A few days I saw a FD on the back of a tow truck. I ask the tow guy about the car. He said that owner was leaving Okinawa in a few days and need to de-register and junk that car. Told him I would like buy some parts off it, he said he didn't have time or space to take it apart. So I asked him how much you want for this car? He said that the old owner could not get the car to start for like a year. we talked some more came to an agreement and money changed, keys changed hands. He dropped it off at my apt.

I tried to start it but no luck. I didnt hear the fuel pump running. I never had a FD that kept before. I had a few parts car in the past. So remember the fuel pump wires is really easy to get to. I got out the DMM and started checking. 0 volts on the white and red power wire. so I started checking the grounds. so I measured across the pump to see what the resistance is. beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep when the meter hmmm that is odd LOL short on the pump. I have a spare super TT pump I was going to use on Cosmo. swapped out pumps. I didnt trust the stock power wire so I ran a test wire from the batt to pump and hear it running and fuel flowing.

turned the key on and it started right up 1st time. about 20 minutes later I guess my FC got pissed off and the tire went flat LOL.

I guess i will keep the FD and turn it into a track only car. all the inside dash parts are broken looks like it had a hard last few years. Im working on getting replacement dash parts now.


here is a few pics.






ewwwwwww it has a sun roof


so Im planing on build a track only car

LOL time to fix the rats nest



1st start after fixing the pump. at least it starts I can fix the idle later.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yftbbLYbd2Y


I never met the owner of the car. The Tow truck guy said that the old owner wants the tires back from the car. So if this was you old car contact me here with a PM or come stop buy my office so we can get the tires worked out.



1st mods will be fix the rats nest
larger oil cooler
koyo rad
PFC or maybe Haltech

in a few months
coil overs
change to single turbo
change injectors
remove vacuum spider

 

That's awesome. Buddy of mine bought a TII out of a junk yard several years ago. Body was awesome but it was "blowed up". He took it home, put a fuel pump in it, and was driving it around the block in about 2 hours.

We're also carrying PFC now, if that's your flavor. Drop me a line if there is anything we can do for you.

 

Wow. Great story. Congrats.

That tach cracks me up. RX-7s have always had big central tachs. I've never understood why people feel the need to add one off to the side.

 

SCORE. Glad you saved a good one!

Dale

 

Can you help me find my PS2000? I sent it back on Dec 8th and never heard back from Haltech.

My Cosmo build has been pushed back
https://www.rx7club.com/old-school-other-rotary-63/picked-up-92-cosmo-895259/page4/

 

Wow you got lucky with that catch!!

Why on earth would the previous owner wanna junk the car. I mean it looks great, even has some nice wheels on it too.

I bet you got a good deal too.

 

I thought stories like this only happened in movies.

Makes me want to move to Japan...

What do you mean by vacuum spider?

 

remove all the unneed vacuum lines to just the basics. Take a look under the upper intake manifild and you will see what I mean.

This car has some electial issues. So I might just end up doing a Haltech on it so I can do a clean install and not have to 2nd guess a 20 year old stock harness.

like this is an example on my Cosmo project look at all those vacuum lines. I really on need just few of them

 

I'll call tomorrow.

 

Good find Tony. Let me know if you have any spare FD goodies you dont want bud.

 

cool thanks man

thanks man. sure I will keep an eye out for you. How is your car doing?


well I let it run to warm up to check if the fans ever come on. check they work. but seamed like a long time until they came on.
during warm the idle goes from 2000 ~ 2500 bouncing once it warmed up a little it settles down to 1800.
I tried the idle adjustment and it was already turn almost all the way out and not even touching the idle lever.

I have not had a FD before would vacuum leak make the idle jump up to 1800 rpm? the surging idle makes me think maybe the tps is out of wack

 

Going pretty good Tony. Im rebuilding it currently and cant wait to get it on the road again. Tony, I would check the TPS as you stated first and if that checks out then I would be suspicious of the vacuum lines. Ive seen numerous FD's have erratic idles due to vacuum leaks. The culprit could even be a solenoid.

 

Tomorrow I will test the tps and spray some carb/brake cleaner around while its running see if it has a vacuum leak.

 

Thats because most guys who go to okinawa tend to beat the hell out their cars first yr and end up breaking them. One thing leads to another wheter its a deployment or finacial issues and the car sits. Time to check out and they have a vehicle that is still registered on base and the military wont check them out till it gets done properly.

In the other hand Tony saved this fd, suck the owner didnt know jack! Wich base was it from?

 

good find there

 

yup that is exactlly correct. It broke down and sat for almost a year from what I am told. He had to get it deregisted so that he do his PSC check out.

Camp Schwab is where I got the car. I dont recall ever meeting the owner of the car in person. So how long it sat and what happened is just 2nd hand info from the tow truck guy.

 

Lol im more than familiar with the "rats nest" just never heard the term vacuum spider. Best of luck keep us posted.

 

Schwab he was a grunt, yeah you got lucky man even if you part her out you came out on top . I cant wait till I get orders to go back. I did almost 60 months in Hansen.

 

I heard he was from Ammo company but im not 100% sure.

you need to get back out here man.


I wonder if I can use the PFC from my FC to measure the tps volts that would make it so easy using the commander.

 

well its a long weekend so I will have time to mess with car in the day time. tonight I started up after it warmed up it idled at 1800 but then I turned on the headlight and the shot up 2500 and started hunting from 2200 to 2500. tomorrow in the day time I will check the tps and try with iac unplugged

the speedometer works but the odometer does not seam to display anything.

 

well had a little time to trouble shoot the idle between rain drops.

I disconnected the inter cooler pipe at the elbow to test if the source of the leak was external or internal. I started the car and put my hand over the inlet and it shut of right away. if it had been a external leak like a vacuum line or solenoid it would have tried to stay running. so it had to be something in TB or UIM that was by passing air and bumping up the idle. took off the elbow and tested the IAC and as soon as I blocked it with my finger the idle came right down and car seams fine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf9OSK0Dgo0

 

disconnected the idle control and it idle fine now. also found a broken stud on the TB so the elbow is only held on by 3 nuts. I think i have a spare TB in my parts room.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al0IKy0fiAo


What would make the idle control go crazy and run the idle up to 1800?

 

Awesome Tony. Good job locating the problem.

 

well I have brave enough to open the rad cap today. ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww turned out it only had water in the car. man I hope it was not tap water. anyway before I run it again im will change out the oil and the coolant.

 

I was in Okinawa at Kadena from Nov '00 to Nov '03. I never thought to look for an FD, wish I could have come across one like you did with this one, wow.

Is it still where you can only own 1 car per person with a total of 2 per family or can you have more now? Do you know any other rotary guys there? I worked with several when I was there, some of them are still there too.

There are a few reasons to junk cars over there, although I'd NEVER junk an FD, especially one still in good shape like this. They have JCI inspections every two years that cost at least a few hundred dollars just to have done, not to mention anything they find that needs to be fixed and you have to pay for, and they go over it very closely. Also when I was there you could only own 1 car at a time unless you were married, then you could have 2 at most. Although to junk a car in Oki is like $250 so I'm not sure why he was junking it instead of just giving it away.

When I deployed from there in 2000 I junked my Mazda Persona (like a family sedan) because I didn't want to pay for a JCI (it would have cost a fortune on that car) and I didn't have time to give it away, plus it really wasn't worth saving. It was rusted to **** and infested with roaches, like many cars over there.