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After a fatefully positive test drive in a 1st gen a few months ago, and lots of reading on the rx7club forum and scouring classifieds, I finally decided not to pursue an E28 BMW at this time, and pulled the trigger on "Kaylee", my 1985 GSL:
I bought her from the 2nd owner. CA car. Passed smog, NOX was close to the limit but the rest of the test criteria were less than half of the limit. The car is equipped with AC and power steering, though the AC system has been empty for a while. 251,000 mi on chassis, motor rebuild at 180,xxx
Not only is this the first rotary engine I've owned, it's also the first carburetor I've owned. And, the car is 6 years my senior.
Like my first Japanese sports car, "Melody", the '91 NA 300zx you see pictured in the background, I'm not starting out with any grandiose plans for modification, but I'm sure I'll start picking at things that "could be better" until I can't call the car stock anymore. Though I anticipate that keeping the car SMOG legal will be the priority.
I'll list the issues I know about that I want to fix, if anyone can point me to the best article on this site for tackling the problem, that'd be great!
(0) TURN SIGNAL LEVER: The lever/switch doesn't seem to be properly fastened to the steering column; you can wiggle the lever and feel the whole assembly move, the wiper stalk moving on the other side of the column. I'm hoping this is just a missing screw.
(1) STEERING: The car definitely has quite a bit of "wonder steer", At speed about 3 inches of play total. However there is more play turning right than left, so I suspect the car needs an alignment (at the moment, both my '91 300zx and my '15 Golf need alignments too... kind of wishing I could afford the equipment to do them myself). I've looked into the power steering box adjustment, but I think I should replace my tie rod arms and idler arm first, so I've ordered the parts. Plus, once they're installed, I'd need an alignment anyway, so it's a logical first step.
(2) BRAKES: The car does seem to have some rotor warp, as low speed gentle braking creates a distinct GRAB-letgo-GRAB-letgo feeling, and there is pedal pulsation during firmer stops. Pedal feel is excellent and braking performance isn't too bad, so I think pads & rotors will do.
QUESTION: do you need a hydraulic bench press to replace the front rotors on a GSL??? or is that only if you are replacing the wheel bearings?
(3) SHOCK ABSORBERS: I'll be able to tell better with new brakes, proper steering, and proper alignment, but I think the front left shock may be worn, it doesn't always seem to fully dampen the rebound. Im used to heavier, multi-link suspension setups so sometimes it's hard to know what handling skittishness is as designed, and what may be a sign of a failing component.
(4) ELECTRICAL: There's some weird stuff going on with the car's headlights. The headlight switch powers on the tail lights, corner lights, and dashboard lights, but the headlights were bypassed to a rocker switch installed in the dash below the radio. I don't even think they're going through the relay. They stay on when the headlights are flipped down if the switch is left on. I'm hoping that the relay went out, and the person who installed the switch in the dash mistakenly thought it was a bad headlight switch ($$$) rather than just a relay ($). The high beams activate when pulling the turn signal stalk back (blink mode), but not when it's clicked forward (continuous on). This may be problematic as I live where there are no streetlights at all. I hope some FB wiring guru can give me guidance.
Also the radio has no power, but I think that's just the fuse, the prior owner said it was working a few years ago when she last used the car regularly.
(5) WHEELS/TIRES: I like the look of the + wheels, and I'm very weary of aftermarket wheels (The 18" Velox wheels I had on the 300zx, I bent 4 of them in a 2 year period, now she's got 17" Enkei's, because the stock wheels wont fit over the 350z brakes up front). I've never given much credence to people complaining about sidewall flex negatively impacting handling, until I got this car. The fact that I can lean onto the car and watch it wiggle back and forth, watching the wheels stay put relative to the body, the amount of sidewall flex becomes apparent. I like the Enkei 92 look, but I'll likely look for custom steelies from Diamond Racing wheels to save money and ensure the wheels DONT BEND on my commute.
Speaking of my commute- I bought a house on one of my favorite driving backroads, and haven't done nearly as much "pleasure" driving since, but my commute is all tight twisty stuff, so its blurred the line between commuting and fun driving
I'm not a drag racing/performance guy. I like the experience of driving a good car down a good road, and the goal of my car collection is to curate that aesthetic experience. I've always thought my first rotary would be the very compelling RX-8, since 9k rpm, the FC is too close in spirit to my 300zx, and the FD, well apart from being crazy $$$$ it's also ugly to my eye, though I don't doubt it is the most technically remarkable car Mazda's ever built for the mass market. The GSL-SE in Forza 4 won me over, and I did test drive a GSL and a GSL-SE. I felt like the SE's power bump wasn't that big of a deal, and the 12A engine just had a more mechanical, effervescent quality to it that I enjoyed more. So yes, I turned down a GSL-SE for a GSL, albeit for about $800 less and with a full service history (GSL-SE owner was a missing person, was being sold from a tow lot). Ultimately, FB means no redundancy in my collection, plus I've never owned a car less than 3000 lbs before.
I fix my own cars unless its body work or under warranty. I'm eager to connect to the RX-7 community, which seems significantly less packed with smog-test-station-bribing dyno-testing loud-turbo-blow-off-valve-installing power junkies than the Z32 community.
Yeah it really seems like it was loved- the second owner had it for the last 22 years and 133k mi. It definitely needs the attention I mentioned above, but also the cooling system doesn't seem to perform fully?
Most of the time its fine, or even running cool. But if I get stuck behind a slow driver up a steep windy road, and spend 5 minutes in 2nd gear between 3000 and 5000 rpm, the engine gets really hot. I pull over if the needle swings to the first tick past where it's supposed to be, which is about 80% of the way to the hot side of the gauge. I had to pull over yesterday and I just opened the hood let the car idle for a good 10 minutes and the temp came back down to where it should be.
I'm figuring its the water pump, fan clutch, radiator scale, or thermostat (because the system holds pressure). And since flushing the coolant is the first step and a thermostat costs next to nothing, I'll probably replace the thermostat. I'm just going to have to figure out how you ensure no air is trapped in the system on this engine when you refill the coolant, I'm not sure how to do that
(4) ELECTRICAL: There's some weird stuff going on with the car's headlights. The headlight switch powers on the tail lights, corner lights, and dashboard lights, but the headlights were bypassed to a rocker switch installed in the dash below the radio. I don't even think they're going through the relay. They stay on when the headlights are flipped down if the switch is left on. I'm hoping that the relay went out, and the person who installed the switch in the dash mistakenly thought it was a bad headlight switch ($$$) rather than just a relay ($). The high beams activate when pulling the turn signal stalk back (blink mode), but not when it's clicked forward (continuous on). This may be problematic as I live where there are no streetlights at all. I hope some FB wiring guru can give me guidance.
Also the radio has no power, but I think that's just the fuse, the prior owner said it was working a few years ago when she last used the car regularly.
Update: So I've realized that the FB doesn't have a headlight relay, and all the power goes through the wiper stalk. When I take off the steering column surround, I'll see how damaged the switch is. If I can get it secured in place, and find a way to wire up an aftermarket headlight relay to a working circuit (like for the interior lights, or headlight motors), I may be able to reuse the switch, otherwise it's off to eBay.
Also- I found that the fuse for the radio was missing- I tried to replace it and it fell out of the terminal block- there were no terminals in that spot, no metal contacts! So I figured they were pushed in and I'd have to remove the block...
... until I realized that the faceplate wasn't fully attached on the radio- and then the radio turned on! So it's not wired through the fuse block.... I hope it's fused...
05-30-17, 06:57 PM
Happy to finally Join the Mazda Rotary Family!
So it's not wired through the fuse block.... I hope it's fused...
