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So quick update. Carried on stripping down the engine bits I have lying around, the only one I got a photo of was the water pump and thermostat neck. As you can see, its seen better days! Anyway, today I went to pick up my donor car, the plan being to either use the shell I have, or this new one as the base and then add the best parts from each one to make one great Rex. First up, I think the seller must have used photos from when he bought the car, because it didn't look anywhere near so shiny in person, and the rust looked significantly worse. And for a car that drives and runs 'perfectly' it has a few issues. First up some pics: My impressions so far: Body: Not great, the rust on the roof and sunroof is pretty bad, although fixable without welding IMO. The rust on the boot is again bad, but fortunately my boot of my other car is in good nick so that's not a huge issue. Most of the panels seem to have decent albeit very faded in places paint. The bonnet is steel and waaaay heavier than my alloy one I need to get a good look underneath, but first impressions are that I probably won't keep this shell. Its got some rust at the windscreen base, some rust nearly through at the petrol filler cap behind the door (no idea how!) I need to really look at it, but I think for the moment its the lesser chassis. Engine: Well it idles perfectly, seems to pull well and smoothly, especially at the top of the rev range.Temps stayed rock steady, even in heavy traffic, oil looks clean. Some issues though, the clutch judders a lot when pulling away, I have a receipt for it being replaced last year and the cars only done 200 miles since, so maybe it just needs to bed in. Clutch release bearing seems to squeak when used and the clutch pedal got stuck on the floor once when I was in traffic, leading to a moment of 'oh curse word the clutch has gone'. Fortunately I was able to pull it up by hand. The throttle cable feels a bit sloppy, but the main issue is on overrun and deceleration, its really quite rough, jerky and bouncy. A quick google leads me to believe this is most likely the anti after burn valve. (I'll test tomorrow) Starts well hot, not had a chance to try cold yet. Suspension. Absolute turd, I have no idea how a car can pass an MOT like this, it clunks between accelerating and decellerating, weird knocks when braking, and feels a bit wobbly if I upset it. I'm pretty sure every single rubber bush is probably shot. However despite all that the car was great fun to drive, the chassis really feels special despite the suspension. Brakes were cack. They were binding half the way home (although its improved a bit) and I guess need a full rebuilt, discs and pads as well no doubt, hand brake didn't work. Pedal was very mushy and needed a lot of force to get good braking so I think a fluid change is in order. Electrically everything worked apart from the stereo which I think isn't plugged in, which is a real shame as I'm dying to try this cassette I found inside it: So current plan is, do the minimum amount of work on the new car to make it reliable, safe to drive and not looking like a complete shed. Then spend my time thoroughly rust proofing and prepping the other chassis, finally swapping everything across sometime this winter. More to come after I get some sleep!
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,862
Club RR Member Number: 58
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the clutch pedal got stuck on the floor once when I was in traffic, leading to a moment of 'oh curse word the clutch has gone'. Fortunately I was able to pull it up by hand Haha mine did exactly the same thing back near when I first got it I ended up replacing the slave and master cylinders as well as the flexi line and didn't have any issues after that Nice work on picking up the donor car, looks like you should definitely be able to make at least 1 good car out of the pair
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Cheers! I'm in a conundrum as I can't decide which one to keep. The other body is definetly in good condition, but its such a PITA to swap everything across. I'll think on it. Had a bit of a lay in today as I was up for over 36 hours the previous day when collecting the car. I stupidly disconnected the Anti-Afterburn Valve to see what sort of difference it would make to how the car would run, I then promptly forgot I did it and was puzzled when the car wouldn't idle without dying. I literally spent a couple of hours researching what could cause it until I remembered what I'd done. doh! Its back to normal now, but I'm not convinced its running rights, its very 'burbly' down low and jumpy on the ovverun so I think more investigation is needed. Anyway I gave her a really good wash, and a really good vacuum and she's looking a lot more acceptable now. On the drive back I'd noticed the rear was really crashy, and when parked in the driveway it looked like the right hand rear was lower than the left. As a temporary fix I figured I'd swap across my rear shocks and springs from the other chassis. I've got to say, it really is easy to do on this car, jack up, axle stand, wheel off, one bolt from bottom and two from the top, drops straight out. Although the shocks look the same, the ones I've put in feel a lot firmer, and the top mount rubber is still attached, whereas in the ones I took off it had de-laminated. It does feel like rides better, but that could be placebo, Its still really crashy, most likely all the bushes are shot anyway. Also it still doesn't look level, I'll check tomorrow on the road, but I think this picture shows what I mean. I'm going to run through the 'major tuneup' section of the manual, and see if that fixes anything engine wise. I also need to get the stereo wired up (important!), and get started on fixing some of the rust. Even if I don't keep it I might as well sort out the visible bits.
