Rainstorm

hi!

My name's Katie and I've recently stumbled into owning my RX-7, which I love and adore.

it's in almost PERFECT condition - it's pristine, even! It's got less than 80k miles total on the entire car, and I've been slowly fixing up easy stuff, like the radiator hoses etc.

So recently I decided to take the leap and fix my gear shift, which shook horribly. Yes, I acquired an automatic - I know, 'tis a shame. Anyway, in any gear, you could shake the entire lever left to right and near the end even up and down into other gears while you were driving - just by touching it very lightly.

So I took it into the only Rx-7 Mechanic I know, and he replaced the entire gear shift unit using one from one he has on his lot (he's got about seven). This has generated a whole new problem.

There's some problem with the trigger, maybe? The connection. When it's in park, the car refuses to start. It started a few times in neutral, and if you run the gear shift from first to park again, it started on occasion. now it won't start AT ALL. no matter WHAT you do. The battery's fine, everything is fine - except for this gear shift. I never had this problem before the new gear shift was installed.

Anyone have any idea what I can tell the mechanic to check when he comes out to look over it? The old guy that owns the place is the expert, not the mechanic, though he does good work. I just thought it might be helpful to give him some suggestions from the EXPERTS here.

Thanks -- I might stick along with the community, for I do love my RX so.

Cheers and rotaries,
K

RotaryRocket88

iTrader: (7)

Automatics have an inhibitor switch that prevents starting in any gear except park or neutral. Whenever you move the shifter you're engaging or disengaging this switch, so if the connection is poor to begin with, I would expect it to start intermittently. I've never owned an automatic RX-7, but it would make sense if the switch is located within the shifter assembly. It could be bad, or maybe it just needs to be opened and cleaned. There's also the option of bypassing it, but that could be dangerous if you start the car in gear. It would lurch forward or backward and try to run things over.

Also, the wire colors for the switch are Black/White and Black/Red. Your mechanic might find this helpful if he's not sure what the switch looks like.