Fidgety.Bones

I have found this part in my oil pan of the 13b in my rx4 wagon yesterday when RE-sealing the pan. Haven't been completely inside the motor just yet, but wanna know what this could be on account of its shape along with the spring. Any help would be amazing, thank you guys! Also, I got the rusty sled back up to original ride height as well with new steering and suspension parts finally!

AE_Racer

iTrader: (1)

answer below

dguy

iTrader: (8)

I'd say the spring and silver slug looks like the oil pressure relief in the front cover. Dunno bout the large black bit.

bpdchief

iTrader: (7)

That's a chain guide and tensioner for your oil pump chain. It sits under the front cover right next to the oil pump drive gear. The old school rotaries had them but they were eventually eliminated when Mazda just changed the size of the chain. Your chain will now have a lot of slop in it and you run the risk of it coming off the drive gear which of course would cause you major problems. You definitely need to address this. I don't think you would have to pull the engine to do it, but its been a while since I looked at one.

diabolical1

iTrader: (3)

Thanks for posting. I did not know this, but i guess it makes sense because when I first saw the photo, I thought that it looks a hell of a lot like a chain guide from an Audi engine. Now I will need to try to find which engines had them.

Fidgety.Bones

Thank you guys for the wisdom. Think I could pull the same part(s) out of another '74 13b and use them? Otherwise I have refused to drive it since because it drove hella sluggish just a couple days before I dropped the pan and parked it afterwards

bpdchief

iTrader: (7)

You could pull the part out of an old one or you can go on e-bay and order a brand new one for 50 bucks or so. In your search term, do "rx4 chain" or "rx4 1976 timing chain" or "024-0961" . About 3 or 4 will show up. You're smart not to run it until you fix it.