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bought a REPU, Finish '83 12a Engine Swap

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Old 08-13-01, 01:01 PM
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bought a REPU, Finish '83 12a Engine Swap



I finally found a REPU that is in fairly good shape... the 2x previous owner blew the engine, so the last owner began a swap of a 83 12a into the beast. He got most everything done except:

1st: Drive shaft doesn't fit into tranny... different yoke (?)

I think I can get the driveshaft modified by drivetrain.com but I need to know the output spline size, seal size, etc... for the 83 tranny.

2nd: there is no clutch pedal assemble, or master cyl. Anyone think one from an 83 would fit? or maybe one from a 70's Ford Courier?
Old 08-15-01, 03:02 PM
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Hi, I have a rotary truck!

So the previous owner was installing a 12A? I've seen one in an REPU before. The guy had to slot his front mounting plate by either 10mm, or 20mm. It could have only been 10mm if he also slotted the rear tranny mount by 10mm as well. Either way, it was slotted and the exhaust possibly had an RB 12A header header instead of the 13B parts he used to have.

I have a rotary powered MG Midget that used to have a twin dizzy 12A in it, but I swapped trannies with some carefull measurements and now I can fit a 13B without needing to slot the front mounting plate.

My REPU has an RX-7 5 speed in it, from a '79 model. Did your truck come with an automatic tranny? Maybe that's why you don't have a clutch pedal.
Old 08-18-01, 04:35 PM
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Wow that trruck looks really good. I own a yellow one that looks a lot like yours. If you do decide to go with a first gen trans be nice to it because I have talked to numerous people that claim that they have a weak 2nd gear and you can blow them any ways good luck with it.
Old 08-19-01, 02:24 AM
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My REPU has a '79 tranny in it too!

My '79 tranny is sounding really raspy! my REPU has a fairly gutless engine and a 460 diff so it's not too much of a strain, but I'm sure it's plenty easy to bust it. My 1st is really noisy, and my 2nd is tough to shift quickly. It feels really notchy. My 3rd is wierd too. Oh well.

Wanna see my web page? I've got a couple pics of my truck here.
http://www.geocities.com/cd23c/
Old 08-19-01, 08:08 PM
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Hay Jeff20B do you go to any of the rrow meetings. I would like to see your truch sometime looks interesting. Any ways talk to ya later.
Old 08-19-01, 11:53 PM
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I've never been to one. Are they any good?

Oh, and thanks for the compliment!
Old 08-20-01, 10:16 AM
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This is my old 74 repu. But it had a 3.90 rear gear in it, and a gsl-se tranny. Talk about free way gearing...that thing was like 2,000rpms in 5th gear at 70...it was a real pain.

CJhttp://www.sdsefi.com/features/may00mazda.htm

Old 08-20-01, 10:17 AM
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sorry thats

http://www.sdsefi.com/features/may00mazda.htm




Cj

Old 08-21-01, 01:48 AM
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So it wasn't good with gears that tall? Mine are 460 and they seems ok with my gutless engine. I do want more power in the future so I may get a 390, but I'd prefer a posi. Know of anybody who can do a posi diff for the REPU?

I've seen the pics of your truck before (it looks good!). It seems Blake Qualley is into some cool stuff. I like his rotary illustrations. I might venture down to pinapple racing sometime during a road trip to Oregon. What is your general impression of Rob and his shop?

Last edited by Jeff20B; 08-21-01 at 01:52 AM.
Old 08-21-01, 06:27 PM
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I'd stay with the low gears, but if you want to get rid of them, Rob may be interested. Not to mention Rob was thinking about fabing up a lsd for his two repu. But i don't know where that project is.

First impression is, this guy is kinda scranwy.....but soon as he starts talking, its a wealth of information. First time i talked to him in person, it was rotary info overload....he started telling me about anything and everything rotary engine. I ended up working for him while i was going to college. Realy nice guy.

I beleive he's in the middle of a move. But i can ask him where he's going later this week, when i call to find out about my n/a 90 engines progress.

Later, CJ
Old 08-21-01, 09:36 PM
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I have only been to one meeting they are ok but their is not enough of them per a year to realy establish a good turnout each time i think. Have you guys ever gone onto the REPU GURUs web page? If you guys have looked on their the red truck that was up on the front page about 2 months ago is one of mine. Hey CJ do you have the peripheral in the truck now or did you swap it out. I talked to you on the phone a long time ago. I going to build a peripheral port and use a 48IDA on it and put it into an old whited half rusted crappy REPU and take it out on friday nights and street race hondas with it. HAHA boy will they be dumn fuonded getting beat by a 28 year old plus jap mini picky. Any ways talk more later.

