rokalias

I bought my son his first car - 1987 Mazdz RX7 non turbo. He really wanted to learn to do the work himself , but .. we had a mechanic come out and help with the clutch job and re-install the tranny. After I finished re-filling the tranny with 75-90 gear fluid,I took the car off the jack stands and pushed it back down the driveway, out of the garage today.
I started it .. started quickly after sitting for 2 months. When I went to move it over to the side further, engaged the clutch, shifted into 1st and when I let the clutch out slowly, the clutch grabbed as if I popped the clutch, lurched forward. I heard a loud clang and felt as if something broke loose. When I pushed the clutch back in and hit the breaks, the car acted as if I had the clutch out, still in gear moving forward and stalled as I had the breaks on.
I shut down and called the mechanic to let him know something is not right.

Any ideas, suggestion would be helpful. What we might have done wrong .. etc

This car is really nice, although it needs complete exhause, possible new radiator or get rodded out .. and those are the only major issues .. affter we get the clutch right, the exhaust is next ..
As we are newbie's, we are open to suggestions, upgrades.. as my son eventually wants to do a lot of modifying and customizing .. but first, just get it on the street and legal .. safe.

FirstRotaryExp

iTrader: (3)

Sounds like the clutch fork either broke or slipped off. Either way the transmission has to come back off to make sure everything is either still in one piece or broken. Does the clutch pedal go to the floor with little resistance or is there a great deal of resistance?

blackedoutFC3S

iTrader: (7)

hopefully its just something with the clutch hydralics, and not something with the transmission. then you'll have a lotta fun.

my clutch pedal gets stuck to the floor because my clutch master cylinder is going out, so i need to rebuild it. hopefully its just something easy like that for you

BigIslandSevens

iTrader: (4)

Before yanking the tranny back off.. Pull off the Inspection plate at the bottom of the bellhousing. Take a light and look around at the fork, slave cylinder if you can see it, and the Throwout bearing/fork contact.

If there is a bunch of fluid coming out the bellhousing, the chance is that the slave cylinder was not engaged in the dimple properly and popped the piston out into the bellhousing. IF you have that issue, and you can get all the pieces out thru the inspection door, you can simply rebuild the slave cylinder and reinstall it.

Good luck, and don't worry too much. Should be relatively easy to figure out.

Dave

311unity13B

yeah, what does the pedal do? that is important.

dont rebuild any of the hydraulics on the car they wont last long, i know from experience , if that is the problem....autozone has new master and slave cylinders and they are very reasonable. when i had to replace mine, they actually had both in stock. and they have lasted upwards of 3 years already with no problems. if you need help replacing these, let me know, its pretty easy, send me a private message.

rokalias

first of all .. thanks for all the immediate response and views.
So, I went out just now and pushed on the clutch.
There is light resistance and the pedal will go all the way to the floor.
As I only drove this car when we first got it and the clutch was just still shiftable, I don't remember how the pedal should feel. But as driving cars /trucks go, It seems a little light to me and not as much resistance as when I first engaged it when the clank and problem occurred yesterday.
It does shift into all gears OK ... when just going through them with the engine off

rokalias

Just little background on this car for all that have responded with help.
I bought this car for my son who just turned 16, his first car. He and his friends are all into modifying, racing, drifting. They go to the local meets every weekend.
He wanted to do all the work himself but it was a little oner his skill for now. He did get a job at Auto House which will help him with his parts, upgrades and such.
The car came with a dead battery, no brakes, bad clutch .. not running. It did come with new wipers and a new clutch kit in the box, service manual.
I took a chance on it as we paid $500.00 and he had been looking at Mazda RX7's for over a year. The body is really straight and it rubbed out really well and looks good polished.
As the battery looked new, I just put new Battery cable ends on, jumped the car .. and it has started ever since. Then I bled the brakes and they seem fine .. no leaks. I also have cleaned everything like crazy, under chassis , engine compartment .. so he can see any leaks or such. There is a small leak , looks like the pan gasket. also looks like it needs motor mounts.
So I fixed the sunroof, rear stereo speakers and everything in the this car works properly, runs really strong (before we tore out the tranny / clutch).
All we need to do is this clutch and complete exhaust and it is street ready.
He's really excited

this is a great forum ! Really helpful and fun to read about what everyone else is doing .. and . of course super helpful for us newbies !!

dregg100

iTrader: (34)

that really, really sounds like it just needs to be blead some more. if bleeding doesnt help, look at the hydralics next(most common), then finally as a last resort, the fork.

eliminster

i redid the clutch on my 87 na about a year ago and had a similar situation only the car wouldn't start since the clutch was engaged already. i am not saying u had the same thing happen or that what i did will fix it but what fixed my problem was to simply continue to bleed the clutch system which took me about 30 min or so since i was doing it by myself and kinda inexperienced at the time with hydraulics. since i am assuming u want to do this with your son and a rx7 is a great car to learn how to do your own repairs/mods i would suggest picking up a chiltons or similar manual and and take your time and enjoy working on the car together since both your son and you will find more enjoyment and more money still in your pockets. if my suggestion solved your problem let me know, since i cant work on my rx7 right now and will be glad to share what little knowledge i have with other enthusiasts.

kyle
Iraq