jasonwiper1

Hello everyone,

Hope someone out might have an idea of what's going on with my 83 RX7 Targa with a 12A.

I'll start by saying I've owned this car for 5 weeks, since April 17/08 and am a newbie to the site.

Since buying the car, I've put more than $1000 into with no promise of the problem coming to an end.

First occurence - Car ran fine for 6 days after I bought it, then...
Jumped into start her up, pulled the choke, turned the ignition...car turned on and revs immediately jumped to 4000. i figured maybe the throttle had gotten stuck and pumped the accelerator a few times and it went down to 2500. Started going down the road, again the revs jumped to 4000. I was only a few kms from home, so I kept driving it. Got home and my brother and I looked under the hood to see if we could notice anything out of the ordinary, nothing. Went to start it again, no dice. Had it towed to Mazda...I know bad idea. Took them 8 days before they actually did anything to it. They did their inspection, said the starter was shot and replaced it. All good right....

Second occurence - 3 days after the first...kinda bumming.
Try to start car, again, no dice. Open hood, check cables, etc. Again, had it towed to Mazda (figured I got a crap starter and would get my money back). Apparently the guy I had bought the car of off had tighted the positive cable so much that all there was was about 3 strands of wire holding it on.

Third occurence - 8 days after the second....pissed.
Drove car from London to Windsor, about 180kms. Car ran great all the way. Started 3-4 times again after I got there and went for a couple rides to show it off to some buddies, still running strong. Following day, started up....BAM, all the way up to 4000rpm, yet again. Seemed to go down to about 2500rpm, then it would slowly rise up to 4000rpm again. The car is manual and literally gave the car no gas what so ever for the next 25kms, it was doing fine accelerating on it's own. Then it started, slowly my battery meter faded to NIL and I was stranded on the side of the road.
Fortunately, my brother lives above a garage, your friendly old-school kind and I had the car towed there.

The mechanic looked over the car and the starter from Mazda was cooked. He replaced it, and unlike Mazda went further to see if he could find the source.

He checked all wires to see if any were grounding out, none. Checked ignition and it was fine. Bench-tested the alternator, fine. Battery was at 13.5 volts, which drew some concern. Replaced alternator and re-tested. It read at 12 volts, problem. He intentionally left lights on all night to see if the battery would come down. Checked in the morning, still at 13.5 volts. He suggested I replace the battery as it could be causing some of the problem.

I drove the car for the last week and a half without any problems. But have noticed an inconsistentcy on the battery meter. One day it's barely at 12, the next it's hovering around 13.5-13.8.

Has anyone heard of or experienced anything like this before...should I try replacing the battery and if so, what kind of battery works best with the RX7..Optima?

Any help will be greatly appreciated. I bought this car with full intention of showing the prowess of the rotary engines and was hoping to eventually get it out on the strip.

Sorry if there has been a similar post in the past, but I have looked for the last 2-3 days without any luck.

Again, thanks for any help!

Frustrated newbie...

jasonwiper1

any kind of feedback would be great