Hi All-

About a week ago I took my '90 GXL out with a friend that didn't believe the high rpm capability of this car. So anyway, I bounced it off the limiter (first time ever done by me) and shifted to second and a violent vibration started (steering wheel and shifter and other parts of the dash) and persists worse at higher rpms in ANY gear (even neutral) at ANY speed, standing in the driveway or cruising down the highway. It's not as bad in Idle but still noticeable.

So I took it to Carswell's Rotary Connection in Pataskala, Ohio (east of Columbus) since this is the guy that rebuilt this motor 10-20k ago (before I bought it). He told me that the stationary gear(?) is stripped and that he would have to tear down the engine for at least $2500. Even with my limited rotary knowledge I find this hard to believe on a fairly fresh rebuild and it hasn't lost any power at all. It still runs strong, the motor runs smooth and quiet. Maybe I am in denial since I just bought this car a month ago and don't want to accept that repair is going to be more than what I paid for it.

What do you think?

 

Yea that price is screwing you. You can get a reman motor from mazda cheeper. I am not sure what one is the stationary gear I would have to look it back up but far as I know if its not a rotor gear tehre is only the fly wheel or the items in the front cover housing with you can access in the car in about 45min with air tools. Sounds like you may have lost a apex does it smoke? test the compreshion and see what you get and I would ask about ho rebuilt it. There should not be a REV limitor in that car so the fact that it bounced should say something maybe you smacked the rotor into the housing. If your friend wants high rev rotoary to show off take him to test drive an rx-8 I would never try to push my FC as far as an 8

 

That's too much for just a teardown. You should be able to get a complete rebuild for that much.

 

I'd check other things first. Did he even venture into which 'stationary' you supposedly stripped? Regardless, I seriously doubt that's the problem. I'd look into tranny mounts, engine mounts, and then i'd venture you probably broke something on the clutch/flywheel. Check the simple things first.

 

I've never experienced that myself (or heard of it for that matter), but I'd assume if the gear was stripped it would be running like complete crap, on one rotor (?). If the power feels normal then maybe something else is up with it.

 

Thanks for the quick response.....It's not smoking at all, like I said, it's running totally smooth and normal with the exception of the interior vibration, with the hood up looking/listening to the motor, everything appears normal.

 

Also, you could change the stationary gears without even tearing the block apart, you could even get all the metal shavings out without tearing it apart. I don't really see the point.

 

Thanks for the quick response.....It's not smoking at all, like I said, it's running totally smooth and normal with the exception of the interior vibration, with the hood up looking/listening to the motor, everything appears normal.

And what I mean by limiter is the buzzer went off and then I immediately let off the gas. I assumed that was a limiter. Thanks again.

 

Warning buzzer/limit pretty much. I'd wager you broke a mount, tranny or engine. What kind of vibration do you have inside, just the tranny bouncing around excessively or does the car feel like it's shaking or? Does this only do it in gear?

 

The vibration is variant on engine rpm that shakes the steering wheel shifter and dash. It will do this in neutral sitting in the driveway or in gear while moving.....

 

Good point, sonic. I didn't even think of that b4. Sonic is right if this is the case you could find out by just changing the SGear. Either could be accesed w/o pulling the motor!!!

The answer is yes....you are getting screwed.

 

I'd suggest checking your engine mounts, then I'd do a compression test just for the hell of it, then I'd go back and check the tranny mounts/bushings. If all of that checks out good then I'd pull the inspection plate off the top of the block and give the flywheel a glance. But regardless, you can swap the front stationary by just pulling the front cover/etc apart, and the rear can be changed by dropping the transmission.

 

screw the idiot "rotary mechanic" if the stationary gear stripped it would leave metal in the oil, which shouldn't be hard to diagnose(pull the oil dipstick and or oil drain plug and inspect the oil for metal with a flashlight and/or a magnet). a stripped stat gear i would have to assume would tear up all of the internals in the engine unless it is caught and fixed right away, a stripped stat gear would also likely damage the rotor gear so simply swapping it out would only prolong an inevitable recurring failure.

have you looked at the motor and tranny mounts? they could be the culprit or something could have come loose and is riding on the frame of the car somehow, do a visual inspection of the engine and it's surroundings to see if something is rubbing on the subframe or chassis anywhere then pry on the mounts and check to see if the rubber is still in one piece. you can also check the mounts by putting on the emergency brake and lightly putting a load on the engine and slipping the clutch in forward and reverse, if the engine pulls up more than an inch or so on either side then the mounts are toast. as well as these check the exhaust all the way to the rear of the car making sure it is not contacting anything anywhere.

 

You are the second person that has posted in the last month about this shop and his questionable reasons for doing his $2500 rebuilds.

The last guy is in the 1st gen section and was charged $350 for a compression test and diagnosis.

 

this guy knows what he's doing when it comes to rotary engines, he just charges a bitchload of money for everything because im pretty sure rotary business here in central ohio isn't exactly booming. ill agree his prices are high but they know what they're doing there. theres no doubt that if you paid for the repair it would get done right, your wallet just might hurt (a lot) afterwards.

by the way, where do you live, bing? i live over in gahanna... (yay?)

 

Hey! It said that it wasn't posted due to an upstream error.. .stupid lying forum scripts!

 

I think everyone seems to agree that it isn't a stripped stationary gear, but just for the sake of clarification... what would a stripped stationary gear do? i would imagine that you'd get a metallic "ping" (detonation sounding almost) do to the rotor not aligning properly for the rotation, resulting in a "slap" of the housing.. Anyone have any ideas?

 

I hope you are right! It's going to another shop for a sceond opinion later today, I am interested to see what they say. *keeping my fingers crossed*

 

don't tell the new shop what the old shop said. see if they contradict themselves.

 

Is it even possible to strip a stationary? It seems like the motor would lock up... wouldnt it?

 

You'd most certinaly lose a rotor/seals out of the ordeal since the rotor would be free to spin as it wishes and slap/smack the housing, which would then bind up and lock up, so yeah, I guess so.

 

sounds like mounts to me

 

i think its prolly the mounts too or some kind of bushing, i doubt the stationary gear, i hear u dont even need hardened stationary gears and youll be fine but i really dont know what it takes to break them but obviously there made for high rpm use or it wouldnt let u rev that high

 

This 'ill get em started

What nobody has ever said (at least the post I read) is how do the rotors know which tooth on the stationary gear to be on at a given time???? Let me state it more clearly. During a rebuild, the video just told me to place the rotor on the front iron and stationary gear with one of the points facing 6 O'clock. Then after the housing was slid on and then the E-Shaft then the middle Iron the next rotor was placed at like 2 O'clock.

Well that was just not exact enough for me but my motor ran fine. Here is the question:
Should the rotors be "timed" somehow???? How do they know where do be and what position to be in at what time.

Could this guys Rotors be in the wrong place, causing and vibration???

I personally think the answer is no but I'd like to hear more of how the Rotors are soo easily placed and timing is so easily achieved.

 

good question, I'm curious as well.