New to RX7 and need help!
01-14-04, 09:36 PM
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New to RX7 and need help!
My daughter and I got a 'project car' from ebay. It is a 1986 RX7 with a problem. The text of the problem from the previous owner follows. My question is, is the URL he references a good repair procedure for the problem and are the parts listed correct for the work. Finally, is it reasonable that this is the problem or was it just a guess. Thanks for any help. By the way, if you want to see the ebay listing it is at http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...K%3AMEBWN%3AIT
Jeff
"You are bidding on a 1986 Mazda RX-7. I bought this car about a year ago, and it had a coolant O-ring on the way out. The car was down for about 2 months while I and a friend of mine did an engine swap. I bought a freshly rebuilt Series 5 engine, built up from the rotor and rotor housings from an 89 GTU core. All the seals were replaced, and all atkins rotary seals were used. I put on the S4 front cover obviously, so that I could keep the mechanical OMP on it, and I took out the OBV and put in a oil pill, so that it lubricates better. The engine has 1850 miles on it. In the process of building it the bearing slipped down, it held for a while, but eventually spun over. Obviously I was not aware of this untill it spun over, and the front rotor lost compression because of the way that bearing positioned it. All you need to do is pull of the front cover, and pull out the front stack, and replace the spacer and bearing. The narrative on how to do this, and how this happens is found here: http://mazdatrix.com/faq/pulley.htm. I would fix it and sell it, but I'm tired of working on it, I've put over 3500 into the car total. All you gotta do is fix what I said above, and it will be running perfectly. I did a compression test a few hundred miles ago before the problem occured, it was nearing three consistant 100 on the front and rear."
Jeff
"You are bidding on a 1986 Mazda RX-7. I bought this car about a year ago, and it had a coolant O-ring on the way out. The car was down for about 2 months while I and a friend of mine did an engine swap. I bought a freshly rebuilt Series 5 engine, built up from the rotor and rotor housings from an 89 GTU core. All the seals were replaced, and all atkins rotary seals were used. I put on the S4 front cover obviously, so that I could keep the mechanical OMP on it, and I took out the OBV and put in a oil pill, so that it lubricates better. The engine has 1850 miles on it. In the process of building it the bearing slipped down, it held for a while, but eventually spun over. Obviously I was not aware of this untill it spun over, and the front rotor lost compression because of the way that bearing positioned it. All you need to do is pull of the front cover, and pull out the front stack, and replace the spacer and bearing. The narrative on how to do this, and how this happens is found here: http://mazdatrix.com/faq/pulley.htm. I would fix it and sell it, but I'm tired of working on it, I've put over 3500 into the car total. All you gotta do is fix what I said above, and it will be running perfectly. I did a compression test a few hundred miles ago before the problem occured, it was nearing three consistant 100 on the front and rear."
01-15-04, 02:07 PM
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To answer your question, yes http://mazdatrix.com/faq/pulley.htm is a good procedure to repair that.
If the front rotor got positioned oddly, keep in mind that the tolerances are within a few thousandths of an inch, so it would've easily contacted the rotor housing (needs a new rotor housing and rotor, along with apex seals corner plugs and side seals/springs). Actually, it probably needs this anyways since he claims to have lost compression on the front rotor.
His statment is setting-off my BS detector. Sounds like a total guess to me. Loss of compression and the front torrington bearing have nothing in comon (well, except that both usually mean something needs replacing).
If it were that easy to fix, it's only a 2hr job to fix that while the engine is still in the car. As a bare-minumum fix (assuming he IS telling the truth), you need a new torrington bearing, spacer, thrust plate, thrust washer and probably a new stationary gear with (oil) bearing installed. That's not, however, going to fix the compression problem. If he rebuilt the engine and it went out after 1850 miles (most likely not true; torrington bearings just don't fall out of the sky, and if it was wedged between the spacer and the stationary for 1850mi, it did some SERRIOUS damage), it may have destroyed the oil pump from the metal filings in the oil.
If the front rotor got positioned oddly, keep in mind that the tolerances are within a few thousandths of an inch, so it would've easily contacted the rotor housing (needs a new rotor housing and rotor, along with apex seals corner plugs and side seals/springs). Actually, it probably needs this anyways since he claims to have lost compression on the front rotor.
His statment is setting-off my BS detector. Sounds like a total guess to me. Loss of compression and the front torrington bearing have nothing in comon (well, except that both usually mean something needs replacing).
If it were that easy to fix, it's only a 2hr job to fix that while the engine is still in the car. As a bare-minumum fix (assuming he IS telling the truth), you need a new torrington bearing, spacer, thrust plate, thrust washer and probably a new stationary gear with (oil) bearing installed. That's not, however, going to fix the compression problem. If he rebuilt the engine and it went out after 1850 miles (most likely not true; torrington bearings just don't fall out of the sky, and if it was wedged between the spacer and the stationary for 1850mi, it did some SERRIOUS damage), it may have destroyed the oil pump from the metal filings in the oil.
01-16-04, 05:15 PM
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Thanks for the help and advice. The guy told me that he only drove the car (slowly) for about 10-20 minutes back home after (he felt) 'the bearings spun over'. He never lost full compression. In other words, it took 1825+ miles before 'the bearings spun over', which is actually discussed on that URL. He thought that for that short a time no damage would have been done to the rotor housing and rotor and seals, though it has been sitting for a couple of months in his driveway. Assuming that there are no filiings in the oil is it possible/probable that all that is needed are the parts identified on that URL? My problem is that I am up for a challange but I am not familiar enough with this engine such that when I take it apart to do the repair specified on the URL I do not know if I will even recognize any other damage that was done. Can you provide an opinion and some other suggestions on how to check for further damage? Thanks Jeff
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