Broken Apex Seal During Rebuild
 

Hello, I am building a 6 port street port 13b from a GSL-SE for my 1985 GSL. I used an Atkins rebuild kit and the Mazdatrix rebuild CD. After assembling the motor I turned it over with a breaker bar in the direction that the engine normally rotates. The first rotation sounded and felt good. Then it got harder to turn but went back to normal. I turned it over 3 more full rotations and it felt good. I then looked into the exhaust ports and found a broken piece of apex seal. It is the small part of the apex seal and is broken at the bottom. I'm going to open up the motor again and fix this but does anyone know what I did wrong so I can prevent this from happening again.

Thanks.

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It appears that the corner piece of the apex seal fell out during the build.

Front or rear rotor?

You can super glue them to the seal prior to assembly however that can make it a little tricky to get the springs in place.

Use plenty of Vaseline to hold stuff in place.

Be very careful when lifting the eccentric to slip over the middle iron because it is easy to lift the rotor or housing. That's probably when this happened.

yep, incorrect assembly. the springs can put tension on the end boots that can cause them to shoot out like small projectiles if you do not use a medium weight lube or vaseline to at least keep them from popping completely out when jostled. usually this happens when stacking the center iron because you are wiggling the rotor while lifting up on the eccentric shaft and working blindly. i always peek between the plates with a flashlight to be sure the apex seal boots are still in place before lowering the center iron down completely.

you also likely have a damaged rotor and housing now, but it is the price for learning versus paying a shop.