I recently picked up a '85 RX-7 GSL. It has a few problems with it but I've been roaming the forums for a day now and have fixed a few problems by reading through posts, so I have decided to join. Currently having problems with my idle and its my biggest concern. But Other than that it runs great and I love driving it.

And of course, Hello everyone.

 

Welcome to the board.

1. what is the issue you're having with the idle? I know the culture is to keep posts short, but you will find that details (particularly at your level) are a good thing. it's better to post too much than not enough. describe what the car is doing/not doing?

2. I moved this here because you did not include your name in it when you posted it as an Intro. so go ahead and read the stickies and try to post up another intro when you can.

 

Thanks.
So here is what it is doing. I can start it up just fine after pulling my choke and putting a bit of gas to it than once it starts it revs up than dies if i take my foot of the gas. It will run if I keep my foot on the gas and keep the revs above 1.5k. But this causes problems at stop signs and intersections since it is a manual. Any ideas about what it could be? I've searched around and tried a few things but none seem to work. I'm pretty new to mechanics so this will be a learning experience.

 

When was it last idling acceptably? Vacuum leak somewhere is the most likely culprit.

 

I'm not sure when it was last idling correctly. I picked it up friday in this condition. And the signs have been pointing to a vacuum leak but I haven't made any progress in finding it :/

 

once warm, how does the engine idle?

so if I understand you correctly, then basically the choke is not staying on after the engine fires. is that correct? if so, there is a simple enough solution. I may be dating myself here, but I used to keep a clothes pin in my car for that reason. you just need to keep the choke held out until the engine warms up enough to idle on it's own. you can get one or some other object/tool to do the same thing.

your choke magnet may not be working for any number of reasons. do you still have the rat's nest?

if you're interested in fixing it, start with this thread: https://www.rx7club.com/1st-generati...lained-972274/

 

okay, those two posts happened while I was prepping my response, but I chose not to edit just in case my response ends up still being relevant.

so you're saying the car doesn't idle when warm?

 

When warm the car still does not idle. Correct

 

then yes, you are probably chasing a vacuum leak.

 

Are there any specific lines I should be looking for that are the most likely to fail?

 

i'm probably not the best person to respond to "what's most likely to fail," because I have never kept an Rx-7 stock for more than a few days - maybe 2 weeks at the most. do you still have all the emissions equipment in place?

in my experience, there's one that runs at the back of the intake manifold (firewall side) that has failed on me a handful of times. other than that, I have fixed leaks at random places on other peoples' cars.

my advice, however, would be make look up some related threads about deleting all of that stuff, take your state laws into consideration and see if it's something you would be interested in doing. it's not that i'm trying to persuade you one way or another, but either way I will be telling you to buy vacuum hose, but you'll obviously need more if you're going to keep all that stuff in place.

1. buy some hose (rubber is probably easier to find and may be cheaper, but silicone is regarded as being better.)
2. get the FSM
3. reserve a day, go through and replace everything.

 

Diabolical is right about replacing all that antique rubber hose.
I've used choke cleaner, spraying it at potential leaks, to find them.
Others have used propane.
Any way you go about it, the material is old, cracked, and more brittle than it may appear.

 

Thank you so much! I have it idling now right around 1k after replacing one of my hoses but i cant get it under that so I'm still tracking leaks. Also, I feel a lot of heat coming from under my shifter stick, like where it connects to the gear box, is it normal?

 

sounds like progress to me. keep working at it.

some heat is normal. the tranny generates some and the exhaust radiates some. how much heat are you talking about?

 

when i put my hand on the plastic trim piece, it really warm, but not to the point where it's hot. Ill probably get a prob on it tomorrow and check the actual temp.