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As to an answer as to which shell to keep i'd look at both cars carefully and run through each ones bad areas. Once that's done the one with the least gets kept. Once the rot has set in getting shot of it is more a PITA than swapping over from one car to another. Essentially you want the best of both cars in the one you're retaining.
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1980 Vauxhall Cavalier MK1 1970 Mobyleete 40T custom 1978 Mobylette 50V 1965 Moulton Standard 1979 Raleigh Grifter custom 1980 Raleigh Grifter 1982 Raleigh Grifter BMX custom 1982 Raleigh Bomber 1987 Strida
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I've pretty much made my mind, I'm keeping my original chassis. Its a shame, because I would have liked to have kept the clocks saying 55k mileage, but since I'm rebuilding the whole thing I suppose it doesn't really matter. The original chassis I have is essentially sound, with the odd spec of rust around stone chips etc, but on the whole good. This new one, I keep finding new bits everywhere, its really bad around the sunroof (see later pics) but I also found a hole the spare wheel well, and various bits around the engine bay, and creeping under the windshield. So current plan is get the car I'm driving now into 'good enough' condition, which means dealing with the obvious rust, full service, new discs and pads, fit my reconditioned injectors and a couple of other things. Any who, progress has been made: I've been trying to use the Rex as much as possible because after doing less than a 1000 miles in the last 5 years, it really needs some use, and it lets me pin point all the rattles and noises. She looks quite good from the right angles. Pretty obvious which car I had to park next to. New and old. So onto the progress, my first goal was to get rid of the rust around the sunroof. Halfrauds no longer mix up paint and they don't have the shade of red I needed, however for the purpose of stopping it rusting and making it look reasonable again I went with a Mazda 'Classic Red'. Side note, can't believe how little actual paint they give you. I used two cans for two sun roofs and really could have done with a third. So after some initial attacking it, I decided to get medieval and take the whole sunroof out, it would also let me strip it down and get the tracks cleaned up and hopefully working smoothly again. Two cars, two sun roofs. The rusty sun roof was literally so bad it has holes in it, so I'm putting it onto my other chassis temporarily, when I swap everything across I'll do the same with the sunroof. (excuse my feet in the back of the shot) Not pretty, but it'll do for a car that's sat under a cover and has no engine. I filled the holes with epoxy. Apres rattle can spray job it looks better than that in real life, and should polish up OK. Now as I was removing the sunroof it was literally raining rust, so I was expecting some serious rot, I wasn't disappointed. Now before I continue I'd just like to point out that I'm not keeping this chassis, the following in no way constitutes a proper a repair, its a temporary stop gap until I finish the other chassis. However if you're offended by bodges, look away now! I epoxied a piece of aluminium to the back of the metal. I then used more pieces of alloy (not pictured) to build it up to the correct thickness where required, couple with metal epoxy filler. As a job I'm ashamed of it, as a bodge using bits I have lying around, I'm quite proud! Job finito: Next I did an oil and filter + air filter change. No pics, I'm sure we've all seen it before. I ripped out the tape deck and installed a proper head unit, took an hour or so as the wiring was a bit everywhere. Amazingly the electric antenna worked. The current job I'm working on is the injectors, the car smells a bit of fuel and had a very rich idle, and was very rich in general, especially at low revs. I suspect leaking injectors so I'm fitting the reconned ones I had cleaned on the other engine. Unfortunately I got rained off so this is where I stand tonight.
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Sweet build. Love the old rotaries.
