A guide to replacing the pulsation dampener in a 1990 RX7 convertible N/A. I JUST got the car, and it started reeking of fuel and after 60 miles of driving the car is at a lil above a 1/2 tank. I tried searching, but obviously did something wrong as I couldnt quite find what I was looking for

and if i was to take it to a shop for repair, what i be looking at for repair costs?

 

my local mazda shop wanted $250 labor
i did it myself and earned statisfaction of a job well done, its not hard.

cliff notes.

1. De pressurize the fuel system, start the car and either pull the furl pump relay under the dash or disconnect the pump connector under the carpter in the driver's side rear shock tower, the car will stall ( no more fuel pressure)

2. Disconnect battery
3. Remove intake tubes etc.
4. remove throttle cable
5. unhook vac,water, and fuel lines on the upper plenum
5.5 unhook OMP connecting rod (series 4 only)
6. remove plenum support bolts
7. unbolt upper manifold from lower manifold
8. DONT DROP A SINGLE THING INTO THE ENGINE OR YOUR FUCKED
9. cover the open manfold holes
10. unbolt PD, install new one
11. scrape off old intake manifold gasket and install new one (get permatex gasket remover or spend more than a few hours scraping)
12. reverse order

this is just a quick overview, i thought itd be hard and just staring at it was overwhelming, but once you get started everything starts to make sense. At least for me anyways. Goodluck.

Oh and . . .
I decided to use a banjo bolt instead of a new PD






FSM for crystal clear info.
http://www.cochran-racing.com/FSM/s5...systems_na.pdf

 

oh crap i forgot, since you have a series 5, the PD is part of the fuel rail.
you have to replace the whole piece, just as simple but more expensive.

or you could get an S4 primary fuel rail and stick a banjo bolt in it and never think about it again, but this is controversial, even though tons of people including myself, have done it.

 

You have to replace the whole fuel rail. If you know someone that is a good welder, you can take the rail to them and have them weld a piece of metal as a cap over the hole that is in the end of the PD (there is no screw, but there is a rubber plug in a hole). This must be done carefully or you can burn through the thin PD metal and then you'd have no choice but to buy a new one.

The s4 fuel rail does not fit under the s5 manifold so that is not an option.

 

Common Kevin....

The S4 rail will fit under the S5 manifold, you jsut have to swap the side that the PD is on. It fits fine if the PD is on the firewall side of the rail.

 

So Im taking my FC into the mazda dealer to have the pulsation dampener replaced tomorrow (monday) morning. They quoted me $521 for parts and labor. Is this a fair price? It had a oil leak too, and the shop that fixed the leak (for free for some reason) said the PD was leaking bad and to "carry an extinguisher with me if i dare drive it". AAA towed it home after that. That shop quoted me $800 for the PD reapir, so far dealer is the cheapest rate.

I (despite the link and write up) have 0 idea how to do this myself (I cant locate the part yet). If i knew what I was doing id be more than willing to fix the car myself, but i think this could be over my head.

 

THANK YOU MARK, PWNED!!!!!!!
both sides are threaded the same . . .

 

I had a PD replaced by a shop that knew nothing about rotaries. I dont know if that was a bad idea or not, but it costed about $400 with parts and labor.

 

not idea why, but mazda dealer is only chrging $125 for labor, + the $240 i spent at mazdatrix today buying the PD and all the new gasket/o-rings to replace while the cars apart, so the jobs costing $365 for the replacement.

 

Man, it's not too complicated of a process, but it takes time if you're new to this. You're going to scrape your knuckles raw, you'll get dirty, you'll spill some gas and it'll be frustrating as hell for short moments. But you've got a ton of people who can help you on this forum, and others.

The disassembly is the hardest part, and it's 5 bolts holding the UIM to the LIM. 4 nuts, one bolt, rather. Then there's three support bolts on the driver's side of things, IIRC. The one bolt that WILL **** you off if you don't know about it, is the one on the passenger side, attached to the UIM and facing the fire wall. It's a small *** little bolt that holds a bracket, containing two metal vacuum lines, that turn into rubber vacuum lines which connect to the center of the UIM where it mates with the LIM. If you don't remove it, you will bend it when you try and pull the TB/UIM from the LIM. So don't forget it. Aside from that...throttle cable, two coolant hoses, two fuel lines and I think five vac lines.

Once you've got that assembly off, you just unscrew the PD and put the one one on. Simple. Sometimes...

 

the only hard part im finding on my s4 is how the f*** do you get to the middle bolts to get this uim off the damn rail is in the way

 

Remove the rail: take the big bolt out of the firewall side, and the two little bolts out of the piece on the other side and pull it off, then just the two bolts holding the rail down ^_^
[I've taken the TB/Dynamic chamber/UIM off a LOT... Been meaning to post my picture guide..]

EDIT: Oops.. sorry about bumping this, wasn't paying attention when I clicked through to this thread ^_^"