adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,949
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Little update today as the 7 is back from the bodyshop Sills are looking awesome and I'm very happy with them, the bodyshop also gave the paint a quick polish which has left the car looking nice and shiny again (I need to get some wax on to try and preserve this a bit..) I've ordered some 'Turbo II' decals to go on the wings which I think will really finish off the look of this part of the car as well. Also I'll get tyres fitted to the Rays in the week and get them on. Since I got the car back, the interior light seems to work with the doors opening again which is a nice bonus haha, coupled with how it now idles from cold again, most of the issues that I listed when I tried to sell it have now been sorted. The other two big things were the condition of the convertible top, and the rear suspension knocking. I'll probably look into buying a cheap set of ebay coilovers to sort the latter issue next month.
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,244
Club RR Member Number: 146
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That looks a lovely job, you can't see what they've done.
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,949
Club RR Member Number: 58
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That looks a lovely job, you can't see what they've done. Absolutely, they did well considering there were about 3 different shades of red on the car to match to...
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Oct 11, 2017 13:55:53 GMT
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Great stuff!
Looks nice now!
Regarding the rear suspension knock. I doubt coilovers will fix the problem. The knock will be more likely related to one of the bushes in the rear links. Or given the age of the car, most of them!
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,949
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Oct 11, 2017 14:31:54 GMT
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Great stuff! Looks nice now! Regarding the rear suspension knock. I doubt coilovers will fix the problem. The knock will be more likely related to one of the bushes in the rear links. Or given the age of the car, most of them! A fair comment, I need to get the back of the car in the air really and have a good look. Its the way that it knocks though, on suspension compression that makes me think the dampers have gone soft, I shall have to see In the meantime I have a slightly more pressing issue to attend to, went to unlock it after work the other day. The key turned, the passenger door unlocked but the drivers didn't crawling in from the passenger side was a bit of a faff so its due for some investigation!
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,266
Club RR Member Number: 170
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Oct 11, 2017 16:59:37 GMT
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That sill job looks pretty good to be fair! It's good to see that the car is back on track.
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,949
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Oct 18, 2017 18:22:39 GMT
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A week later and I'm still not able to use the car thanks to an inoperable drivers door.. I may be fairly young but I'm also reasonably tall and the cabin is quite small so climbing across from the passenger side isn't really a viable solution Its odd, the little lever inside goes up to indicate the door is unlocked it but doesn't go up all the way, it feels as if something is impeding it. When I try to pull the handle I can hear something trying to open at the trailing edge of the door so I'm pretty sure thats hooked up still Taking off the handle surround didn't yield much, but taking the door speaker off does give me enough room to get my hand in and try to pull at things to get the door unlocked. Poor picture (I shoved my phone in the speaker hole lol) but the black object just to the right of the window rail is, I think, the actuator for the locking mechanism. (The car has had remote central locking fitted in the past) By pulling on the rod going to it, I can make the car lock, I can't get enough of a grip on it to push it to make the car unlock though, likely related to that feeling of something impeding the lock. I've given up on it for today but will have another go tomorrow probably, I'm hoping I can at least get the door open by myself as I'm not sure what the alternative would be.. call a locksmith?..
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Oct 18, 2017 21:23:31 GMT
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I have the same on one of my FCs, must be a common thing.
You'll definitely need the door card off to fix it.
I've not got around to fixing mine yet, but I have a good idea, basically the mechanism pushes a rod, I think it can slip out of adjustment. I'll get some photos of my door for you as I already have the door card off.