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Finally got the car running again today. After the injector saga, it turns out my reconditioned injectors had seized up again, they're now on their way to the big scrap heap in the sky. I had the already working injectors tested, cleaned and new seals etc fitted and put them back in. Hopefully the last view I see of under here for a while, must have had it off about 4 times in 2 days! Those fuel pipes a real PITA to get on and off. I may end up swapping them for AN fittings. The screw had fallen out of the pulsation damper, I carefully refitted it and ran a twenty minute pressurisation test with the yellow connector bridged. No leakage at all, so hopefully its still OK. While it was all apart I did a full coolant flush and replaced the thermostat with a MAZDA OEM one. The coolant looked a lot more like water than coolant, so probably a good thing I'd done it. I also replaced the plugs, which look like they've seen better days. And finally a package I've been waiting for a while turned up. I bought these several times from companies that claimed on their website to have them in stock only to find out later that they'd been discontinued. In the end eBay pulled through. The pads aren't the greatest, but its only an NA, less power than the average family diesel these days, and I made sure to get properly coated discs, nothing worse than rusty discs. Before fitting I'll take the calipers off the other car and rebuild / pain them, then I'll refit + flush the fluid at the same time and hopefully have an as good as new braking system.
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,862
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Aug 10, 2017 10:03:30 GMT
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Aha its slightly amusing to me because I had the exact same issue with getting brake discs Did your new spark plugs look like those old ones in terms of design?... I thought rotaries used different design spark plugs with a flatter end on them (or at least the NGK ones I've taken out and fitted have) Dunno if its different for the NA mind
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Aug 10, 2017 12:29:28 GMT
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No my new ones had a completely flat end with like a 4 way cross shaped channel for the spark. I also have some Mazda OEM plugs I found in the wheel well, and they're the same design.
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,862
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Aug 10, 2017 13:53:20 GMT
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No my new ones had a completely flat end with like a 4 way cross shaped channel for the spark. I also have some Mazda OEM plugs I found in the wheel well, and they're the same design. Aye those are the ones I'm thinking of, should run a lot better now its got the right spark plugs in it!
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Aug 10, 2017 14:48:11 GMT
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No my new ones had a completely flat end with like a 4 way cross shaped channel for the spark. I also have some Mazda OEM plugs I found in the wheel well, and they're the same design. Aye those are the ones I'm thinking of, should run a lot better now its got the right spark plugs in it! Haven't noticed a difference! I've done the plugs on every petrol car I've owned, and I've never once noticed a difference! Not even on the turbocharged engines. I just accept its one of those things.
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luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
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Aug 10, 2017 17:03:26 GMT
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No my new ones had a completely flat end with like a 4 way cross shaped channel for the spark. I also have some Mazda OEM plugs I found in the wheel well, and they're the same design. BUR9EQP World's most boring post ever?
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Aug 10, 2017 20:59:41 GMT
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I actually went with BUR9EQP for trailing and BUR7EQP for leading. Which is what I found on all the Rx7 sites online.
However I think for the UK RX7s they specified the same plug for leading and trailing. Oh well.
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luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
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Aug 10, 2017 21:01:34 GMT
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It'll be fine. Different heat grades aren't a bad idea at all... I have 10s and 11s in my FD.
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Aug 17, 2017 20:48:53 GMT
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Brief little update. I've been using the car fairly regularly, and with work haven't had a huge amount of time to work on it. I did reset my idle, and adjust the throttle position sensor, which has made a MASSIVE difference to how it drives. A lot smoother on deceleration, and a none of the bucking and kangarooing I used to get while driving in stop start traffic. There's still excessive lash in the drivetrain, but its far more manageable now, and I'll probably cope with it until I swap chassis. Today I finally had a day free. so I decided it was time to stop procrastinating and rebuild the front brake calipers, and change the discs and pads. I'll also flush through new brake fluid. As I don't have a proper compressed air supply I could only do one side at a time as I was having to use the brake hydraulics to push out the caliper pistons. Initially I started wire brushing it as one piece, but it was pretty awkward to get to all the areas so I ended up splitting it, good job really as there was tons of crud inside. Installed the new seals and the pistons, which is again a lot easier with the caliper in two parts. Couple of coats of enamel to keep it looking nice. I was going to paint the Mazda logo red, but I didn't have a small enough brush to make a proper job. Thought whilst I was under I'd do the drop links, I'd picked up some Passat ones as according to the UK forum they're a direct swap... Well the length is correct, but unfortunately they are out be 90 degrees! After being rained off the job I got back outside to get wrapped up on the passenger side. Bled fresh brake fluid through and gave it as hard a push on the brake pedal as I could, no leaks at least. The plan was to crack on with the other side, but disaster struck. The top caliper bolt sheared as I was taking it out. Given its diameter that along was quite impressive. It looks like I'll have to swap across the hub carrier from the other car, unfortunately I rounded the clamp nut on the ball joint off when I tried to take it off. I guess this is the consequence of working on a a 31 year old car. Luckily it seems like ball joint bolts on with two bolts, so hopefully its just a case of taking it off the suspension arm. TBC.
