rx7sR1

I am the proud owner of a 1986 GXL that my father gave to me for my birthday. The car was running great after we droped a rebuilt engine into it and it felt real strong but one day it started sputtering when i was driving it and then i pulled it in my drive way and it stalled and wouldnt start. I went out the next day and it started for about ten minutes and died i cranked it for about 20 min and it finally sputtered i gave up. Today i ripped out the fuel pump and replaced the strainer now it starts and revs for about ten seconds dies but then it will start right back up and do the same thing. If anyone knows wat it is please help

Wargasm

Do you have the service manual? If not, get that. I have a *.pdf version of it if you like...

There are pretty much two things at work here to make the fuel pump run.

1) The circuit opening relay. This is active when you turn the key. It makes sure the pump runs while you crank.

2) Once that is done, there is a switch built into the air flow meter that will only let the pump run if there is a minumum amount of airflow.

If you have a very large vacuum leak, it can make it so that the air flow meter won't stay open enough to activate this switch and the car dies... just an idea (happened to me once!)

Now that I've told you that, you can guess that the first place I'd start is to see if it's a fuel pressure problem. If you look near your air pump, you can locate the main wiring harness. Look on there near that area for a unplugged 2 prong connector. Mine is yellow in the middle with a black rubber coated outside. Yours may or may not look like that. This is the fuel pump jumper. If you connect a small wire between those two terminals, it tells the car, "RUN THE FUEL PUMP NO MATTER WHAT" (with the key in the ON position).

So if you can find that... connect a wire between them and then turn the key to ON. You should hear a fairly quiet "water noise" like a toilet filling up as the fuel circulates through the lines. Now go start the car (leave the wire in there!).

If it starts and runs OK, you are well on your way to solving the problem.

If you connect the wire and do NOT hear the fuel circulating, you may have a bad pump or bad wiring or something like that. More investigation is needed.

If the pump is running the whole time, but car still dies... it might be a massive vacuum leak making it not want to run... or maybe the injectors aren't firing right... or maybe the fuel filter is totally clogged.... again, more investigation needed.

Could you try to jumper the fuel pump test connector like I outlined above and tell us if the pump is running when it dies? That might help us get to the bottom of this.


Regards,
Brian




P.S.

Not to totally scare you, but my 87 did the same thing when it trashed the rotor and stationary gear bearings inside the engine. It would run more or less OK for about 5-10 min, then die once everything heated up. There WAS a knocking/clunking sound coming from inside the engine, so I don't think this is your problem since you don't mention it....

rx7sR1

if i press the gas the engine will die even sooner but i havent tried to do that thing to my air flow meter so im going to get off here and go try it i will let u know if it works

rx7sR1

well i jumpered my fuel pump and it started right up an ran. I took the wire out and it still ran so i turned my car off and the car started right back up and kept running. the car when i first started it was smoking and filled my dads 27 x 34 polebarn with smoke so i backed the car out and it was feeling fine and after about 4 min the car was running normal. I decided to get some injector cleaner and gas so i ran up the street to the gas station. and on the way my car was missing realy bad? On the way home it started smoking again and i turned on to my street and my coolant lite came on so i pulled in my driveway and turned the car off opened my hood and a cloud of smoke poofed out so i decided that i have a radiator leak but i havent fixed that yet. thanks any way
-Aaron