hanman

If a car won't start (any car) it comes down to only three things.
1. Spark
2. Mixture (air/fuel)
3. Compression

What have you checked so far?
Do you have GOOD spark on both rotors? If not, we can attack that problem first.
Do you have fuel? Wet plugs? Too much fuel?
Do you have GOOD compression on both rotors?

Tell us what you have checked/replaced so far.
hanman

crankit

Same hose on mine does come off the rear of the engine but the previous owner cut it off so it basically does nothing for me. But car starts and runs fine.

4ohfour

The plugs were wet when i checked em (with fuel) they all sparked (did the pull em out and check test) and i got the 3 pfft's from both rotors.

cheers'

hanman

Do you still have the cat on your car? And, did you ever disconnect the exhaust in front of the cat and try starting the car?
The reason that I ask is because the hose that you found disconnected is the hose that supplies air to cool the cat. If you still have a cat you may have melted it pretty good. I would try starting the car with it disconnected.
hanman

Smeagol

iTrader: (1)

Try cleaning off the plugs with some carb cleaner and blowing them dry with compressed air - or let them dry over night. Seems like you're getting fuel since they were wet. My RX-3 did that once and I was too lazy to buy a new set of plugs. I cranked the engine over without the top plugs a bunch of times, removed all the plugs, sprayed/cleaned them up and let everything dry over night. After that it started right up.

Rotor13B

I'm agreeing with hanman on this one. ten bucks says the cat is toast.

rico05

Another crazy idea: look for a 14gauge wire coming from the back of the engine block, right in front of the tranny. It goes up to the firewall, and attaches to a male connector bolted to the firewall. This is the ground for the spark plugs' spark. I fried mine, and it sounded a lot like your symptoms. Replace this, then try again.

4ohfour

ok, will try all the things as stated tomorrow morning, it's 4:11 am now and i really need to sleep, ugh, this rx-7 is gonna kill me, prolly about 22 hours in the past 3 days has been spent on it. This is what i do with my days off

heh

cheers'

MIKE-P-28

iTrader: (1)

Yeah I had forgot that I had an 82 here once that belong to a friend, I had done some work to it. And he had it towed over one nite, and in the morning I looked t it all day long couldnt why the hell it wouldnt start. I mean I checked everything compression, plugs, spark, i mean everything and still wouldnt start. So as I last resort, I cut the cat off ... (it had already been replaced once, they removed all 3 and put a new big one in the middle) Cut the SOB off and it then ran fine

geikiganger

This is a poud moment for me...some people are actually agreeing with some of my suggestions. Must be learning some things after all . Sorry...just had to share...

hanman

geikiganger,
Yea I agree.
I have been following this thread since the beginning. Mainly because I know how frustrating it is to have a car that won't run.
I have not seen where he has actually taken off the cat to see if it will run. Maybe he has forgotten that post ,or just didn't want to mess with it.
But, if the cat is totally plugged it would prevent him from starting. It's the old trick of jamming a potato in someones exhaust pipe. If the engine can't exhaust the air it can't run.
hanman

4ohfour

welp, after braving the -20 degree weather, i have come to the conclusion that it is not a plugged catalytic converter.

any more ideas?

cheers'

4ohfour

keep in mind i did hear a bang as the engine died

cheers'

hanman

4,
If you heard a "bang", I really think you need to do an honest to god compression test. The sounds ok, three Pffffts deal is only an indicator not the real deal.
Do you have access to a conventional compression tester?
hanman

Suparslinc

pull the plugs, grab a small mirror and flashlight, and turn the motor over by hand. do you see 3 shiny apex seals per housing?

4ohfour

i have a conventional piston engine compression tester, but the book says that i can't use it, is there any way i can mod it so that it will work for the rotary?

cheers'

Suparslinc

pull the needle out with some pliars. Or, it might have some switch where you can turn it off so it will bounce instead of holding a reading. This will give you a ballpark idea.

hanman

If you want a relatively accurate compression test you can use a conventional compression tester. Heres the process.
Disable the fuel system, pull the fusible link, plug the fuel lines whatever. You don't want fuel into the chambers when you are turning the engine over.

Pull all of the plug wires.
Pull the trailing (top) plugs from both rotors.
Screw in the compression tester in the top hole of the front rotor. Hold the release "pin" in on the tester, this will allow the pressure to immediately release on each compression "stroke".
Have someone hold the gas pedal to the floor and turn the car over while you watch the gauge. You should see the needle on the gauge start "bumping" up and down. After watching for a few cycles, you can see the three compression cycles. They should all be fairly consistent and not too low.
Repeat the process with the rear rotor.
Also, the car needs a fully charged battery and good starter. It needs to rotate around 250 rpm to get a decent reading.
hanman

geikiganger

Ok, I would have been a lot prouder if I was right .
Anyway, what kind of 'bang' did you hear? Was it a backfire bang, blown seal bang, or maybe a hit something large in the road bang?

4ohfour

it was a bang that i felt right through my seat.

i cheked underneath and i can;t find anything that may indicate a collision with anything.

i will do the compression thing tomorrow.

results post asap

cheers'