OK - in a real bad mood with the cab

[grinder]

Hiya chaps ,

on a real downer with the cab - so after speaking to Brett for the last 30 mins , i thought i might aswell share my misery

In the last few weeks , the ABS light has been on , and no idea why ( i think i posted up about it a while back ) .. anyways took the car to work on friday just to get it out and about - and i manage to loose first gear ( now its an auto - so how this works is beyond me )

So after stuggling up 9 floors on a mult-story in 2nd - i checked the oil , topped it up and left it stood for a day

Gets to the car at night , and drive it home ( without first !! )

As i got it home , first started working .. woohoooo

SO , booked it in for the MOT on Wed based on the "what the hell" - might aswell send it in with faulty ABS and if it fails on more stuff then i have a list of what to fix

So tonight , after reading the manual , i started messing around with the ABS ( you can see where this is going cant you .... ) , took off the ABS ECU and started to meter out the pins

i have continuety on all 4 sensors - so thats a start , so jacked up the back end , got both wheels off the floor , meter the pins again and im getting a voltage reading on both the back wheels - so i thought "thats promising"

The car was running on vapour , so threw in another ABS ECU and set off to to Tescos for some juice

Backed it out the drive and set off ( in first !!! ) , the ABS light was back on ( damn ! ) - but that just narrows it down to the front sensors now

Put some ££££££££££ in and drove it home , i was getting full boost in first and second , it was awesome , but as i backed off , it was holding 2nd , even at 4000 RPM .. humm strange , so foot down , full boost , and back off .. and it wouldnt change up to 3rd

So gets her home and on the drive , put the car too close to the house , so in to reverse .. and nothing .. now i know that my car isnt the best at finding reverse , so left it for 15 - 20 seconds and nothing

Then it was making a whinning noise from the front , so still in reverse ( with the hand brake on ) - i got open , popped the bonnet , nothing was out of the ordinary

The better half came out to nosey , she was in the car reving it ( in reverse ) and still nothing ( apart from this odd whine )

Even in reverse , i could push the car forward ?? How very strange ...

But no reverse , not even after 10-15 mins at tick over , IN reverse

So it looks like i have

Faulty ABS
Lost Reverse & 3rd & 4th

Not in a good mood with the car at all , esp when i just retaxed it and reinsured it at the end of May

Ideas greatly welcomed ...  i have threatened to break it for spares , but Brett threatened to drive up and break my legs if i did that

A manual conversion is out the windows ( i dont think i have the skills ) so looks like a auto box swap out is in order ( still with the faulty ABS in the back of my mind )

Sorry about the long post

Stu / Grinder

[dthebuk]

so is putting an another auto box in out of the question? I guess finding one could be a bit hard?

We should have a meet round your gaff and get everyone to muck in with fitting the new box!

[grinder]

i think its the way forward if i can find one !

[B.Martin]

Bad news mate, best of luck fixing it. I\'m sure ABS problem is an easy fix and look on the bright side... At least its not the most expensive thing to go wrong.

[grinder]

well having ruled out the back end - looks like its a front end issue

The gearbox is the main worry at this point

Its just another problem in the life of a RX7 owner !

[papercutout]

As DtheB suggested, another autobox seems like a good idea IMO. They can\'t be mega to change on a driveway, I\'d certainly attempt it! Undo prop, gearbox - engine bolts (I guess that the top 2 or 3 will be tricky to reach though) possibly worth undoing the gearbox mounts first as that\'ll let it sag a little and get you more space. Undo, and drop. Fit new!

I\'d factor in an entire day for it as you\'ve not done it before (me neither). But 1 day in a weekend for a working gearbox has got to be worth it! All you need to do is source one now...

[grinder]

its the challenge of finding one now

Have mailed a few tuners and no one seems to have one

Its not looking good at the mo

tried it again last night , and no reverse , just some light whinning from the gearbox

[B.Martin]

Not possible to get the gearbox rebuilt/fixed? I don\'t know much about this kind of thing.

[Prof]

Not possible to get the gearbox rebuilt/fixed? I don\'t know much about this kind of thing.

It can be done - but it could easily cost £500-£1000 maybe more for a job like that !

[rx7boy]

its the challenge of finding one now

Have mailed a few tuners and no one seems to have one

Its not looking good at the mo

tried it again last night , and no reverse , just some light whinning from the gearbox

I would suggest flushing the existing fluid from the transmission and replacing with some high quality fluid. it may not be able find gears due to lack of fluid. I seem to remember they use fluid to select the gears

[exige]

Hi
I think rx7boy may be on the right track, also if the auto box is like most auto box\'s there should be a sump on it. If there is drain the oil, take off the sump and look to see if there are any gauze filters.....they may be blocked restricting oil flow to the pump. Blocked filters is the cause of a lot of peeps thinking the box is finished, when in fact the box has got lower and lower on fluid and then the filter doesn\'t pass enough, resulting in selection failure. Worth a try....you could look at the abs on the front at the same time when it\'s up in the air!!!

[grinder]

well according to the box - there is no drain plug ( HOW silly is this !! )

so you have to remove the sump to drain it .. again WTF

but i think this is the first plan to be honest

[festa]

Your on to something here, alot of autos don\'t have plugs but draining the system and cleaning the fine gause on the oil pump pickup is a good (cheap) place to start.
Below is a link to all service manuals etc its a good site got it from someone elses post on here
 
http://www.rotaryheads.com/PDF/2nd_gen/
 
Cheers

[shaunwil]

Blimey only just read this (been at cadwell park). If you need a hand to get under and have a good butchers then I\'m happy to pop up and have a play. Could be a case of drilling and tapping a drain plug in the case once you have it off too !

Shaun

[m1tch]

well according to the box - there is no drain plug ( HOW silly is this !! )

so you have to remove the sump to drain it .. again WTF

but i think this is the first plan to be honest

The Merc auto boxes are sealed from the factory with no dip stick....