jimmdog

My SE sets about 1/2 in low on the left front corner. I have new struts springs & bushings. Im thinkin Hmm? battery & AC compressor need to go? My SE parts car sits the same way any ideas?

Metallic_rock

wierd... yeah... get rid of the A/C, put the battery in the back right bin. Get a battery relocation kit from summit. They're really cheap. Like 40 bucks.

LongDuck

Before you go moving stuff around without doing your homework on 'corner weighting' - first take a close look at your struts and upper strut mounts and make sure that you don't have a failing part. If your upper strut mounts are going out, the front end will usually sit lower on that side by just a bit. This is also exacerbated by spring perches (rubber mounts) that have deteriorated over time. These rubber seats help to keep the spring from 'twanging' over bumps, and also add about 1/4" to 1/2" of ride height when they're new.

Because of the weight that they support, the rubber seats usually crush down to their final size within about a month or so from installation.

My SE sits level and that's with A/C and the battery located where Mazda designed it. HTH,

peejay

All 1st-gens seem to have that lean.

It's probably a confluence of P/S pump (if there), A/C compressor, battery, steering gearbox, and steering column all on that side of the car. Plus, the engine is offset a few inches to the left side of the car, for exhaust clearance to the steering gearbox on RHD cars.

Just kidding. "Probably"...

Jeff20B

iTrader: (13)

My Cosmo and GLC do it too.

If you want to see if your engine is offset to the side, try to line up the main drive pulley bolt (19mm) with the hood latch and any convenient center point on the front bumper or whatever. The GLC seems to be centered with an RX-3 front cover mount.

Check out your RX-7s because I'm curious to know if Mazda actually did offset the engines in the later cars.

web777

All 4 Rx7's I own had the driver's side lower that the passanger side. I ask a Mazda mechanic and he said most are like that because the battery, driver....etc.

Rx7carl

Try swapping front springs. If that dont work, shim the strut tower. The car is very left side weight biased as has been mentioned. Battery, accessories, driver, driveline all sit left. Makes for a great circle track car.

peejay

Jeff, just look at the RX-7 motor mount plate. HUGE amounts of offset. Or look at a vertical-view engineering drawing of the car - I have several but no way of scanning them in. The engine is definitely cockeyed, it has a significant angle to it. I bet that plays hell with the U-joints.

When I took the stock springs out of the '85, they were the same height uncompressed. Same for the springs that originally were on Paul Aber's car. According to the FSM the driver's side spring is 1/2" taller, so the only explanation is the left side sags faster due to the additional weight on that corner.

Jeff20B

iTrader: (13)

Even though my front bolt is centered, the engine itself is off to one side due to the tranny mount. It caused a clutch fan to have a 1 or 2 degree tilt in distance from the rad from left to right. The tranny tunnel also appears to be offset slightly.