1974 Mazda RX4 Coupe

[SSScoupe]

Today has been a good day I now have headlamps, rear lamps, indicators ( albeit no flashing as flasher unit isnt wired!), starter now turns the engine on the key and the temp gauge and other parts of the dash light up.... feels like giant steps towards starting the car have been made today!

[SSScoupe]

Finally managed to get a spark at the plugs, which means that once the exhaust has been completed, and oil and coolant has been put in, i might actually get to start the engine!!

In the mean time attention has been turned to finishing some other bits and pieces.... so i ve ordered a two inch lowering kit for the rear from http://www.dellowconversions.com.au and ordered a new headlining from Goliners http://motors.shop.ebay.com/goliners/m.html to replace the custom one which was falling apart!

Will put some pics up when they decide they want to upload....

[SSScoupe]

Wheeled the old girl out of the car port, first time in a while!



Most of the exhaust has finished being welded together now and all painted in heatproof black paint!



Two extra mounting bars welded to the rear silencer



After a half a day of cursing and swearing between me and my dad....



The back box is finally mounted!



After offering up the front section and adding exhaust studs, we found the extractors were out on on one stud hole  Probably for a 13B engine i guess.... still out with the grinder....



So thats that chopped off.... needs to be rewelded about 20mm inwards to fit properly!
Another job to do along side getting the resonator welded to its flanges at the right angle!

In the meantime the head lining came out...



And i m left with a beautiful glue covered roof!

[SSScoupe]

Well my rear lowering kit arrived....



Got one side in already

The other side is half done but left due to a downpour of rain!


Nice rainbow afterwards though!



Quick shot with the 2" drop on 14\'s.... dosen\'t really do it justice and will be lower still when the 7x13\'s are on the rear

[SSScoupe]

2"drop with 13\'s fitted





Im well pleased with the result

[SSScoupe]

Well  my new headlining has arrived from Goliners in Texas...




It does look a bit bigger than the old one though!  I m assured by Jim at Goliners that this is the correct one custom made for my RX4 2 door Coupe so we shall see what fun we have fitting the beasty in!

I ve been head scratching about my crossmember for a while.... and after removing it on the weekend i now know why....







The red one is the painted replacement and the white one is what i removed.  They are both stamped with 1029 which im reliably informed ( http://www.perthrotary.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5014 ) means they are genuine RX4 13B crossmembers.  Now from the discussion on the Perth Rotary thread i understood that the engine should be offset due to the mounting bracket from the engine to the crossmember... but was always puzzled by why the offset was so large...

The above pics show the crossmember had the left side cut by about 50mm and welded to the otherside!  Coupled with the engine mount bracket this makes the offset pretty big!

Any ideas why some one would do that?  They welding is really good and they have made a half decent job of it but ive no idea why!  Only thing i can think of is the car is said to have had a 13B turbo motor in it at some point and maybe all the turbo and ancillaries needed extra space on the drivers side??

Any ideas welcome

[SSScoupe]

No suggestions on the odd crossmember then...

Fair bit of progress made this week as my exhaust after much chopping, fiddling and welding is complete.  My brother tack welded some extra pipe to the resonator, my dad angle ground it down to the right size and a friend who\'s a coded welder weldeded the flanges on at the correct angles to fit.  After some heat proof paint it completed the system at long last!





Whilst the cross member was out it seemed a good idea to replace the sway bar bushes too...





Also got the carb properly bolted up and fuel line attached now



 
Plus after deciding my mismatched pulleys weren\'t really up to the job when my motor is at 10k rpm... these came through the post today!



Won\'t be going on until the motor is timed up and running.... a job for next weekend!

[shaunwil]

Looking awesome, but shouldn\'t the the engine mount match up if its rotated 180 degrees ??

Shaun

[SSScoupe]

Looking awesome, but shouldn\'t the the engine mount match up if its rotated 180 degrees ??

Shaun

Thanks... im getting there at last!  No engine crossmember was modded in such a way that it was way off! The offset should be on the bracket on the engine to the crossmember, not the member its self.  The two together put the engine far to far on one side... easy to remove extractors but its meant the gearbox mount is in the wrong place and a previous owner has bodged it not realising the crossmember was the problem! Never mind, fixed now  So this weekend engine was timed up... in the process I  found a a lightened fly wheel.... bonus

Anyway, After various goes at cranking with a 270cca battery ( too small), various goes with a 470cca battery and still no luck, a tow start was required.....

First attempt was not captured on film but needless to say it fired.... the throttle jammed, a coolant pipe to the heater box blew clean off and coolant went all over the new carpet in the passenger footwell... fun times!  Had another shot and my bro recorded it below

http://good-times.webshots.com/video/3046473630103320357gmRDAc
 
Sounds like a hoard of angry bees trying to get out.... can\'t wait to release them!  Got a few looks from the neighbours as we towed round the block trying to start! Made a couple of adjustments to the wiring and brought a new set of plugs ready for another shot next weekend  

[SSScoupe]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM7vZ5RBvR4

fresh fuel, oil and plugs and it lives... check out my grin when it fires....

[SSScoupe]

No pictures to update, but had Bumpstart ( a rotary guru from Ozrotary and many other sites) over to look over the car on Saturday.  He locked my dizzy to restrict the 15 degree of movement to about 5-7 degrees to help with the car\'s timing curve.  This was so that when running it helps resolve the common problem of leaning out when driven hard in 3rd or 4th gear.

To go with that, i ve been recommended to make some further changes to my fuelling system to switch from the current deadhead setup ( single line from pump to carb) to a return line set up via a pressure regulator.  The pump has one of the these built in but as i understand it this will assist with flow under full load, and distribute pressure that would otherwise be feeding back to the pump and restricting the pumps ability.

Approx half a wiring loom was removed from under the bonnet where it won\'t be required and the with some extra relay\'s added the car no longer suffers from voltage drop across the coils when cranking.  After routing through the shed, i found a set of RX7 FC coils when can be adapted for use and should give a much fatter spark than the bosch coils.  That\'s the next upgrade!

Bumpstart also pointed out that i have a dead wasp and eggs blocking the inlet to the fuel tank ....oops!  Apparently this is pretty common!  So this has to be sorted!  Because of the upgrades to the fuel system, i m going to change the fuel inlet to a 1/2" one cutting out the old one with the wasp nest in!  This has be done professionally, so i ve been recommmended to talk to Rotomotion, a local rotor specialist who have done this work to tanks before.

All this plus a few chrome trim pieces coming from a very helpful guy in Canberra, should see the car almost ready for the road!  All that will be left then will be to sort the speedo cable and a few other wiring niggles, add the roof liner and central roof console and try and set the engine idle up.  I ve been advised it will be a fast idle for first 500+ kms (1500-1800 rpm) and then with the right carb jetting and engine bedding in a 1200-1250 idle should be possible!

[Brett]

Sounds like some good progress

....and what is it with wasps and old cars?!?

[SSScoupe]

Sounds like some good progress

....and what is it with wasps and old cars?!?

TBH ive never had that issue, but Bumpstart assured me it was very common!!  Just glad it was dead!  I hate wasps!

Tank is out as of this pm and i ve been quoted $160 by Rotomotion to have it filled with Co2 or water, wasp filled line cut out and a 1/2" intake welded back in... so that will be happening this week hopefully!:)

[grinder]

loving the work you are doing , and the pics are great

keep up the good work

[SSScoupe]

loving the work you are doing , and the pics are great

keep up the good work

Thanks ... with Bumpstarts advice it shouldn\'t be long now before we re up and running properly!:)