When I think a fuel line is plugged or dirty, I hook up my little air compressor to the line and it blows the crud out.

On my REPU I filled the hardlines with Metal Ready deruster and purged it several times. Shoulda seen the crud that came out. Now it's rust free though.

 

dang, that new gas tank would have made things easier.

Was just out there tinkering with the car again, there's good news & bad news.

Good: the fuel lines and pump are fine. First, I unhooked the fuel pump from the feed line and ran some gas through the pump, it ran perfectly and nothing weird came out of it. After that I unhooked both lines at the carb and blew on them and a bunch of old gas came shooting out the back, so far so good. Then I hooked the feed/return lines together @ the carb with smaller hose and ran the pump, the gas came out the back return line fine with nothing weird coming out of the line or being picked up in the filters. I ran about a gallon of 91 octane that way for about 10 minutes so the lines are good.

The bad news is that the carb won't flow gas through it, so I'll probably have to take it off and really clean it out. May try rebuilding it if I can find a kit for it. When I hook up the feed/return nothing comes out of the return line. Any easy tricks to unclogging it without taking the whole thing off? I may try going crazy with carb cleaner and see what happens.

on a positive note, I did manage to get her to run for about 5 seconds! heh, I poured a little gas down the carb and turned her over. She started up for a bit meanwhile shooting twigs, dirt & rat turds that were previously hidden all over the place, while this huge plume of white smoke came out the exhaust. It was great, heh.. I was wondering what my neighbors were thinking, but I could just blame it on the landscaping guys that were out there if anyone asked.

soo.. yeah, I guess the weak point in these cars is the gas tank & carb. I'm about to go drop off the tank at the radiator shop.

Mike

 

Sweet....good to hear its coming along.

 

Thats pretty awsome man, i find through my experience that every car i buy that has been sitting for awhile has to have a new fuel pump and a good tank cleaning, every car except my 86 rx7 that say for like 5 years all i did was put a battery on it and crank for like 5 minutes and it cranked, and is still running fine 2 years after that....hahah.... i guess you never can tell, cool find anyways, i always love to take cars that dont run and have been sitting for awhile and bring them back to life, just wish i could get payed for it.....

 

I think I saw that car for sale online awhile back...WAY too much of a project for me >.> goodluck with that!

 

Wow, NICE find with that RX2. That sounds like so much fun fixing it up!!! I'm really anxious to see some pictures now!!! =]

 

Sorry guys for the delay on the pics, I'm still workin' on it. I've run into a little delay, basically my apts. don't want me working on it here so I may have to move it into my storage space to finish putting it together. I'm right in the middle of swapping the carb out and putting the gas tank back on (soon as it's finished), heh. I really need to find a house.

Mike

 

Nice Find! Post up the new pics Mike!

 

Check out Ebay Item number: 230004451369

 

Holy crap. Someone jump on that old Nikki rebuild kit.

 

update: I picked up the gas tank from the radiator shop today, they cleaned it out and recoated the inside -- looks pretty good. I still need to move the car over to storage to put the tank/carb back in, but I think it will be running within a few days if all goes well.

I also sprayed out the whole interior & engine bay (again) with my power washer. Looks pretty clean now. I'm still undecided on what to do with the seats. The fronts are probably usable but the rears got pretty mangled on the underside.

Thanks for that carb rebuild kit #. My pal is letting me use his hardly used stock RX-2 carb he bought new awhile back, but I may try getting that kit for the other nasty one that came on the car.

Mike

 

This has to be the coolest thread I have read in a really long time.

 

Wowee!

What a find! Very,very nice indeed!!!

Makes me miss my Capella Coupe even more!

karis

 

Make sure you ream out the pickup tube...when mine got recoated, it had some of the goop in the tube....

What do you think of trying to sump to the bottom of a stock tank...I've seen a 3rd gen do it...add a 1 inch sump to make and plumb the line from there, some big AN/stainless setup.

