My second RX7, the Series 2

[marcus]

After buying a car off sit_still with a detailed build thread I've come to realise the value of one of these, so I'll describe my adventures with my series 2 rx7 here.

Bought this car for a steal ($3500 IIRC) off sit_still, as of the time of selling it had:

Interior:
- Black interior, painted but pretty good condition, no cracks in dash!
- S5 seats
- autometer water temp and oil pressure gauges mounted in centre console
- Decent radio and 6" speakers in the doors, 6X9s in the back (not that you can hear them over the exhaust & gilmer), still had the wiring hooked up for a sub (including a still live 12V power cable with a 100amp fuse, hahah)
- recent break in damage, broken door locks, broken drivers window, glass every-bloody-where, broken ignition, broken steering lock with small damage to steering column, ignition key was replaced with a paddle pop stick :quagmire:
- spare door and glass to replace the broken one
- no gas in the rear boot struts, also thrown in were a spare set of S1 boot struts, also without gas

Engine:
- 13B large extend port, engine has done about 50K
- Made 114RWKW, but detuned to 100RWKW for drivability
- bosch ignition coils
- 51mm webber
- K & N air filter
- gilmer drive
- extreme 4 puck clutch and lightened billet fly wheel
- twin 2" system (long primaries) with 2 resinators to the diff then 2 1/2 over the diff into rota flow muffler
- superb, always-on, under-floor heating thanks to the exhaust system ;)
- S2 box, shifts great, lacks the spring that returns the gearstick to the middle position (between 3rd and 4th, ie the gearstick rests between 1st and 2nd, don't know if this is standard for a S2 gearbox, but it's no problem)
- 4.11 gear diff, open.
- PWR radiator and oil cooler with earls fittings
- spal thermo fan with davies craig temp switch

Susp:
- pratically new KYB shocks
- king springs front and pedders rear (approx 1.5" lower than standard)
- all bushes replaced with nolathane
- Whiteline adjustable front sway bar, no rear swaybar
- Whiteline strut brace

Exterior:
- Original 13" mags
- Bridgestone RE92s with lots of tread (my god RE92s are bad)
- Nasty but complete paint job, looks fantastic from a distance
- Minor rust
- Nice window tinting (except for the driver's window, which was in pieces all over the floor)

Fantastic deal, I was stoked (and still am, despite the problems I'm having, which I'll explain a bit later).

[marcus]

The original build thread on AusRotary: http://www.ausrotary.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=108981

[mr rx4]

love this car and them simmons wheels look good on my coupe now haha

[marcus]

First order of business was to replace the window and dodgy ignition. Window was easy enough, kept the old door on and put in new glass. Installed central locking while I was there and disconnected the door locks, now the coat hanger won't work. Why on earth do thieves keep smashing door locks with screwdrivers when a simple coat-hanger will get into most cars?

Fixed up the windows with relays while I was in there. Did a bit better than normal though, mounted the relays in a sealed plastic box and ran all the wires through grommets, should be a bit more weather proof than most window-relay-jobs. Also ran a heavier power cable into the door and used 30amp relays, the windows now fly up and down.

There is a photo below with the old ignition (minus the paddle pop stick). Pissed off the stupid ignition key and steering lock. Replaced it with an immobiliser/alarm and a missile switch for OFF/ACC/ON, and an illuminated starter button. Originally I had some electronics in there to make my three-position missile switch control the ACC and IGN relays such that I could use the ACC position (more difficult than it sounds, ask if you're interested and I'll write up the process), but I made a mistake, blew some components up, and now it's jury-rigged as a simple everything-off/everything-on switch. I intend to make a proper version on a PCB sometime soon and replace it, then I'll get my ACC position back.

Also ground off the damage to the steering column from when the theives broke the steering lock. Now the steering wheel turns freely, without the clunking.

