Hi My name is Brandon, I've now owned 3 Rx-7's (87 NA, 90 NA vert, and now my 80 SA22C. I've always loved the rx7 and my 87 was my first car 8 years ago. I am now learning to work on them and do everything myself. I bought my SA from the original owner who had it in storage for the past 10+ years. Now I'm going through the process of going over EVERYTHING, and trying to get this classic back on the road!

 

Hi Brandon. Welcome to RX7CLUB.
Sounds like a fun project.
Keep us posted on the progress!!
-Robert, Super Moderator.

 

Hey, Brandon - Thanks for the nice intro. For me, there is great satisfaction in learning to do the work yourself to get a neglected beauty back on the road. And then keeping it that way!

Best of luck to you.

 

Good luck to you and welcome!

 

Welcome to the forum! Love the older rx7s! Classy in their own special way you know!

 

Thanks for the welcome!!
I know this is going to be long but want to share all my progress.
Since I got it home I have turned the engine over by hand and it moves freely. I then checked compression (by listening) and sounded good with strong, even pulses on all sides of both rotors. I'll do a real compression test soon. I changed/flushed all the fluids, plugs, wires, distributor cap, and filters, and put a lil bit of reg oil down the carb with fresh gas in the tank (tank was bone dry) I tried to crank with no luck. I realized I wasn't getting fuel to the carb and the pump was bad. After a while of jumping off the work van and trying to pour small amounts of gas down the carb by hand and still no luck I turned to the ignition and realized that the ignition coils were wired wrong (thanks to a diagram I found on this site). After I got that fixed and checked the timing and started over again taking the plugs out, cleaning them and trying again pouring a small amount of fuel down the carb and it fired right up! Ohhhh the smile on my face
Due to temporary lack of funds, I started cleaning! I took out the interior, the seats, rear section, and carpet and cleaned the engine bay, as well as going under the car and poking around with a screwdriver. Amazingly the carpet and interior looked nice as well as rust and the suspension components seem in good working condition.
I then cleaned the carb as best I could without a rebuild, cleaned the lines out with an air compressor and bought a new fuel pump and tried again starting it normally. Still no fuel I dropped the fuel tank and instantly knew that was the problem when I smelled nasty varnish. The lines from the tank to the filter/pump were pretty clogged.. Instead of spending the money getting that tank cleaned and lined I bought a Summit 12 gal fuel cell off of Craigslist for $50 and it even came with -8 AN fittings and enough braided line to run the line out of the original hole where the fuel pump wiring went.
I went out and worked on it again today and put in one of those Clear inline glass filters before the carb just to see what was getting as far as fuel at that point. New fuel filter before the pump and STILL NOTHING I think I burned up my new pump running it dry.
And this is where I'm at now...... Got the cell mounted with all new lines up to the carb. I'm buying a Holly fuel pump with regulator ASAP.

 

I Got a new fuel pump and now have plenty of fuel. I just got done rebuilding the carburetor with a GP Sorensen kit. Now I just need a fuel regulator.
I'm also gonna go ahead and do a full rats nest removal before I put the carb back on.

 

Great set of cars you have there. I almost picked up an 87 a few years back, had a good price but had a bad motor and I really didn't have the time.

 

Good luck with your car man I'm sure its gonna be great!

 

awesome man, thanks for updating your progress. What kind of a deal did you get on it?

 

welcome to the club

 

Thanks guys! I'm actually looking at another 87 GXL that is sitting down the road from my house. I've talked to the owner who said he knows nothing about the car, just quit running one day so he parked it. I'm gonna buy it for $400 in the next few weeks.
As far as my SA i'm currently working on, I got it from a good friend of mine who's dad was the original owner. They gave the car to me for free because they no longer had a place to keep it and no money for a fix up. I think the only reason I got the car was he knew I LOVE Rx-7's and I would do the right thing by getting it back on the road and take care of it.

 

Welcome to the club. Where are you finding all your 7's? I am in the charlotte area as well and I see just a few for sale per year. It sounds like your in for a learning adventure with your SA.

 

Welcome to the forum, we need to have a Charlotte meet!

 

welcome brandon. check here to those that might be near u.
https://www.rx7club.com/se-rx-7-forum-35/i77-i40-crossroads-rotary-meet-618153/

what pump did u put on it? can't remember exact but the stock carb needs a pressure of like 2.5-4 psi. i'd start at around 3 and see how that does.

as for the 87 down from ur house, considering the economy u might can pick it up cheaper than that.

 

Thanks for the welcome everyone This site is AWESOME!!
Avi6il - I see them all the time while working. I travel all over NC and SC with my job. That's how I've found two of my 7's so far. I also know of a non running fb is that's near me too.

NVMYRX7 - I agree, we should try an put one together.

Rxtasy3 - I'll definitely look and see about other members near me I'd like to look into meets or maybe even setting one up.
I went the cheap route which I usually don't do and got a Mr Gasket pump from Autozone. It pumps 6psi. The regulator im getting regulates from 1-5 1/2 psi and 3 is exactly where I was going to start.
I'm hopefully gonna be working on it this afternoon. Who knows I could be uploading a video of her running tonight

 

Since my last update I've removed the rats nest cept for the ACV, thermal reactor, and air pump. I got a Racing Beat street port exhaust, just need the header and I can fabricate my block off plates. I somewhat striped the carb cept for vacuum secondaries. I haven't decided to switch over to mechanical secondaries yet, but would like the clean look on the carb. Replaced all my carb bolts with hex heads, got my fuel pressure regulator and gauge installed and got it running =) Now I need to tune the carb, get a 3 row aluminum radiator and start working on the brakes. Also planning a GSL rear end swap in the near future. (pics of carb were before stripping)

 

nice to have new fellow rx7 heads

 

Doin ur own work is always better. Good thing it ain't ur first rotary ,lol

 

Video of the first start after 10+ years of storage. Running OMP blocked off with premix :p

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QIcz...ature=youtu.be

 

nice. hope it had been running a while and gotten up to temp before revving it like that.

 

Yeah it was up to temp when the video was recorded.