2nd Chance

iTrader: (1)

I want this to be a build/technical how-to thread for others to figure out how to do things for themselves as I have always wanted plain instructions on how to do the work but have never been able to figure out how. Or maybe I'm just terrible with the search feature.

Bought this car from the original owner with 89k on the frame and a motor swap done at the dealership at 65k in summer 2009. It was garage kept it's whole life and babied. The guy used synthetic oil too...

Then I got a hold of it and wrung it out, within the first month I torched the clutch and the tires. I changed the oil and kept it fueled, spark plugs and fuel filter but never really gave it the 20 year maintenance it needed. I also replaced the exhaust from the manifold back with a 2.5" straight pipe going to a 12" cherry bomb sticking out the rear bumper when the passenger side muffle rusted off. In 6 months I put 16k miles down and went through eight tires; then the transmission blew on me dropping first and second gear and she has sat ever since, I started it when I was home from school every few months just to keep it from seizing up.

The vehicle was sitting for some time on the side of the road in town, then was moved to my father's paved driveway for six months covered and then to the side of my garage in the mud on top of several tarps covered. I would clear out the leaves and dirt every time I came home to prevent dirt and moisture from building up.

Rust

Now, FINALLY, I am getting back to making some repairs. I purchased a replacement transmission from a guy near me a couple years ago and threw it in the trunk. I'm studying to be a technician and since I am graduating soon the school director allowed me to bring it in and fix it up. I'm not planning on doing anything crazy, no turbo or wide-body here, sorry, maybe on my next RX-7. Just some simple tweaks to "hone" the strengths the car already has. This will include:

Electric fan
Underdrive pulleys
A/C Delete???
Or R134a Conversion
New Alternator
Koyo dual pass radiator
HKS Intake
Racing Beat off road header
Racing Beat Vert lowering springs
Racing Beat front suspension track lowering kit
KYB GR-2 Shocks up front and Gas-A-Just rear
Urethane bushing kit all around
HPS brake pads
Resurfaced flywheel
New clutch disk, already burnt up another one.
New pilot bearing and seal
New throwout bearing
New front lower control arm bushing brackets
Turned rotors
RX-8 rear main seal
New front and rear transmission seals and tail shaft bushing
New shift boots dust seal and leather boot
New rear bumper
Herculine the bottom of the car black for rust prevention
Bead blast all control arms and cross members and paint them red or silver
Paint the transmission case red or silver
Replace power antenna mast with a "shark-fin" style spoiler
Upgrade all speakers from stock equipment to JL audio equipment
Upgrade the head unit
Custom built box for in between seats holding a JL Audio 8-10" woofer with JL Audio amp
Fix the typical wiper switch problem, mine only works on medium..
New black leather with grey velour/suede/alcantara seat covers
New floor mats with custom red "RX-7" stitching
Shampoo carpet
New shift ****
Convert cigarette lighter to USB port
S4 three spoke steering wheel, 'cause who needs airbags
Get new convertible tonneau cover
Replace front lip bump strip with...something
G35 mudflaps on the rear???
Upgraded headlights! I thought about the Sakebombs but $500-$700 is a lot for headlights
I saw some one on here who does LED tail light conversions also
Smooth the targa panel and paint it red like that guy on here with the body kit and cream colored car???
Replace the fuel cover and popper
Replace driver window switch assembly
Replace passenger side dash vent
Replace driver side door handle... one of the bolts broke

I have already purchased the transmission and rear main seals and tail shaft bushing, clutch disc, the HPS brake pads, Mazdatrix urethane bushing kit, shift boots and dust cap and sent the flywheel off to be resurfaced. Also already have the fuel door and popper, driver window switch and I think I still have the dash vent somewhere.

Removal of the transmission, clutch assembly, flywheel, cross members, drive shaft and heat shields is complete. I have installed the new seals and tail shaft bushing also. Cross members and heat shields have been scrubbed and cleaned and heat washed.