[marcus]

Grabbed some new wheels off Nuclear Rotection, they look great (although not as sexy as the old Simmons) and they came with some old Kuhmo Extasa V700s! Interestingly, the new rims with Kuhmo Extasa V700 tyres on them weigh about 17kg, as opposed to the 13" stock rims with RE92s which only weighed 12kg...

Kuhmo Extasa V700s (even several year old, knackered, ex-racing ones like these) are sooooo good in the dry, I love them to bits. Hopeless in the wet, but hey, they have zero tread left.

Photos of the old 4-spokes (which are now up for sale) and the new wheels:

[marcus]

love this car and them simmons wheels look good on my coupe now haha

Hey, just saw your old for sale advert in these forums : fs 51mm ida weber - S.A.Rotors Forums

Do I now have your old 51mm webber?

[mr rx4]

na that was sold man u can buy new ida weber in usa for about 500 51mm is over kill for that motor

[project2]

Believe I have it, soon to go on my Bridgeport. Hopefully not overkill for that.

[mr rx4]

yeah u do lol na 51mm are perfect for bridgeys no less

[marcus]

na that was sold man u can buy new ida weber in usa for about 500 51mm is over kill for that motor

The fuel bowl looks identical, thats all.

[FC3S Flamethrower]

This thing is awesome mate, love tough first gens! Good on you.

[marcus]

Took the car into Mildren's for a service. The brake was always bypassing a bit, so they had a look at it and said it was pretty bad and topped it up with some more fluid. The new fluid caused the brakes to suddenly go to hell, brake pedal often plunged all the way to the floor.

Had a very memorable drive to get it back to Mildren's. Brakes didn't work half the time so I was engine braking it, which makes a fair racket. Driving in peak hour traffic along Robe Tce and Park Tce (looping around town), and an under-cover cop car pulls out right infront of me. The entire trip down to Mildrens I was following the cop, trying to decide if I should engine-brake and get done for the exhaust, or if I should use the actual brakes and possibly go into the rear of him! Stressful, but I made it into Mildren's fine.

Resleeved the brake master, works fine now. Clutch lines are still full of "black sludge" (as described by Mildren's), but hopefully will be fine for a while.

Mildren's told me that the rear was frequently bottoming out onto the bumpstops, and they should be shortened to suit the springs. So I had that done, and quite clearly the car used to hit the bumpstops most of the time (I thought it just had hard springs!), because now the rear tyres scrape the fenders over any decent bump. This is chewing up my tyres, luckily I still have the old, bald tyres on there. But I have to get this sorted before I get new tyres, and these bald tyres are getting a bit hairy in the wet.

Mildren's are going to check my spring rates for me next week, make sure they are good.

I should roll the fenders out a bit, not only should this give me some clearance at the rear, but the front wheels stick out from under the fender a little bit, so a few mm's more will help the car look more legal. Does anyone know where I can borrow one of those neat fender rolling tools?
http://www.tirerack.com/images/accessories/product_images/medium/fenderlip.jpg

[jesse_RE]

Does anyone know where I can borrow one of those neat fender rolling tools?
My mate has a side business doing guard rolling and whitewalls, i can ask him if he's willing to do the job for you, he did my Rx7 guards. He wont lend out the tool but i dont think he would mind doing the job on an Rx7. I can ask him if you want..

[marcus]

My mate has a side business doing guard rolling and whitewalls, i can ask him if he's willing to do the job for you, he did my Rx7 guards. He wont lend out the tool but i dont think he would mind doing the job on an Rx7. I can ask him if you want..

Sure, I'd be interested in his price. It would be all 4 corners.

Does he heat the paint (to reduce cracking) as he goes?

