Wishing I Had The 7 On The Road... Anyone Else?
 

All this nice weather has made me wish I had it going. I did a ton of work to it a couple summers ago (can be seen here HERE), but never quite got it "done". It has a brake caliper that's sticking so I need to get into it and rebuild the calipers; that's the biggest thing holding me back right now. Of course, this is kind of a "snowball" project because then I will want to do rotors, pads, bearings, etc. Following that, it's just fighting with and tuning the Holley to get it going well enough to enjoy. Once that's all done, I can start work on the suspension and steering, and eventually wheels and tires.

Anyone else in the same boat as me wishing they had theirs on the road? I daily drive an STi swapped WRX, but I still miss that silly little car. I think I should go order some brake caliper kits...

~T.J.

drive mine everyday wanna trade for the wrx?

got my 87 turbo project sitting for 2 years now......i hear you buddy. This car has new paint just sitting under a mummy layer of dust. sad to look at but its coming back from the dead this summer :)

I went ahead and ordered some brake caliper rebuild kits last night, they should be in soon. Now that those are on the way, I think I will get to looking at the carb again. Maybe I will be able to take it out for a drive soon enough after all.

~T.J.

Yeah, mine has been down for just over a year now. I really miss it. It's sad - she just sits in a storage unit until I have the time to rebuild her. But now that I'm looking for a house, so I don't want to move a half build motor into my new garage when I get it.

Mines been a crazy project spending crazy money just to barely get it on the road sat. Hope I don't get pulled over. Cop will probably give me a binder full of charges...lol

Nope, mine has been great.

I have wished to drive my car every day for the last 880+ days

Every day, but then I just leave it in the garage. Contemplating what to do with it...

Lol, I just need to buy another 7. I keep holding off to see what Mazda has up their sleeves for their next RX.

Anyway, hows it going TJ? Long time no see!

It's going good man, a lot of new stuff in my life, but nothing I want to post online, haha. How is that 8 treating you?

My caliper rebuild kits should be in tomorrow, and I just picked up (another) Holley intake kit for my car tonight. This one is ACTUALLY a "RB modified" and correct sized carb this time, unlike the one on my engine now which is too big and a generic "off the shelf" Holley. If nothing else at least I have the right CFM carb now, plus two intakes, two air filter assemblies, etc. I will probably sell the one I end up not using when it's all said and done. Hopefully I will have it running and I can take it out for a spin soon enough.

~T.J.

Just in time for the Mt St Helens drive this weekend!?

Exactly the same boat, I DD a high compression frankenmotored legacy while the rx7 sits on jackstands waiting for back ordered parts.


Isaac

I don't think I will make that one, I will most likely be trying to work on it this weekend. I will be thinking of you guys though, haha.

Oh cool, did you do a 2.2/2.5 hybrid? I got my caliper rebuild kits in the mail today. I need to head over to the shop, I have a few different things I need to be doing. The WRX needs an oil change, and I need to get going on the brake calipers for the RX-7, as well as now swapping out these carbs and crap.

~T.J.

damn, where have you been?

Got the new carb put on the car tonight, it fired RIGHT up. It's running better than it has in a while so I'm pretty happy about that. I just need to do a few more things to finish it up, but it's running good. I might tear into the brakes this weekend if I feel up to it, it would sure be nice to take it out for a spin again!

~T.J.

Can't wait to get back myself so I can get back to working on mine...

EJ25d shortblock between '99 ej22 non hydro heads. Estimated 12.5-13 to 1 compression. It makes a lot more torque than the ej22 it replaced.






Oh...you know...around... :)



On a more relevant note, I fired up the rx7 today and did some minor tuning of the megasquirt, yay for idle lol.


Isaac

Rebuilt the front left caliper today after work, it works quite well now - better than the front right actually because it has a slight pull to the left during hard braking. I will be rebuilding the other one soon enough, but at least it's drivable safely now.

More odds and ends left to do, but it's getting closer.

~T.J.

At least you guys already own 7's. Hopefully I can start looking for a hardtop (as opposed to sunroof) FD this summer, but they are so incredibly rare here.

Figures. I rebuilt the other front brake caliper tonight then went to start it to test drive - the starter died. It was cranking fine then suddenly started cranking really slow, then stopped completely and wouldn't turn anymore. I pulled it out and got it apart; the stator looked horrible and the commutator was shot.

So, I ran to the parts store which happened to have one in stock, got back home, installed it, and it was dead out of the box. The solenoid wasn't making contact to send power to the motor. The solenoid works fine to engage the bendix, and the motor spins when you power it, but the two terminals aren't conducting when the solenoid is activated because the solenoid plunger doesn't travel far enough to push the contact rod. If I manually push the rod the contacts close, so I tried rigging it to work a couple ways, even re-shimming the solenoid mount, but then I gave up and figured I shouldn't have to put so much effort into it.

Guess I'm going back tomorrow for another one. Freaking re-manufactured crap...

~T.J.

Mine did that too, ended up being a grounding problem. Clean all your battery terminals, then where the ground cables hook to the fender as well as where the ground cable hooks to the block (usually the starter bolt) see if that helps.

Haha, nothing about my wiring is stock, but great advice none the less. Even though on my car the entire battery, charging, and starting system cables (and battery) are all less than 2 years old, I still started with the basics checking just those things to be sure. Of course, I actually did all that before I even removed the starter as part of diagnosing the starter as the issue.

For what it's worth, I got the starter exchanged yesterday, slapped the new one in and it fired right up. I was finally able to take it out for a test drive with both front calipers rebuilt and the new carb installed. It drives really nice, I'm glad. I think I just need to bleed the brakes a little more because even though the car stops great, they still feel more squishy than I remember (even with the braided lines), but then again, it could just be because Im so used to my WRX which has Brembos and all kinds of fancy brake parts.

So, although I still have a lot more work in my future with it, at least I'm back to being able to drive it again on the next sunny day we have. I'm glad I started this thread, it kind of motivated me to get moving on it again, haha.

~T.J.

87 turbo project sitting for 5 to 6 years, i forget.