Alex..I'm just going to jump in to say Thanks..for restoring my faith in newbies..Your description of your problems are excellent..and the guys answering(the main "repliers") know their stuff..This has to be the Best Thread I have read since I first started reading The Forum..and in closing wish you all success with your newly acquired RX7..Good Luck!..misterstxy69

 

The windows on my 83 GSL were sticking but was pretty sure it was the switches.when I priced them at $130.00 a piece I decided to take them apart and check them.I f you do this I have to warn you TINY little pieces inside switch.I dropped a couple of springs and rockers and had to take the seats and carpets out to recover them.Cleaned contacts and reassembled and not a problem since.

 

Alex, if you can find a co-pilot who has done a clutch before, have access to a decent set of tools and a reasonable workspace, you should do it yourself. Not only will you save the $600+ you would pay a mechanic to do this, you will learn more than you would in most 3 credit college courses (about $2000 a pop, depending on the school) and you will know it was done right.

You need the co-pilot for guidance and to answer questions as you go along and to provide moral support. I was fortunate in having a neighbor who walked me through the first time, in his spacious heated garage with all the fixings, but the next time I did it myself out in the gravel driveway. It's a real nice feeling when you put everything back together and it works.

Also you need to be ready to get greasy, kind of hard to get used to at first, but the girls love it. Let us know how it goes.

Ray

 

Hi Alex. That is 200,000 miles without a rebuild and still running strong. I am not the original owner, I've had her for about 3 years now. When I got her she barely ran at all, and was not very driveable. Lots of work went into it, but I've never regreted it for a minute. To tell you the truth, the more I drive it the better it seems to get even without fixing everything under the sun. It's almost like the act of driving has a healing effect of some sort. lol. Those are 150 watt driving lights that I picked up about ten years ago, and I don't remember where I got them or I'd pick up some more. They really help out with all of the deer that we have in this area (always a hazard at any speed). Good luck with your new love!

 

Maybe a little redundant but I'm trying to narrow down the cause of the problem as much as I can before I actually get under my 7.

- Could the release bearing being shot/having something else wrong with it be the cause of the clutch not disengaging?

I appreciate all of your help so far and I'll let you all know how this works out.

Thanks again,
Alexander Hipple

 

The throwout bearing is what slides the clutch in/out. So, if it was really stuck you could have a clutch that was engaged and then never released. Its really a pretty easy fix once you get the tranny dropped...

 

Yep it's time to go into action Alex and quit the speculating. When that tranny comes down and you have a look in there, everything will become crystal clear.

The only thing that you need to do before jacking up the car and getting to work is BE SURE IT"S NOT THE HYDRAULICS! If you haven't done this already, have a friend engage the clutch while you watch the action on the clutch release fork, which you can see by looking down behind the slave cylinder. You should see good action there, movement of an inch or so, and the slave should be rock solid bolted to the transmission housing. Any sloppiness in this action could be your problem so fix this before dropping the tranny.

A couple of suggestions if you do have to remove the transmission. When you jack up the car, BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL TO BE SURE IT IS WELL SECURED WITH JACKSTANDS on a good firm surface, preferably level cement or asphalt. I know of at least one person who's life ended when a jack slipped while he was doing some backyard mechanics.

Also if you haven't picked up a Hayne's manual yet, get one. They are only about $15 new at the local parts store and you will need it by your side when you are out working on the car.

Finally, get a co-pilot. God would do, but a mechanic would be better.

Good luck!
Ray

 

Hello,

Alright, if the hydraulics are not the problem then I should be doing my first clutch job this weekend. I have a Haynes' Manual so I'll be looking through there to make sure that the slave cylinder is bolted up and bled as it should be. If that doesn't work then I'll get at it from under the car. I'll post an update after this is all done to let you all know how's it worked out for me. Keep your fingers crossed because I don't believe that I have the money necessary for me to hunt down a new tranny as of right now. Oh, I did get that job though so I'm sure it will help. Thank you all so much for your help and I hope to talk to you all soon!

Regards,
Alexander Hipple

 

Hello Everyone,

I got that job at the auto shop. I'm pretty stoked, I picked up a clutch kit for pretty cheap. I'm going to put it in this weekend. Just wanted to update and let everyone know that I appreciate their help.