[yelloS2Rx7]

I roll gaurds have done so for bout 8yrs
I just left a few weeks ago but I literally rolled thousands of cars@Mag Wheel Centre
gaurs rollers don't work that well,
I used one for the first few years they pump the panel too much
Sounds like that's what u need/want tho pumping the front panels
an that generally ruins/buckles the panel
it will clearance ur wheels but u will probably need to repaint and bog up the wobbles
I have experience rolling gaurds on almost everything 360 modenas aluminium panels
yup got paid to bash a brand new Ferrari with a mallet :)
and have photos to prove it
if u want em rolled sing out I can help
$50 ea and u have to use heat or paint cracks!!
Can't/won't gaurantee paint won't crack
specially if gaurds have rubbed abit already
or if it's been painted......
funnily enuf I'm about to roll my S3 daily, when I have time..lol
there's not alot of gaurd lip to roll on front
and when u roll em the inner liner won't sit where it should
and u gotta trim it back abit
can get a fair bit of room on rears tho..

[13bwankel]

Whatcha up to now Corey?

[FLEX]

ive done a few of my cars now with no worries, Used a heat gun and rubber mallet. Just takes time and patience and a little know how. I learnt from the master... (Corey!)

[marcus]

Getting the guards rolled at Wheel Worx tomorrow. Going to cost a pretty penny, somewhere around $300 for all 4. I was going to wait for Corey, but stuff it, Wheel Worx is within walking distance of work and I just can't be bothered doing it myself.

None of you guys happen to work at Wheel Worx? No SARotors discount? :rolleyes:

[Kusanagi]

I would wait for Corey as he really know his stuff, he helped me out in April with suspension and tyres just last week, he's been real busy as far as I know, no Internet and his phone is broken... so a little difficult to contact him recently.

[marcus]

Got the guards rolled at Wheel Worx, $75 a corner. Rears turned out nice, fronts weren't worth the effort, cutting of the internal plastic mud guards or the price. Wheel Worx did warn me that the fronts would be hard and they didn't know in advance how far they would move, but I didn't realise it would be basically impossible to tell they've been rolled (except for the large number of cracks due to my crappy guards).

Before:
http://www.sarotors.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=664&d=1305164762

After:
http://www.sarotors.org/forum/picture.php?albumid=85&pictureid=1042

Before:
http://www.sarotors.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=667&d=1305325675

After:
http://www.sarotors.org/forum/picture.php?albumid=85&pictureid=1040

Corey, if you read this, tell me when things have calmed down a bit, I'd love to get your opinion on my steering gear!

[marcus]

Getting an oil catch can put in by Mildren's next week, and some new custom rear springs. Nicked the tyres off my Series 3 and got them swapped over, what a huge change! The car was tramlining like it had a poltergeist messing with my steering with the aged Kuhmos, now it has pretty fresh Toyo TR1s and if feels like a completely different car, fantastic. Don't understand people who buy the cheapest tyres, nothing makes a bigger difference to your car than tyres!

Almost ready for the track day! Discovered the car has poly bushings on every trailing arm, which is supposed to be a recipe for snap oversteer due to the rear suspension binding. I'll be interested to see how it goes on the track! Keep an eye on me for massive spins! :rapide:

[marcus]

Gotta update this thing more regularly...

Oil catch can is in and looks great. It's got a sump return, so no idea how much work it has been doing.

My tyres had been sitting on the (wrecked) S3 for 9 months without turning, when I put them on this car the flat spot was causing decent vibrations. Track day scrubbed the tyres back into round! :chewydancing:

Car did fantastic at the track day, almost lasted the entire day. 1:35.25 was the best recorded lap, I'm certain I can cut a second off that.

Turns out a breather valve on the rear axle was blocked, so by the end of the day it was squeezing oil out all the seals. A slow drip thankfully, so I didn't stuff up the track for others. Mildren's have cleaned out the breather valve and topped it up with oil, now I just have to keep an eye on the seals for leaks. Also had a very spongy brake pedal by the end of the day, pretty sure that was just the brake fluid boiling.

[13bwankel]

hey bud! nice meeting you the other day, told ya the brakes would be a bit iffy.
I'm sure your car has much more in it, I ran pretty consistant 1:30's with a very similar setup, brakes held me back badly though.

