The Ghost

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Old 08-24-13 | 10:26 PM
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The Ghost

Hello all. New rotary guy here, intro up yonder.
https://www.rx7club.com/introduce-yo...-ways-1040598/

Here's the car. 1991 Turbo. Best I can tell, it was originally black, then blue, now this pearl white.
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It has some mystery twin muffler on it that flows very nicely and sounds sexy and someone was nice enough to remove that factory spoiler.
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The engine seems original and purrs and roars nicely leading me to think the 80,000 K on the clock might not be rolled over.
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The interior is surprisingly complete, but with the expected warping and breaking of the inferior plastic they used.
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So far I have figured out it has a full exhaust up to the turbo, a blow off valve, a boost controller, a boost meter, a high flow filter, a turbo timer, coil over suspension and a nice jingly twin plate clutch. I think that is a TBO nose too.
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The first thing I did was remove the boost controller and restore it to factory boost levels. I ordered some new Defis to watch my oil pressure and temp and water temp.

The AC works, but I hear the pump knocking so I need to get that looked at. When running wire under the dash I put my hand right through the steel, well, used to be steel behind the dash likely up into the wiper bay. Going to have to look at that!

I just picked up a new fuel filter since the one on the car looks original. The shifter is really sloppy and hangs up so I am guessing she needs some new shifter bushings. No biggie. I'll do that when I change the oil in the tranny and diff.

This is not really a build thread. I don't intend to "build" anything, just fix the things that break and take care of the old girl. I have a Nissan that is going to go full retard and I enjoy the irony that my "normal car" is a 22 year old rotary.


Last edited by this Nissan sounds funny; 08-24-13 at 10:30 PM.
Old 08-25-13 | 12:36 AM
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Car looks good, what front bumper is that?
Old 08-25-13 | 05:17 AM
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Based on the sighting of another like it so labeled and the very informative thread I just found,
https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generati...thread-994896/ it would seem to be a TBO type II

Old 08-25-13 | 10:40 AM
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91 Turbo, RARE!
Good to see you will be keeping it normal!
Old 08-25-13 | 02:42 PM
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i like it too, nice bumper, Mazdaspeed wheels, full exhaust, most of us would just stop there...

must be a base model to not have the side skirts
Old 10-07-13 | 03:51 AM
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O noes! It brokeded!



Sitting at a stop, clutch in, start to release and the car jerks violently forward and I stall it. I do occasionally goof the slip on the twin plate, but this was different. Pedal is on the floor with no interest in coming back up.

I check the operating bits under the hood and there is fluid in the reservoir and no leaks.



All I can think is the piston in the master is jammed at the bottom since the operating rod does not touch it at full drop.

Oh well. I was already leery of that old setup looking all tired and sketchy. I guess I was right to be suspicious. Parts will take a week to get here because of the typhoon so I will have to leave it parked at work.

I guess my workers can get a class in hydraulic clutch system replacement in the parking lot next week.
Old 10-11-13 | 06:02 AM
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Slave cylinder puked its guts out. We back on the road now!
Old 10-11-13 | 11:12 AM
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Your Nissan looks funny....
Old 10-11-13 | 08:20 PM
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Originally Posted by invinciblejets
Your Nissan looks funny....
You are more right than you know.

1989 Nissan 180sx:NICOclub Ride of the Month | themadscientist NICO Club



Aw, dam, there's my old FC in the background!
Old 10-12-13 | 10:10 PM
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It's actually lucky that this happened. While replacing the slave cylinder I noticed a torn heater hose under the oil filter that could go at any moment. That would have been a serious problem. I was planning on flushing the cooling system and now I have a really good reason to.
Old 10-12-13 | 11:24 PM
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Winnie the pooh... and LOTS of gauges....

*mind blows*

*blink blink blink*
Old 11-15-13 | 03:24 AM
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I feel like an FC owner now, here come the electrical gremlins!

First, the wipers have always gone slow and not properly parked, but the other day they wouldn't shut off! Banging on the switch eventually got them to stop. Going to have to get in there and resolder all those connections and check it for corrosion.

Now the fun one. On the way home today I look down and I am doing 90 at 0 RPMs. WTF? Then I notice the only gauges that are working are the speedo and fuel gauge. I am concerned since I can't watch my vitals so I cross my fingers that I'm not pushing high temps or low pressures and get home.

I pull into the driveway and put the windows up.... I said I put the windows up. WTF? Rain clouds are stewing above as I try to troubleshoot this silly ****. I check all my fuses, none are blown, but they are crusty and wet. I have a leak in the wiper tray for sure.

I pull the window switch and check for power, nope, nothing. Getting dark, clouds are looking pissed off, time to do some triage; get these windows up! I grabbed a battery out of the CBR and wired it to the switch. Those windows went up faster than they ever have!

I guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow.
Old 11-15-13 | 08:42 AM
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Proper RX-7 Grounding Procedures welcome
Old 11-15-13 | 03:40 PM
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I'll be under the dash today seeing if I am getting any power to the fuses in question in the first place. The fusebox appears to have had water dripping on it for a very long time and the fuses are cruddy and clouded up. It can't hurt to also drop in some fresh fuses just to be sure.
Old 11-23-13 | 03:12 AM
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So happy right now. I pulled all the fuses and shot some contact spray into the sockets. Turns out that after putting a multimeter on the suspect fuses and confirming under a bright enough light, the two responsible for the meters and the windows were popped. That window hauls *** up and down now with a clean socket and a fresh fuse!

I was so stoked I even washed and waxed it by hand which is something I never do. Ghost is a sexy bitch when he's all shined up.
Old 11-27-13 | 03:07 AM
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What's that whining noise? No child jammed up under the car. Oh no, is the throwout bearing failing? Crap. Wait, it gets louder around corners. Crank the wheel back and forth, yikes! That's the power steering pump! Oh noes!

Oh, look at that big puddle of power steering fluid in the driveway. Yup. I have a massive leak. Hopefully the pump hasn't been damaged running dry. I guess I'll be buying a new hose of hard line. I was going to be deep frying a turkey in the driveway tomorrow anyway so I guess I'll be wrenching while the turkey is cooking.
Old 11-27-13 | 08:07 AM
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Originally Posted by this Nissan sounds funny
So happy right now. I pulled all the fuses and shot some contact spray into the sockets. Turns out that after putting a multimeter on the suspect fuses and confirming under a bright enough light, the two responsible for the meters and the windows were popped. That window hauls *** up and down now with a clean socket and a fresh fuse!
The fuses were/are a symptom of your problem, not the cause.
Especially concerning the power windows, which have a well documented failure mode/weak point (the switches).

You've bought yourself some time but the problems will reoccur eventually.
Old 11-27-13 | 06:01 PM
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Oh, I know, the passenger window takes some wiggling still to run it up with the driver's switch. I plan to just replace both window switches.

If I recall, the problem there is they pass full power for the motors directly through the switches and the contacts get burnt, right?

I had a friend BITD who just had raw wires in the switch pocket and would essentially hot wire the window to run them up and down. I'm a little more sophisticated than that.

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Old 11-27-13 | 06:10 PM
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Originally Posted by this Nissan sounds funny
If I recall, the problem there is they pass full power for the motors directly through the switches and the contacts get burnt, right?
Exactamundo.
Relays are your friend here.
Old 11-27-13 | 06:35 PM
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I was joking with a buddy that I should just mount a set of old school distributor points in the durned thing! Any SA owners want to work on that mod with me?
Old 12-14-13 | 02:23 PM
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So, yeah, a power steering line popped a hole. Big mess, dry pump whine, choppy steering. I went to Mazda, no parts left. I might just go manual. I've never had to have power steering. I actually prefer the the feedback of manual steering once the car starts moving. Parallel parking sucks for sure, but I don't do that very much.

On a side note Ghost got a new little brother. They seem to get along famously.

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Old 12-15-13 | 01:15 PM
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Originally Posted by this Nissan sounds funny
On a side note Ghost got a new little brother. They seem to get along famously.
Very Nice! Exact two cars that would be in the front of my dream garage. 1 down 1 to go lol
Old 12-17-13 | 08:58 AM
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Good lookin car!
Old 01-28-14 | 09:45 AM
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I got to spend some time wrenching on the FC. Since the R coughed up its turbo the old rotisserie has been pulling all the weight around here. I wanted to get the car up on a lift and inspect the underside, change the oil, replace the fuel filter and get the sensor sandwich adapter for my gauges installed. I got a chuckle when I saw the lift maker's name.

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The fuel filter on the car was original equipment. I don't mean in that it was a Mazda filter, it was, but I think it was THE original filter Mazda put on it 21 years ago. It's brand new now!

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I normally use Mobil1, but since the rotary eats its oil I'll go with my old standby dino squeezins, Castrol GTX. I have migrated away from OE filters to these PIAA ones.

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And I screwed it onto a Greddy sandwich adapter plumbed with my temp and pressure sensors.

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It's confirmed, the wheels are Mazdaspeed. Knowing this, I want to keep them. They are pretty crusty so I'll have to have them cleaned up and repainted, perhaps gold.

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Those boingy shocks are Bilstein.

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I have an air pump, sure, but apparently it don't go nowheres.

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Old 01-28-14 | 09:46 AM
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Let's look for rust!
Oh my, that's not good. The rust has gotten so bad that the whole crossbar is detached from the frame rails behind the bumper.

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The frame horns are swiss cheese too.

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That rust hole goes all the way through.

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Got rot in the spare tire well.
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Oh, the engine member has some rust too. That's a bad thing.

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Somebody heavily undercoated this car at some point, though and that saved most of the unibody. If I can get it in the bodyshop in a few months I think it can be fixed no problem.


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