Regards,
Alexander Hipple

 

Just dont drop the trans on you or a friend.......that would be bad, and it kinda hurts.


But on a serious note. did your kit come with a line up tool thingy(place accual name here) cause if not its gonna be a PITA to get everything lined up. But it should have, all kits come with one, well almost. The hardest part will be lining up the input shaft to slide in easily. A strong friend/really trong you/another jack makes it real simple. Its a pretty simple job on the scale from trucks a 2 outta 5. you'll get it done fine. Drive. Smile.

Saunders

 

Well did you get it done, die in the process. I want an update Alex, you show promise

 

Well,

Here's the deal so far...

I got my car into my garage on Saturday and got everything I needed to get the job done. I got my gear oil, my pan to drain into, my jacks/jackstands and my manual. Unfortunately when I tried to unbolt the release cylinder I found that I either

a.) didn't have a long enough extension for my socket wrench

or

b.) I was going about getting at the bolts on there in the wrong way

therefore, I didn't get the release cylinder off and I didn't want to continue past there because I didn't know if trying to drop it while the cylinder was connected would damage anything. I thought about disconnecting the hose leading from the master to the release but I figured I would end up squirting brake fluid all over the place and then figuring out that I still had to disconnect it later on. So, my car is still not driveable. I also saw that I need a torque wrench to torque down the bolts on the pressure plate and I don't have one of those. Luckily, my uncle is an aspiring mechanic and the school he's taking his courses at has a fully stocked auto shop. We're going to get the car in there on Sunday (I'll probably have to steer my 7 while he pulls it on his Suburban with a tow rope) and do all the work, the right way. I'm pretty excited because I should also be able to turn the flywheel and do all of the work that I wouldn't be able to do in my mother's garage. Therefore, Sunday I should be out and about enjoying my wonderful vehicle. I did get a chance to look at a few things under the car though and I'm pretty happy to report that I didn't find any rust. Everything under there is really clean.

Also, a little off topic but still exciting is that I found someone out in Canby (I think it's about a 2 and 1/2 hour drive from where I live) has the same year and model car as me (with a blown engine). Some of his parts are in good working order and since he's junking it I'm going out there to pick some up from him.

- A rear wiper assembly.
- A driver's side mirror.
- Power window motors.
- Anything else I can manage to pull, as long as he's willing to allow me to do so.

I'm a little disappointed that I didn't trudge through with the job and Macguyver my way through the clutch work but I'm glad that I'm waiting because I really want to make sure things get done right. Although, the anxiety I'm experiencing from having to sit in the driver's seat and pretend to fly down an imaginary road is killing me.

Thanks a ton for your interest and support fcdrifter13, you're a rad guy. I'll keep you updated for sure.

Thanks again everyone,
Alexander Hipple

 

LOL we've all been there man....

 

Wow, you know how to phrase stuff quite well.

Did you just try cleaning the window tracks? My friend's GSL (83) had the same problem, and we fixed it by cleaning the tracks.

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned that those exhaust tips hint quite clearly at a racing beat exhaust. Which is good, Alex.

Your car should last at least THREE hundred thousand miles, judging from how you want to take care of it. THe friend with the 83 has around 200,000 on his car, and last I saw it, it ran beautifully.

Welcome, and good luck!

 

RE: gsterror

First, thank you very much for the compliment.

Second, how did you clean the tracks? Any help there would be appreciated since I don't have access to a garage all of the time (it's stored there now but my mom's already getting angry about that) and I don't want to have to bucket bail my interior out every morning.

Third, a racing beat exhaust? Is that a cat back system? When I had the car up on jacks I checked out the pipe and it looked a bit larger than any other stock pipe I have seen so far.

Fourth, I'm really excited about this car so I hope that it lasts for a very long time. There are a lot of things that are going to need to be replaced/fixed/touched up but I'm sure that they will get done as soon as I have money coming in again. So far I have found very little rust on the body and I'm really excited about that as well since I might be carrying out a TII swap in the near future. Also, does anyone have any information on taking the carpeting out? I want to strip it out and replace it with a new carpet kit. I'll search the forum after this but I figured I might as well ask while I was in here.

Thanks a ton for the interest and the good conversation. I look foward to speaking with you again soon!

