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Hello fellow RX-7 owners! I'm an old gear head who always marveled at the spinning Dorito power of the Wankel engine, so always loved the RX7s.
My son came across a very nice (for its age) 1990 GTU, and got it. It was parked for a while, and we found out why very fast. The engine ran, but made a horrible belt squeal, so we started with the belts, the alternator bearings seemed bad, being a dumbass, I got a cheap replacement and discarded the OG, dad decision 1. The car made a horrendous noise when the clutch was depressed, so didn't even try to move it, aaaaaaand then, it got parked, years. Of course my son never registered, so after a few years, since it was acquired at a state sale, and the previous owner was deceased, we found out we need an OFICIAL copy of the death cert, so the DMV sent us to pound sand.
After that ordeal, he lost interested, and made me a killer deal, to trade this POS, for my fully functional 4x4 truck. As a wheeler and dealer I couldn't pass up the chance, and made that deal with my son.
Well, FF to a many months ago when I took the tranny out, to find an new clutch but pulverized pilot bearing, and completely mangled crankshaft socket (???, where the pilot bearing goes). I kind of got depressed, but acquiring a 20mm cutter, my first TIG weld, and a cordless drill, I managed to clean out (lets call it hole) surface that was gauged by a gorilla (most likely why previous pilot bearing was completely deformed and exploded) to an acceptable finish, and much to my surprise, NOT oversized to fit the pilot bearing perfectly snug.
So after that win, I embarked in putting all the pieces together again to resemble a usable car. There were some details left to address. Replaced master/slave cylinder and clutch hose, but something seems off. the clutch lever does not seem to return fully, the pedal stays "half depressed" Will bleed again, and adjust clutch pedal pushrod, but that's for later. Right now, I'm trying to get the engine started, and after realizing there's some mickey mouse business going on with the electrical, I think I have a very good possibility of getting it going thanx to this forum!!! I found an old thread here on the "starter cut relay", and it seems I had the solenoid starter cable spliced right into it. I still need to do some more investigating and probing, but that thread explained a lot. Since I don't think the GTU came with an alarm, not sure why that relay is there at all, but may end up doing the "starter relay fix" Banzai racing sells.
So that's where I'm at, trying to see if the car runs, and moves. If that's the case, I'll look into registering it, but that's a whole different story, for now, I need to get this turd to start burning some oil!!!
Welcome to the forum and congratulations on getting all of the current issues worked out. The big question for me is will you be able to get a title for the car and be able to register it and get plates so that you can drive it and enjoy it?
Hi from Cali! Got the RX& blues...