CJG
Old 08-21-01, 11:00 PM
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Jaloy?
Old 08-22-01, 05:37 PM
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I did remove the motor, and stuff it in a 90 Rx-7. The pickup was sold to a friend of mine, where it has a street port now. I wanted something a little more comfy to drive. My 74 was on the ground, and needed to much body work. Well not body work, a dent in the roof, a new bumper, gas tank, and a tail gate. But other than that it was a pretty nice truck.

CJ
Old 08-22-01, 09:07 PM
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Thats my dads name, but it is part of the e mail address that I use. Any ways do you have a lot experience building or tuning peripheral ports or was it Rob that did most all of that on yours? Are you running the sds or did you switch to a carb?

CJG
Old 08-23-01, 08:23 PM
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Yeah, I've seen the pic on the REPU Guru's web page. a very "geocities" type of page, but that's ok. So that pic was hiding the truck's probs? It still looked pretty good (I like the little Jack antenna ball).

Rotortuner, were you asking me or pp13bnos?
Old 08-24-01, 04:19 PM
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Well I guess I was asking either of you. Any ways I just put a different engine in the truck so those are the problems. It runs but I have a backfiring problem and a flat spot. So once I get those taken care off it will run good. That pic was taken about a year ago but it still looks the same as far as body and stuff. I need to get a pic of my yellow truck up somewhere, if you can appreciate stock original then you guys would realy like it. Any ways talk to you guys more later.

CJG
Old 08-24-01, 05:55 PM
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I use to have a sds system in it, but then i ran a air cleaner nut through the rear rotor. I had to sell the injection system, and buy a 48mm, then have it bored over to a 51.

Rob Golden built and tuned the carb. He also did about 80% of the tuning on the injection system. Beleive it or not, its very streetable. CJ
Old 08-26-01, 12:57 AM
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Ok everyone with a rotary truck! I tried to install a 79 rx7 transmission in but the transmission mount did not line up. What were your solutions?

Thanks,
-jrx13
Old 08-26-01, 01:42 AM
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My solution was to slot every hole in the crossmember and I even slotted the holes in the tranny mount.

I kept cutting and matching the height from the ground with both trannies sitting bellhousing down and the mount and crossmember bolted up with a measuring tape. I don't remember exactly how much length needed to be sloted, but I did slot every hole. I also trimmed my washers and left just enough space to fit a socket on the nuts (very close to the sidewall of the crossmember!).

I did this like 3 years ago now and it still works today.

I am planning a TII tranny swap in the future when I upgrade my engine, but I haven't really gotten familier with all that would be required yet, so it's still "up in the air" at this point.
Old 08-27-01, 12:41 AM
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Ok, so just slot the holes in the transmission mount and the crossmember and it should be close. One of these days I'll get around to do it. Hopefully it'll work! Thanks!
Actually I am thinking of selling the truck since I hardly drive it


-Jrx13
Old 08-27-01, 09:34 AM
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Where are you and how much? I once had somebody asking me if they could locate a truck for them, but now I can't remember who it was. Oh well, at least I can tell people about it. Maybe you'll get a taker? I don't know.
Old 08-27-01, 09:45 AM
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Talking mazdarepu.com

Check out MazdaREPU.com Under the BBS, there's a For Sale Section...
Old 08-27-01, 01:35 PM
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Oh man, thanks for the link!!!!!
Old 08-30-01, 02:30 PM
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I am in San Francisco. Its an 75. I wish I had the time and money to fix it but..... anyway, it needs a paint job and stuff and I dont know any body shops that will do a decent job for a good price. I put a 85 GSLSE motor in it and swapped the fuel injection too.

-jrx13
Old 09-06-01, 05:56 PM
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Used to have one put in a 87 engine in it and the only thing I had to do was use the old oil pan from the 74 engine, and replace the fuel injector with a Delotto side draf carb, it fix perfect in the truck, my was a 4 speed one so if you ever plan to sell it let me know email me at tonka_1956@yahoo.com....love them rotary also if anyone have a 77 or 78 RX3SP too. Any question feel free to email me
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