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Aug 18, 2017 21:50:08 GMT
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Frustrating day. I had to swap across the hub carrier from the other chassis. Once sentence doesn't really do justice to the amount of time it took to get them swapped. 31 years of rust had really done their thing, it took a good half day to do. After I'd done the swap I got on with stripping, cleaning up and servicing the other caliper. Finally got it all back together, bled the system, and did some hard foot on the pedal tests. Noticed it was leaking from around the hardline to caliper joint, tried to nip it up a fraction and the bolt stripped. That was enough for my, I packed up my tools in disgust. 2 days for a front disc and pad change along with a caliper rebuild. I'll have to take it all off again and work out if the caliper or flare nut has stripped. As its an alloy caliper I'm guessing that. Will probably have to steal one off the other car... Which means another caliper rebuilt... FFS.
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Sept 13, 2017 22:03:15 GMT
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Its been quite a while since I updated. After the problem with the brakes I didn't get a chance to look at it again until after my Holiday, since then with work and other stuff I didn't have a huge amount of time to work on the Rex, but anyway I've got a bit done. First off I got the brakes working, I had to use the calipers from my donor car, unfortunately the pistons were completely seized, after trying tons of ways to get them out I ended up losing my patience and drilling and tapping the pistons and using a bolt to force them out. I then rebuilt using pistons from my other set of calipers. After bleeding I went for a test, and something wasn't right, the brake pedal was mushy. Opening the bonnet showed a mess of brake fluid everywhere under the master cylinder, it had chosen this moment to have the seal let go. I ended up having to strip it off and swap across the good cylinder from the other car, which of course meant bleeding all four corners, which was a complete PITA. But at least I know I have fresh fluid through out now. With that done I turned my attention to the next important items, ball joints, inner and outer tie rods and new steering rack boots. I'd had to order my tie rods from America because on the manual rack they have a different thread size at each side of the car, and of course they weren't available in the UK anywhere I tried. The tie rod ends were completely seized so I ended up removing the tie rods as piece. Looks like someone managed to cross thread this one, luckily the new one managed to clean out the thread and screw in properly. As I couldn't unscrew the tie rod end to count the turns, I used the Tipex method to get the alignment close enough. All installed: With both sides done all I have left to do to this car is the rear brake rebuild, at which point I'm happy that its safe enough to use, and I can start getting on with prepping the other chassis for the swap. She's now under the carport which should hopefully make work on her a touch easier. I feel a bit greedy having TWO FC's in the driveway!
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Sept 13, 2017 22:09:35 GMT
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I feel your brake pain. Nothing like doing one bit only to have another go pop!
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Quick update, not a huge amount of progress because I need pull my finger out and get stuck in. I've been getting bogged down trying to fix an idle problem on the running Rex, when in reality its winter and I can come back to that when I swap the engine across. One job I wanted to have a look at was seeing if there was any easy way to mod the seats to slide further backwards. I'm 6'4'' and legroom in this car is an issue, I just manage proving I wear trainers with thin soles. As can be seen in the photo, there is room for going further back, additionally I'll be removing the back seats so should gain even more space. Unfortunately, it looks like I'll have to move the seat further back on the slider, there's no simple way to do this. I'll return to it when I'm building up the other car. I did take the opportunity to clean the rust of the rails and give them a coat of paint. I also dismantled cleaned and reassembled with fresh grease. Back to the other car, my first job is the underside. I want to completely seal it to prevent any rust from happening, I'll also be painting all the suspension components. I've got the rear suspension out. I removed the springs / shocks / hubs. And then dropped the sub frame and diff in one go, it was rather surprising how easily it came out. With the diff out the car, stripping it was a lot easier than it would have been in situ. The only other job I did was to modify some Passat ARB links to fit the rear of the Rex. I've got 4 days off after Tuesday night, so hopefully I can make some good progress.
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,862
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Nice work on that rear suspension, are you going to change/upgrade any bits? Swapping out the DTSS bushings seems to be quite a common people mod that people do
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