When I finally got it onto a lift and was able to look at the undercarriage I was pleased to see very little surface rust had set in and that all the lines and bushing, boots and covers were still in good shape as well. However, the driver side lower control arm bushing bracket had rusted out badly and I could tell where it was beginning to creep in on that side in particular. This MUST be stopped!

I'll post photos soon but since I am using a school computer the proxy will not allow me to upload them so I will have to do it from my phone.

Questions I have:

Is Seafoam safe for rotary engines?

I am having trouble aligning the tail shaft shift rail with the...forks... for the rails going into the transmission housing. Any advice or tricks?

2nd Chance

iTrader: (1)

Photos of the car when I first bought it, while it was sitting, getting ready to tow it, the flywheel and the transmission on the work bench.

The fuel door froze up on me and I had to break the old one to get it off, I have a new color matching one now. When the passenger side muffler rusted through and fell off I was pulling out of my driveway, praise God I wasn't going down the highway at 60mph! It rusted from the front side and ripped up part of the rear bumper. FYI My stepdad's 1968 V8 Mustang convertible is for sale, my 90 RX-7 convertible is not. The flywheel has some heat checking and a slight groove, gonna go ahead and get it resurfaced before I put the new clutch disc in.

By the way, if you can not find a 54mm socket and do not want to purchase one a 2 3/32 will also provide a very snug fit. I blasted that thing off with an old Ingersoll Rand impact gun and will retorque it to the prescribed 350 ft/lbs with a massive 650 ft/lbs rated 3/4 inch drive diesel torque wrench.

2nd Chance

iTrader: (1)

Decided to go with the Energy Suspension Hyper Flex RX-7 Master Set polyurethane bushing kit. It has all the same pieces + it's "graphite impregnated" and $35 cheaper.

Flywheel resurfaced, took off ten thousandths of an inch.

Cross members and mounts bead blasted.

Dust cover installed on shift lever. This wound up being a nasty process, I had to use some vise grips with a rag around the shift lever to twist it off and in the process shear it apart from the vibration damper inside, I am curious to see the effect this will have on the feel of the shifter. I plan to use some epoxy and rubber cement to seal the two pieces back together.

I wound up making a BIG mistake and knocked the roll pin from the shift rail and lodged it into the housing. Thank God I had another one because this looks to be irreparable damage with out some kind of serious tooling. Since I did this I had to remove the new tail shaft bushing and install it in the old housing.

I am going with black Chassis Coat instead of the Herculiner, should be here tomorrow. Hope to get that process started by next Wednesday when a spot in the body shop opens up.

Tomorrow I plan to finally get the whole thing together and take a look at the brakes. Brake pads should be here Monday. I hope to get a good look at the rotors and calipers as well.

Photos below.

2nd Chance

iTrader: (1)

Cross members before and after bead blasting.
Resurfaced flywheel.
Shot of underneath car rear.
RUST!

2nd Chance

iTrader: (1)

More rust on the passenger side.
Fuel door, popper and driver window switch.
Shift lever and shift lever innards after I removed it to replace the old dust cap that was torn up.
Rusty driver FLCA bracket

jstntlvr

Looks like it should be a nice build. Good luck with it all, I'll be watching

JTNWEvo

iTrader: (1)

I'm installing that bushing kit in my 89 soon, let us know how it goes!

2nd Chance

iTrader: (1)

Had a rough day Friday, I was going to put the housing back together and broke off a bolt in the bell... then as I was packing the old transmission it slipped and the gears to a chunk of flesh outta my finger and I proceeded to bleed from the door to the office to the sink. Got it bandaged up and decided to go for my flywheel. Had a fella in class who needed some experience try it, he messed up the key and he and my instructor then proceeded to try and force the flywheel nut on with an impact gun. After admitting defeat we removed the flywheel to reveal the mangled key.
End of day.

blame

yikes man

any damage to the keyway or flywheel nut threads on the e-shaft?

-sean

2nd Chance

iTrader: (1)

So after some rest and prayer I got back in the fight today. I came in took the old bell housing from the original transmission and finished cleaning it up & removed the piece of bolt from the other bell housing. My instructor filed down and smoothed out his flub job with the key and then I got flywheel installed.

