brothers rx7

I inherited an 85 RX7 with 12a rotary this past January. It sucks because the only person that I know of that really knows anything about rotaries was the person I inherited it from, my older brother Don Mills. This was his dream car, and to honor him, I really want to get this thing back on the road.

DummyFixer

Condolences in the loss of your brother. Welcome to the forum. Photos, details of modifications, if any, known issues will be very helpful to the army of experts ready to help you bring it back.
Get the manuals at Foxed.ca to get started and good luck.

GtiKyle

iTrader: (5)

Welcome. There's a ton of good information here, and super helpful people. Post some pics of your car.

brothers rx7

These are the pics I have on my PC. The car is at my moms house. I plan to pull the motor and rebuild it soon. As far as I know I have all the parts. My brother drove the car home, but it had a bad carb on it, and was leaking fuel. He started playing with and pulling things off to rewire the whole car. He bought a painless wireing kit for the car.

GtiKyle

iTrader: (5)

There's a ton of potential there and it would be a really fitting tribute to take it on and keep improving it. The bare bones seem to be there, which is a great start.

Keep us posted on how it comes along, maybe consider making a build thread.

WJM ROTARIES

Welcome to forum

mazdaverx713b

iTrader: (91)

Welcome to the forum!! The car looks to be very restorable! Appears to be a Light Beige S trim level. If it has original power mirrors then its a GS. Its hard to tell in the pictures.

I don't know about rewiring the whole car. To be fair, the original wiring is pretty good and typically doesn't have issues. You may find its easier to install the original wiring harness and restore the car rather than install something you know nothing about and don't know how to diagnose. Having the original wiring will allow you to use the factory service manual and wiring diagram to diagnose issues down the road. Just my thoughts on the subject.

Also, if the engine isn't bad, I wouldn't just tear it down to rebuild it. 12A housings are no longer available new from Mazda. You may want to try and get the car running first before making a decision on the engine as it may be just fine.

brothers rx7

The only reason I’m considering rebuild is because my brother took the intake manifold off and the engine has been sitting open for I don’t know how long. I am thinking it’s best to just rebuild it, could be wrong, I am no mechanic. I remember him being impressed with its compression and saying that the motor was in great shape. I am just scared the inside may have gotten water in it from sitting with the intake off and nothing covering the openings in the motor. As far as not being a mechanic, I am a structural mechanic and am really good at following publications to make repairs I’ve never done. So I am not scared to rebuild if I need to. Any input would be much appreciated. I will definitely start a build thread when the time comes. It’s hard to work on it at my mom’s house and because it doesn’t run I can’t have it at my house.

GtiKyle

iTrader: (5)

Before tearing the engine apart, i would toss in some fogging oil, or even some ATF into the spark plug holes and rotate the engine over as you do this. You should hear "chuffs" of the compression if it free spins. This would give you a really good indication if it is worth pulling apart or trying to fire over as it sits.

Snipe G

iTrader: (2)

If you have a hobby shop at you local base you could store and work on it there. I had mine in K-Bays hobby shop for months.

Jason

brothers rx7

I am no longer active, and the closest thing to me is an army reserve station and a Marine Recon Reserve base that I only know about because I had to do a check in there while in the inactive reserves, lol.

mazdaverx713b

iTrader: (91)

I would definitely get some ATF in the engine and get it spun over. This will help to get everything inside lubr.icated and help free anything up that may be sticking. Sounds like you may have to go back and forth to your mom's house to work on it and that's ok. I would do the same thing if I had to. I think its a great project and will be awesome to restore. Your brother would be proud of you for restoring his car!

Rocket3004

Definitely will be a project putting it all back together again... however it would be a great story! Keep the forums posted on progress for sure

Snipe G

iTrader: (2)

Well there goes that idea 😀. Like everyone above is saying, it’s going to be a project for sure but worth it in my opinion. Good luck.

Jason