 

Hmm, yeah that's an idea. They made a 2nd drain hole on the side corner of mine, I guess to make it easier to drain all the crap out of it. So now it's got 2 drain plugs, heh. I made sure to let them know that was the pickup tube so hopefully they didn't goop it up, but I'll definitely double check.

I should start putting it back together tomorrw. I wanna hear this thing running.

Thanks,
Mike

 

That lichen has taken a likin' to that car. I'm from east sac. Wherebouts did you get this car if you don't mind me asking. Hopefully there are others sitting around

 

Whereabouts in East Sac are you? I'm at 53rd & H...

 

Holy crap, you're a street down from my best friend, what car do you have? I'm always at my friends house off of 54th and H with the seven.

 

'73 RX2 in rescued and barely running condition....

 

Heh, cool. The car was up in Newcastle, basically in the middle of a forest. I was told it had been sitting there for 15 years, and now after going through the car for the past few weeks I believe it.

Tried posting pics last night but the forum was down. Anyway, I was over there working on the car yesterday and again today. Got the gas tank all installed, which was a total pain (for the 2nd time), heh. Being inside the 120 degree storage unit didn't help much either. I need to bring a fan over there next time.

Some of the paint had come off the tank in the cleaning process so I sprayed it with some automotive undercoating, turned out pretty well although I will have to respray the underside as it got all scratched when I was jacking the tank up. I checked the pickup tube and it was good so I went for it. After all the lines were hooked up I put about 2 gallons of gas in and ran the pump with the feed/returns hooked together. I could hear gas flowing back into the tank, so that part is finally dialed in. I'm happy about that.

Today I started working on putting the carb back on, should be only a matter of days if everything goes well. Getting the tank back in there was the hardest part.

Also, here's some updated pics. Some aren't the greatest as I was taking these inside the storage unit which is somewhat limited on space. You can get an idea of how far I've torn the car apart though, heh. Notice how the power washer blasted the paint off where the rat crap/**** has been collecting for who knows how many years. There's also some rust in the trunk I need to sand down and primer.

Mike

 

HAHAHAHAAH I love the HUGE rate trap in the trunk

I'll be following your progress on this, because its nice to see an old rotary being put back on the streets and saved from its demise.
Keep up the good work!

 

Nice job on the tank. I would recommend spraying an underbody coating on the bottom and sides to protect the paint from chipping and the rust starting. I use the Duplicolor Truck Bed Liner. You can buy it in a spray can for small jobs, or by the gallon and use thier sprayer, with a compressor. There is a rubberized aerosol spray that works too.

Color of the car reminds me of some of the Mopar and Pinto impact colors of the era.

 

wow, that thing doesn't have much rust on it for something that sat in a forest so many years. You'd expect it to be a holy car by now

Good Find

Jon

 

Thanks guys.

Yeah I was surprised by the lack of rust also. It was sortof sitting under & next to some trees, so perhaps that helped protect against water damage in the winter months. The lack of rust & body damage is why originally I found it hard to believe it had really been there 17 years.

Mike

 

..was over there earlier putting the carb back on. Eventually got it bolted on (man those are hard to reach), hooked up all the hoses, lines, cables, etc. and got ready to fire her up. She turned over and began to start for about 20 seconds, but I think it was flooded from all the ATF and other stuff I've been pouring down the carb. I pulled the plugs to let them dry out overnight. Also the alternator was making a horrendously loud squeal, so loud I couldn't even hear the engine running. Needless to say I think I'll be replacing that, heh. After she ran for a bit I noticed smoke coming from the fusible link, so I unhooked the battery and checked it out. Turns out the link was all corroded and barely holding together, it fell apart when I took the center piece out. So now I need to find one of those or just jump the wires together.

anyone got a spare RX-2 or RX-3 fusible link? It's not the fuse part I need, but the base everything connects to.

thanks,
Mike