Regards,
Alexander Hipple

 

You can get a cat back from RB, but I would just go with the whole system. Which is the header, presilencer, and muffler. I think you need to keep one section of pipe off of your curent set-up if you go that way.

As for rust check for some under the car where the bins are located.

 

Racing beat can sell you any part of the system you like. Can you get some pics of your exhaust?
To clean the window tracks, you just take out the interior door panel (I think it's all phillips head screws holding it on), and. . . clean. . . the tracks. Get in there with some cleaning agent and a bunch of paper towels, then apply the THINNEST layer of lubricant (or spray the things with WD40) so they glide nice and smooth. If it works for a car that sat for almost three years in teh desert, it'll work for you

For the carpet, you just find the little screws and snap connectors and start pulling up. I think, but I'm not sure, that you'll need to take the seats out (14MM bolts all around)

 

Hello,

I'm in the middle of my clutch job right now. Luckily I'm not going into work until about two o'clock in the afternoon tomorrow because I think I'm going to be at it for a while longer. I've just removed my shifter... I'm going to go to work on the propeller shaft in a bit and then after that the tranny should be coming down. Thank you all for your help and when I'm done (after driving her first, of course) I'll post telling you all how it went.

Thanks again!
Alexander Hipple

 

Someone suggested to Alex that he might have a RB exhaust system on the car right now. Alex, does the car have a header on it or does it have the stock type exhaust manifold? I looked at the pic of the muffler, but it looks a lot different than my RB. Could be an older version though I suppose...

 

Good luck man, and like I said dont let it fall on you.

 

I'm stuck and I'm pissed. I'm trying to get the transmission mount off and there's a heat shield in the way of me getting the last bolt. I think I might be in over my head with this and I'm pretty heated/tired. Does anyone have a write up of the transmission removal? The Hayne's manual is **** and I'm not following it too well. I'll be PM'ing people now so please don't get upset if you're one of them. After I'm done with the PMs I'm going back out into my garage to see if I missed something.

Thanks,
Alexander Hipple

 

Hmmm I dont remember a shield on my car, but it may have been gone before I got it. Just take it off, unless it looks like its holding something up or something like that. Yes the haynes manual does suck. Try the FSM in the FAQ page it helps, oh wait got a link right here.

http://www.wankel.net/%7Ekrwright/ca...80_manual.html

Just about everything you need is there, well accually everythign is there lol.

Hope that helps out some. Dont get to frustrated, you'll either break something or hurt yourself. If your getting frustrated, go inside and chill out, play a video game where violence is the key to winning and then go at it again.

 

RE: fcdrifter13

You're awesome. Thank you very much for that link, it's so much easier to understand the steps to something when the directions are directed towards the exact year and model of the car you're working on. I believe that some of the stuff in the Haynes' Manual was for earlier RX-7s (70'whatev' through 83') because some of the undercar emissions stuff isn't on mine and I don't believe that any of the emissions control items on my car have been removed (although I'm probably going to do that within the next two weeks). Again, thank you for that link! I'll be continuing to work on the car tomorrow, unfortunately that means I have to take the damned bus to work. I think I'm going to be able to finish the job shortly though, after relaxing (I had a long day with no food/not a lot of sleep last night) I realized that I didn't have that much farther to go before the tranny was out and I was going to be able to get at the clutch. Well, I'm about to eat something, watch a movie and fall asleep. Thanks again man, you're a great help and one chill cat.

Regards,
Alexander Hipple

 

Alex- is the heat shield over a catalytic converter? I'm just wondering if the stock exhaust (meaning a cat) is on there. If not, just rip the shield off and throw it in your neighbor's yard. If you still have the cat on the car, then you might want to keep it to prevent roasting your ride...

And really, pulling the tranny is very simple so don't let stuck bolts and such intimidate you too much. Make sure you unplug the wires on the tranny before you drop it though (just one of those things I always almost forget to do)...

 

Hiya Alex -
While I am not a frequent poster on this site, I encourage you to just keep your head up high, and look toward the future - Your going to get it right, and the RX-7 will drive again!

I have a 1980 RX-7 that I am currently fighting with as well. I understand your pain! You and I will both emerge triumphant at some point in time.
The best of luck to you!
Tazzman69