Flywheel installation and torqueing:
I found that this is easiest to do with the key facing down, use some grease to hold it in the slot and gently slide the flywheel onto the eccentric shaft. It should go back fairly easily, I used light taps from a dead blow to insure it was fully seated, then I gave it a spin just to be sure it was on good. I used a machete style bar or steel with some holes drilled in it to brace the flywheel against the frame using one of the dowels and a bolt from the pressure plate then ran the 54mm (2 3/32 will also fit VERY snugly) bolt down with an impact gun until it would not go any further. I then used a Snap-on 650 ft/lb rated torque wrench to finish torqueing to the spec 350 ft/lbs. Pics below... sorry for the poor editing I'm using a cell phone here folks.

Clutch assembly installation and torqueing:
I used the plastic clutch alignment tool available from Mazdatrix to align my OEM Exedy clutch. After placing the pressure plate over the clutch disc I used three of the six bolts to hold it in place and rotated the tool around to find the circumference of the hole and once found I then rocked the tool up and down to find the dead center of the pilot hole. While holding the clutch plate dead center using this method I then slowly snugged down the three bolts until the disc was held in place, not firmly just secure enough to prevent it from slipping down. (This may seem like a waste of time but it will make the installation of the transmission MUCH easier because everything is lined right up. When done properly the clutch alignment tool should slip in and out of the clutch and pilot hole smoothly and easily with no more effort than the curling of your pinky.) With the disc secured I put in the other three bolts and ran them down snug as the first three and then proceeded to gradually work around the pressure plate a little at a time until they were all seated. I torqued to spec (25 ft/lbs) using a flywheel stopper and a 3/8" click type torque wrench.

I was going to replace the pilot bearing but upon inspection it looked to be in acceptable condition so decided to for go this part. However, I did notice that in the pilot hole it was clear that whoever worked on the vehicle for the previous owner used a rather unorthodox method to install the current one. When I went to lube up the pilot bearing I pulled out 4 needle bearings and thought to myself:
Great, what appeared to be a good pilot bearing was merely one waiting to show it's ruin.
This was not the case though, the previous mechanic had simply chiseled out the inner cage and used the new pilot bearing to shove the old one back.

Game plan for tomorrow:
Reassemble transmission case parts and prep for paint by pressure washing, really just going to focus on the bearing housing though obviously. (See photos below)
May take a look at the brakes. I am kind of at a holding point waiting for the body shop to rustproof the under body, until that is finished I don't want to jump into the brakes or control arms and then have a space open up all of a sudden while I am in the middle of a job.

2nd Chance

iTrader: (1)

I thoroughly checked everything out and praise the Lord the only thing damaged was the woodruff key itself. I don't think I'll be letting anyone else work on my car though. EVER.

blame

Ha ha well maybe not inexperienced classmates anyway.

I can't remember the last time someone else has worked on any of my vehicles

-sean

2nd Chance

iTrader: (1)

I sheared six teeth off the first gear on my countershaft in my old transmission, any body got a spare one of those laying around? Hahah.
Shot of the chassis paint flaking from the driver side engine bay, this is not ppresent on the passenger side, nor is the FLCA rusted.
Rust on the subframe, I would really like to get this take care of right now but am afraid I do not have enough time.
Flywheel and clutch assembly reinstalled!
Housings bead blasted!

2nd Chance

iTrader: (1)

Just a quick update:
Transmission assembled and sealed with RTV. Left to cure over the weekend and will start prepping for paint after I finish this timing chain job on an S-10.
Checked out the brakes, rotors are rusty but salvageable so I will be sanding them off real well and putting on the new Hawk HPS pads.
Tires delivered, mounted, balanced, and installed.
Removed the exhaust heat shield around the gas tank and a few exhaust hanger mounts I don't need for now.

