smoke quickly dissipated. I gave up and went on to try to find the sticking idle with a miss. I started to think about spark plugs... I did not want to foul a set of new plugs tuning this car. Out of frustration, I installed then and.... the idle was mush better, it still had a miss though and the idle still would stay at 1,100 and settle after I tapped the throttle repeatedly. I then realized after reading the replacement frequency for the plugs is way more often for rotaries, especially the non-platinum ones. The plugs had about 30,000 miles on them.

The only other thing that I found is that the BAC after I finally get the idle to settle from 1,1000 to 750 and a little lower, the 12v power from the ECU would turn off. I removed it and applied 12v and cleaned the BAC... it was actually very clean. The seal does leak just a little though. I have an extra on my spare engine and tested it, it sealed perfectly! So, based on the threads i read, I cleaned it while applying 12v. Well, it now had a massive leak... I continued to clean with carb cleaner while applying 12v. This was a gigantic mistake...... Not only will I recommend not cleaning a BAC that clicks and seals perfectly. I will vigorously not recommend cleaning with carb cleaner while turning it on and off. I must have sparked the connection with the BAC in my hand covered in carb cleaner and it burst into flames!!! along with my hand and my garage floor. I tossed the BAC toward the door opening and extinguished my hand, I then found a large rag to cover the fire on the floor. All is good except a trashed BAC. It is kind of funny now to me, it could have ended much worse. I don't have a plan for the BAC and I just reinstalled the old one.

I did install my spare ECU and I never did find the issues and figured that the issues were in the throttle body and the primary injectors. So, I decided to but a cheap scope to put in the spark plug holes. I did the water cleaning again, this time with a full gallon and took before and after shots.





Blurry but not much if any cleaner on the rotor faces. Had it worked, my engine might have been worse off anyway. I will not do this again. Some engines will fail with aggressive cleaning. I did notice that the edge where the plug fires? is cleaner on the rotor face. I am not sure if this is normal or not??




I checked to see if the rotors had all three of the apex seal intact and those were there so... I moved on.