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Oct 18, 2017 21:28:21 GMT
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,949
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Oct 19, 2017 17:12:01 GMT
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,949
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Oct 25, 2017 18:21:26 GMT
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I strongly dislike working inside car doors on locking/latching mechanisms. My BMW has thrown a strop so I need the Mazda fully usable again, climbing in from the passenger side just isn't cutting it So today I had yet another go at trying to sort this drivers door issue, it became very clear early on that I wasn't going to be able to get the door open with the door card on. So some screws removed and a bit of brute force gave me this with it lifted up slightly I was able to look down from the top at the door opening/unlocking mechanism. I taped a flat head screwdriver bit to the end of a load of extensions to try and actuate the mechanism directly but it didn't work. So I applied some more brute force and got the door card off completely, with the door closed this was no mean feat! I could then look directly at the mech By reaching in and manipulating some of the levers I was finally able to get the door open! Pic of the mech after door opened for reference Now I'm not quite out of the woods as while the door opened, I wasn't able to lock it.. Some hours passed but I've figured out that I can lock and unlock the door using the key but if I try to pull on the handle with the door locked (as one might absent mindedly do to check the door is locked) it goes back to not unlocking on the key I've left the door card off for now so its not too difficult to reach in and sort if I should do this, but I need to understand the mechanism better to see if its broken, or needs adjusting etc. The arrow shows the part (and direction) that I need to manipulate by hand when the car won't unlock. It's connected to the two rods that go to the exterior and interior door handles. The two rods at the bottom handle locking/unlocking for the external and internal locks respectively. In addition to this, yesterday I limped the BMW back home after trying to go to work as it threw its aforementioned strop. Got in the RX7 as my back up to drive to work and was greeted with a flat battery. Jumped it later and it charged fine, but it seems there is a drain there. I had noticed recently that the little light above the ignition keyhole doesn't seem to go out. As soon as you turn the car off it goes out, but once you then get out of the car and lock up, the light comes back on and stays on. So another little issue to rectify there, or just a sign to use the car more frequently. I need to sell it really
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Oct 26, 2017 15:10:57 GMT
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Can you not operate the door handles and work out which part isn't moving enough / at all and adjust the mechanism?
+ Give the whole mechanism a soak in WD40, toothrbush to clean out the mechanism, and once its all clean use a spray silicone grease to lube it up again.
P.s. If you have a multi meter you can connect it in series between the battery earth and the earth wire to how much current the parasitic drain is taking, this should give you an idea of the cause.
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,949
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Oct 26, 2017 18:58:17 GMT
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Can you not operate the door handles and work out which part isn't moving enough / at all and adjust the mechanism? + Give the whole mechanism a soak in WD40, toothrbush to clean out the mechanism, and once its all clean use a spray silicone grease to lube it up again. P.s. If you have a multi meter you can connect it in series between the battery earth and the earth wire to how much current the parasitic drain is taking, this should give you an idea of the cause. Aye you're right, thats my next port of call. For the moment the door is working enough for me to drive to work so it'll be a job for this weekend I sprayed a load of penetrant at the mech when I was trying to get the door open but I'll get some grease in there as well once its all working right. Yeah I've got a multimeter so I expect I'll get investigating once the door is done, electrical issues aren't exactly my favourite thing haha
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,949
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Oct 26, 2017 21:30:51 GMT
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We have a breakthrough! A very helpful member on the mazdarotaryclub forum noted that my lock mechanism is missing a spring at the top of the mechanism, which goes through the hole I pointed an arrow to in my last photo Hopefully the spring is in the bottom of the door somewhere and is still usable, or else I shall have to try and match it with a replacement..
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Hopefully a nice easy fix then? We like those!
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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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Oct 28, 2017 18:12:28 GMT
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Just catching up with progress, and as soon as I saw that picture I thought "there's a spring missing from that top mounting". *ahem* bit late now, but ...there's a spring missing from that top mounting Sorry
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,949
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Oct 28, 2017 18:40:05 GMT
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Haha no worries, I've not yet found the spring, but to be fair I haven't looked properly yet, seems like thats gonna be a Sunday job now..
I may also have to do a little remedial work to the door card that I rather unceremoniously removed with the door shut...
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,949
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Good news! I found the spring Bad news, its not entirely usable.. Going to be a pain to find one, so I shall have to see what I can find
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jonomisfit
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,782
Club RR Member Number: 49
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If you search lee springs on Google they have a good tech section to their catalogue about how to spec springs.
From that and the bits you have you should be able to work out what you need. Type into ebay and it should turn you the right sort of thing up.
Springs are pretty common and the pic doesn't look especially custom.
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,949
Club RR Member Number: 58
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If you search lee springs on Google they have a good tech section to their catalogue about how to spec springs. From that and the bits you have you should be able to work out what you need. Type into ebay and it should turn you the right sort of thing up. Springs are pretty common and the pic doesn't look especially custom. Ooo their site looks ideal, thanks for the tip!
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