Photos below

2nd Chance

iTrader: (1)

Photo 1: I set the transmission in between two work benches to keep it up right while putting on the bell housing. Yoy have to line up the shaft bearings, two dowels, and two shift rails before it will seat properly. I used assembly lube one the rails and bearings to aid in sliding them in. Once I had them all in place I applied a bead of RTV around the edge and carefully hammered it the rest of the way down. After this I set the case with the tail housing facing up on the work bench and used a flat screwdriver to hold the bearing housing off of the "separator plate" while installing another bead of RTV. Repeated this for the tail housing and then set it down and tightened all the bolts up nice and snug.

Photo 2: This is about the average condition of all my brake rotors, no grooves or cracks, just surface rust.

Photo 3: Brake pads and FLCA brackets from Mazdatrix came in.

Photo 4: Falken Ziex 912's installed and balanced. The yellow dot indicates the heavy spot in the tire and should be mounted by the valve stem.

Photo 5: Funny comic on the back of the Exedy clutch box. The Japanese are so crazy! Hahhahah

2nd Chance

iTrader: (1)

Got the FLCA bushings installed and got them painted, I'll get pics once I install them on the car. RLCAs removed, these were a real bear, I had to drop the whole rear end just to get them off, sent them off for paint also. Checked out the rear brakes and it ain't pretty, they were seized up and the pistons were lightly rusted, the dust seals are busted and the rotors are 3.5 mm under minimum thickness spec. Hoping to get a good set of front and rear calipers and rotors from a guy on this forum. Should receive them by the time I get the control arms back on and just in time to send it over for the rust proofing. Sending the transmission to be painted also this week.

Here's a photo of her on the operating table. Haha
The freshly painted cross members, it's hard to tell in the photo but they have a pretty cool hammered texture to them.
The RLCAs, got these bead blasted and will be painting them silver also.

88fc3sT2

iTrader: (1)

Where in KY are you? I'm up there for school right now.

Landon303

iTrader: (25)

Keep at it dude!!!! Love the bead blasting you'll be doing to the suspension, can never go wrong there, so much attention to detail

2nd Chance

iTrader: (1)

I am currently in Morganfield until I graduate in less than a month after that I will be moving back home to Danville which is a little less than an hour away from Lexington. Where do you attend school? What are you studying?

Thanks bud, that's an encouragement! I have this terrible perfectionist nature, just today while I was tinkering around with my car I was looking at my drive axles and hollered at my instructor.

"Hey, I can take these drive axles apart and bead blast 'em, right?!"
"NO! You're not doing anymore work on your car here! You've done more than you were supposed to already!"

Hahah! First thing I plan to do after I get another daily is drop the front and rear subframes, bead blast those and paint them like I have the other parts. I'm gonna have the prettiest underside you ever seen on an RX-7!

88fc3sT2

iTrader: (1)

Small school in Knott County, by Hindman. Alice Lloyd College

2nd Chance

iTrader: (1)

Maybe it's the car's revenge for driving it hard and putting it up wet for six months after having been garage kept and babied its whole life. Maybe it's my car's way of venting it's frustration after sitting neglected in the mud for so long after I destroyed it's transmission. Or maybe, just maybe its my incredible lack of grace with a wrench in my hand. Regardless of the cause, although its really all simply due to my own folly, this thing has got the best of me every step of the way it seems.

Regardless, I have trucked along daily. After a four day weekend I got the freshly painted control arms mounted with the new polyurethane bushing kit as well as the sway bars, the hubs are on also. I used some shoe goo to seal up a few small seam tears in the top before they got worse. Brake calipers are in the mail. Transmission should be done with paint tomorrow.

Here's a couple shots of the damage my car has done me: the first is when it sliced my finger open while carrying it, that was a bloody mess. The second is from today when I was tightening up a control arm bolt with a wrench. Praise God! I hardly even felt it. And that's not even all its done to me. Hahaha!

I'll get some more photos of the car up tomorrow.

blame

Holy **** man. Is your car's name Christine by any chance?

-sean

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Only a novice thinks the price of car work can be measured in hours or dollars, experience teaches that blood is the real price.

2nd Chance

iTrader: (1)

It's Roxy actually, hence the name.

+1 to that

blame

Lol I know, I was referring to a Stephen King book. Red car, named Christine, possessed by evil, has a taste for blood, murderous rampage ensues.

-sean