Newbie

[Marcrs]

Hi all,

My name\'s Marc, and I\'m new to the world of the rotary engine, so bear with me

Just bought a series 3, with quite a few problems, not least of which is the rust...which I intend to deal with, with a lot of help from a good friend of mine, who is going to teach me to weld!!






That\'s one of my Mazda 323Fs in the background




Dont think you should be able to get your hand in there... :2Confused





It\'s been delocked, and the remote locking does not work, so I\'ll need to sort that, and the windows no longer work, well, the drivers one goes down an inch or so, but needs a hand back up again...

I\'ve just spied the flash to pass mod, I shall be doing that at some point in the future...need to get her welded up first though

[Ian65]

Hi Marc and welcome to the forum.

Nice looking car you\'ve bought. We saw it on Pistonheads in January and wondered if the new owner would join the forum.
Any questions you\'ve got, ask away. We\'ve got loads of years of RX7 ownership experience on here and whatever the problem, someone will probably have already had it and solved it themselves.

There are repair panels available to repair the ends of the sills if you want to go down that route but your\'s will probably plate up.
Check out my website, I\'ve had the same rust on my project car.

Is that a Spitfire in the garage?

Cheers,
Ian

[chrisJDM]

Hey welcome to the club nice looking car getting pretty rare now with not many people willing to spend time and money on them, good luck with it!

[captainbizzaro]

Hi Marc, welcome to the forum-like Ian said just ask away and keep us updated with pictures.

Tim

[Ian65]

the windows no longer work, well, the drivers one goes down an inch or so, but needs a hand back up again...

Windows on 1st gens all grind to a halt eventually.
Mazda, for some reason, didn\'t fit a relay to operate the electric window so the full power to the window motors goes through the window switches.
This causes the contacts in the switch to burn and load up with carbon which, in turn, increases the resistance and diminishes the power to the motors.
They are easy to clean.
Carefully remove the switch from the console, unplug it fron the loom and get the  switch on a clean tabletop ( or a tray)
Using a sharp terminal screwdriver, prise the rocker from the switch body. You will see the blackened contacts. Clean them up with some wet and dry and then carefully reassemble the switch, pushing the rocker back into place.

Refit it to the console and then turn your attention to the door itself.
Get some silicon spray and spray plenty of it into the window channel.
If the window is still slow, remove the door card and make sure the window lift mechanism is well lubricated.
There is also a bolt towards the back of the door which will allow you to adjust and align the window glass if it has dropped and is binding.

Usually does the trick....

[mpk490p]

ah Ian beat me too it but all good advice! welcome to the world of 7\'s your\'ll never look back

[syebba]

Another newbie,welcome.
If i can do anything to hinder,just ask!
ta stu..

[mooragerx7]

if its anything like mine that but of rust wont be the last my car looked fairly clean when i got it and if you look at my thread youll see
good luck :chat

[mooragerx7]

Is that a Spitfire in the garage?
 
Cheers,
Ian

either that or maybe a GT6? :god

[David Nock (RIP)]

Hi Marc and very welcome.

I\'m the grandad, have to keep these young pups on here on the right road.

Your car\'s come quite a distance I think, but it\'s back near where it started life. (Central London Reg I believe).

Any Q\'s just fire away.....The 1st Gen section just keeps getting bigger. Great.

[Marcrs]

Thank you for the warm welcomes, and some good tips too - I\'ll try the windows at the weekend.


That is a spitfire in the garage...of sorts

It\'s actually recently been rebadged (tastefully) as a sprintfire - it is a MkIV spitfire, with a Dolomite Sprint engine
It is my friend\'s driveway, garage, and spitfire, he has generously given up some space, lots of time, and his good skills, in order to help me get the rex on the road - he\'s good like that
His late father built the spitfire, and it was his intention to get it back up and running this spring, but my RX7 has delayed proceedings a bit...like I say, he\'s a very very good friend, and his love of RX7s has I\'m sure helped me to persuade him to work on this one

It\'s a weekend only project, until it\'s MOTd and on my driveway, then I can play away all evening


One thing I will ask - the steering...it seems very vague, and very stiff at low speed - I might consider changing the fluid in the box...but long term would consider swapping the box for a rack. Has anyone done this? I\'d probably look at an early MX5 rack, but I\'m open to any advice on this one!

I\'ll be posting up pics of my...sorry, our work, and will no doubt be asking many questions along the way...

[Ian65]

1st gen steering is notoriously vague due to the steering box setup which is inherently less precise than a rack and pinions setup.
It wears over time and goes out of adjustment.

The 1st thing to check is the idler arm bushes which don\'t last 5 minutes and will cause vagueness in the steering.
The steering box itself can be adjusted but a better option is to get a steering box and column from a series 2.
They are more precise and easier to adjust.
The last thing is to look at the various ball joints and links whilst someone turns the steering wheel lock to lock and look for any slack.

They are heavy at low speed due to wide tyres and no PAS

The rack and pinion option has been done with different amounts of success by various people worldwide but is a major job, and not straight forward.

I\'d go for a refurb of the idler arm bushes and a series 2 steering box first, that should tighten things up a treat.

[captainbizzaro]

If you keep an eye out for DonPamponi on here he\'s had a 2nd gen subframe and rack etc put on his but it was a major ballache of a job. Like Ian said-I should start with the easy solution first!

[David Nock (RIP)]

It\'s an old \'un but a good \'un.
"The 1st Gen steering is a democratic process. One vote for the driver and another vote from the car".
I think we\'ve most of us had to do the idler bushes though....dead easy fix.

[syebba]

unbelievable,the car looks immaculate in the pics,then the dreaded terminal termites [rust] rears it\'s ugly head again.
ta stu..