Back fire and loss of power at 4500 revs

[KOAD]

I have just bought a 1985 1 st Gen and all has been fine. I am using it regularly and have been doing twice daily journeys . The engine gets up to temperature , the engine always starts with little or no choke and on the whole she is a pleasure..

On the journey I rarely get a chance to really open her up but the other day I was accelerating through 4th gear and the power was slightly retarded at 4500-5500 revs. Kind of spluttery?!

That was shortly followed by a back fire when I changed down a gear. This has happened a couple of times although on the whole it is fine.

I took it on a longer drive and again it did this followed by a very loud backfire. Since then it has seemed to be a little better.

Prior to me owning it it had been little used for 6 months

Any advice?

[rotorhead666]

My guess for the loss of power would be a dodgy fuel filter.Also if the car hasn\'t moved for so long,the backfires are probably nothing to worry about-plus the 12a sometimes burns excess fuel in the exhaust!my 12a turbo looks like it has an afterburner at times!Where abouts in Sussex are you?

[MikeLMR]

yup sounds like a fuel filter ... the hesitation is usualy just the secondary chokes opening via vacuum ... sometimes they can stick and they always seem a bit hit and miss when they kick in.

As above the pops and bangs are totally normal even with a standard exhaust and carb !

[KOAD]

Thanks for the advice. Is the fuel filter easy to sort out? I get my Haynes manual next week so I will take a look then.

Also I am getting a little bit of play in the steering. At higher speeds this is a little disconcerting.

I am unsure if this is the norm as it is the only RX 7 I have driven but it feels strange to me.

Any advice would be welcome!

[rotorhead666]

Have a word with Tim at RX motors,he usually swaps the steering boxes for those from earlier models!That should sort out any play you have.Fortunately mine still seems fairly tight...

[KOAD]

Sounds a bit pricey! Can\'t you recondition the existing one?