[marcus]

I ran pretty consistant 1:30's with a very similar setup
Cheers James, good to meet you too, and now you've given me a target. All excited to get back out there and see how close I can get!

While the brakes were spongy by the end of the day, I never felt that I was really lacking braking power, always felt that I could lock the fronts. So can't really use them as an excuse.

[marcus]

So I've been driving around with just a small leak in the diff, every time I pull up I get a couple of drops of oil coming out, makes a 5cm patch of oil on the driveway. Also giving off a gear whine. Nothing serious, so I thought I'd try the car out on a big drive down to the Mt Alma hillclimb today.

We had a 'spirited' drive down there, nothing crazy but enough to get the car working hard. When I pulled up in the paddock there was a lot of smoke coming off the diff, looking under the car I could see it had sprayed oil everywhere (all over the bottom of the fuel tank all the way up to the back of the car). The spray was large enough and so different to the small leaks I'd been seeing for the last couple of weeks, that it makes me think the bloody breather valve got stuck again. Not much I could have done, so went and checked out the hillclimb for an hour before I left to go back home.

Soon as I started driving the diff gave a horrible screeching sound, then 2km down the road went snap, bounced us back and forward inside the car, and I let the car grind to a halt.

3 hours later the tow truck finally showed up.

Now I've got to swap the rear axle over for the one off the S3, before the track day on Thurs!

[13bwankel]

ahh well, better it happened today than Thursday.

[project2]

Good work mate. I love the first gen 7's. Wish I never sold mine.
There's a hilux diff on ausrotor. Sounds the goods. An upgrade will always help in the future. Especially if your going to continue track days.
I'd be investigating s4 front brakes too. There are conversions available that don't require brake line or booster changes. And the 4 pots bite like a rabid dog! You'll be outbraking everyone.
Keep the updates coming.

[marcus]

Okay, so I think I've got this picture thing figured out now. Below you should see the diff centre housing:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-catIOn8RNgo/T3pAqlSXGzI/AAAAAAAACKk/Jqven_Tg-6Y/s800/diffBolts.jpg

This photo was taken before I got to work on it, this was how it was when the diff broke. For some reason every bolt but the top one was backed out a few threads. They seemed to be looser as I got further down the housing. Which would have twisted the pinion gear and caused the damage.

No idea what is going on here. The threads are perfect, its not like some big hit pushed them out. No-one has messed with those bolts since I bought the car, and if they were incorrectly torqued to begin with I doubt it would have lasted through the first track day.

Oh well, diff is stuffed regardless of what caused it.

Got a couple of hours on the car yesterday, going very well. Everything came off smoothly with the exception of the bloody parking brake cable. Ran out of patience and light whilst trying to unhook it from the caliper. Should (just) be ready for Thursday.

Cheers for the advice Project2, but the axle out of my S3 should do me for a while. It's got the S3 brakes & discs, the S3's larger axles, plus a Kaaz 1.5 way LSD. I'm looking forward to getting it in! :banana:

[project2]

Who was the last person to work on your diff? They are loosened bolts, I can't believe it even held oil! I'd be getting the car on a hoist and give it a good inspection with a socket set.
Your pinion and crown would have moved together, they are held in a cradle at given tolerance. The whole centre would have been bouncing about inside the housing.
It would have failed by binding up because of lack of oil. So I'd say the whole centre is history!
S3 is different stud pattern to s2.
If ya need a hoist, I can clear mine for an afternoon.

[Super-Mini]

best of luck getting it fixed before thursday! i will be out there in my series 1.

[carlitto]

so swapping out the whole diff assem yeah?
no interchangability between s2 and s3...

[marcus]

Cheers for the advice guys. Swapping the whole rear axle, from driveshaft shaft flange back. Hope the s2 & s3 driveshaft flanges are the same, I'll find out tonight.

Car will have odd socks on now, but should rip up the track anyway.