I recently purchased a 1979 RX7 with 15,300 ORIGINAL miles. Needless to say, she's in excellent condition! (I will be creating a build thread to post pictures soon)

All it needed was a new water pump so after replacing that (as well as new plugs, oil & filter, battery, a few radiator hoses, etc) I fired it up. Runs like a champ (Still have to get the idle set, it's waaay too low)



I'm already falling in love with this car, and I just have a few questions about things;



First off, it appears that my hood isn't sitting snugly, mainly at the corners on the latching end (As in the corners closest to the windshield) and upon acceleration the cooling fan is quite noticeably loud.

Is this common on first generation cars? I'm trying to figure out how to word this properly.... ><



Second: Is Seafoam spray safe for use with rotary's? I'm talking about the kind that you spray into the throttle body/carb, not the kind that you pour into the fuel tank.



Third: Did first generation RX7's come in different trim levels? Like GS, GSL, GX, etc etc? If so, how can I identify what my car is?







Thanks, Colin





Oh, I've attached a picture of my car that I took after painting the wheels (as well as the wheels on my XJ)

[attachment=47625:toyz1shrink25percent.bmp]

 

1. I would check for bends in the hinge linkage and for anything that may be making contact on the corners of the hood that would keep it from closing completely.



2. That sounds like a fan hub clutch issue. With the engine off see if the fan spins freely. If not the fan hub clutch is locked up and needs replaced.



3. There were three common submodels of the fb. The gs, Gsl, and the Gsl-se. The gs was the base with the 12a engine and drum brakes in the rear. Gsl was still a 12a engine but with disc rear brakes. The Gsl-se had the 13b engine in it and a LSD in the rear.



Your car looks great and can't wait to see what you do with it! Yellow was a rare color option so take care of that paint.

 

Good call on the fan clutch, she's pretty frozen.



And it looks I've got the base model.



New issue I'm dealing with, maybe someone's experienced this and could help:



I keep popping the 15amp regulator fuse, I suspect that I have a short somewhere. At first I thought it was the license plate lights because one of the wires to them was loose and contacting the body, however after fixing that I'm continuing to burn the fuses. Anyone have an idea where I ought to start looking for bad wiring or a short? This is really frustrating!





Colin

 

What circuit does the fuse cover? Any luck on finding what has the hood ****-eyed? Forgot to mention a lot if people use the seafoam tank additive with positive results, not sure about the spray though...

 

Welcome to world of Rotary engines.

Regarding the various models. Look for a brochure for your specific year Mazda. I don't have a copy for 1979 but I own a 1980 and also have a brochure for 1980.

I'm going out on a limb and assume that the '79 and '80 models were the same. For 1980 there were two trim levels."S" and "GS". They both have the same 1.1 liter engine,

The "S" was offered with a 4 speed manual or optional automatic. The "GS" was offered with a 5 speed manual and optional automatic. Both models had front disc brakes and rear drum. The "S" came with 165HR-13 radial tires, 185/70-13 tires on the "GS". Aluminum wheels and a sun roof were optional on the "GS" only. Intermittent wipers, electric remote hatch release, body side moulding, rear anti-roll bar, driver's footrest were standard on the "GS" but not offered on the "S".

 

^^what he said, the submodels I named were for the 85, which I've owned two of.

 

Is it a 4 speed. if it is keep that tranny has good gear ratios



what fuse keeps poping or is it a fuseable link under the hood

 

Hopefully this gets read, sorry to revive my old thread.



The fuse that kept burning is/was the "regulator" fuse, 13amp if i remember correctly, i'm not in the garage at the moment.





Update:

The voltage regulator contacts were building up, so cleaning those and replacing the condenser fixed it for a while.

Than I put my stereo and subs in the car and wound up frying the alternator.

I parked it after for a month because I was really busy, than recently I went to go start it up and it seemed fine. Than while driving my tachometer pegged, but the fuse is not blown. I cannot figure this out.



So what I want to do is start at the basics.

I want to check my grounds, where are the most problematic ones? Actually, where are any of the grounding points?

 

Thats cool that you had an XJ, i had a XJ with a 5 inch lift and 33s, anyway i sold it and bought my Rex, its an 82 GSL, and i have and 84 GSL-SE parts car (no engine and interior is stripped but all body is straight and most glass is not cracked haha).