Nick_Sand

1985 RX-7 GSL 12A 5 Speed
100% STOCK w/130,000 miles
Well taken care of and in excellent shape


Ok, here’s the whole story, I bought this car from an old friend who used to drive it regularly. When he had it, it was a very very good running car. About four years ago he lost his license and parked the car next to his house. Every couple months he went out and started the car just to make sure it still ran. One day when he went out to start it, it fired up and then quit. He discovered that if he poured fuel into the carb it would run for a few seconds then die. He then just ignored the car for the next three years and after a ridiculous amount of begging, he finally sold it to me. Now that u know that, next is what I have done to try and get it running….

First I determined that the fuel pump was not functioning, so I replaced the pump, along with the cut off relay, all the fuel lines, and the fuel filter. In the process of this I realized the root problem, about a quarter of the tank was full of water due to a missing fuel cap and our lovely Montana weather. So I drained and removed the tank and had it chemically cleaned by a shop that specialized in fuel tanks. After all that it still acted the same. (It only would run for a few seconds after fuel was dumped directly in the carb). I pulled the fuel line off the carb and tested the fuel pressure; I have the proper amount of pressure now. Next I went for the carb, I bought a rebuild kit and I tried for hours to get the whole carb off to no avail because of one mounting nut I could not figure out how to remove. So instead I removed the air horn. Surprisingly, I found only a small amount of corrosion in just one of the float bowls. This cleaned up very easily. I went ahead and removed all the jets and air bleeds and sprayed a ton of carb cleaner in all the holes and thoroughly examined everything that I could. Nothing in the body or any of the parts had showed any signs of any corrosion or build up whatsoever. When I reassembled the carb I went ahead and changed the check *****, needle and seats, accelerator pump diaphram, the air horn gasket, and adjusted the floats.

Now the engine fires up hot or cold without being primed but ONLY with the choke fully pulled out and the accelerator all the way to the floor. And once it starts, if it is still fully choked, it runs very, very good! (At first it put an insane amount of white smoke out of the exhaust, but that totally cleared up and didn’t return). But as soon it is un-choked weather the engine is warmed up or not, the engine dies. It will keep running good if I hold it above 2000 RPM or if I keep it fully choked. It will even drive if I keep it running this way. When it drops below 2K, if I feather the pedal just right I can make it jump back up. At high RPM’s it runs and responds beautifully.

I carefully checked every single vacuum line for leaks and proper placement, and I sprayed lots of starting fluid everywhere looking for any sign of a vacuum leak but I can’t find anything. I am 100% sure every vacuum line, electrical wire, and respective part is on the engine and in its exact original location. I have even taken the air horn back off and re checked everything. I also changed the distributor cap, rotor, plugs, and wires. I have a factory service manual, a Haynes manual, a Chilton’s manual and a factory Nikki carburetor manual (not to mention a crap load of photographs of other cars) that are all specific to this car, all of witch I have countless hours going thru and testing everything with. I’ve also spent days reading this sites AWESOME threads. Everything I check seems to be functioning properly. (With the exception of the AIR system, there is no belt on the air pump, but my friend assured me that it was not on there when he used to drive it).

This car is in awesome condition, and I am dieing to get it on the road so I can enjoy it. BUT I AM AT MY WITS END TRYING TO FIX IT! SOMEONE PLEASE HELP POINT ME IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION TO GET TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS! Your help would be of great appreciation to me.