1988 Turbo 'Vert Project

[~Groll69~]

can you email me a copy of the diagram seperatly.  I can't read the picture on here very well to identify the right parts that i need to purchase.  Where did you put the actual relays?  Are they located in the doors and did you run any new wires or tap into the existing wiring harness?

[toplessFC3Sman]

The relays, connectors and whatnot are all from Digikey; I got a generic auto relay, SPDT, 30A, 12VDC.  The part number was PB681-ND, although you may be able to find one that has a mounting hole in it, to make it easier.  On the spec sheets for each of the relays they also have the part for the connector and the pins.  In my case, the connector was PB316-ND, and the pins (roll of 100) were A27929CT-ND

[toplessFC3Sman]

Its been a little while since I updated this; I was busy planning & getting the car ready for a road trip down to Asheville for a friend's wedding in the RX-7, and of course a day of driving around the Blue Ridge Mountains, Tail of the Dragon, and Cherohala Skyway.  I'll get to the trip itself in the next post; this is just the run-up to leaving.

Every time it rained, some place was letting in 2 - 3 inches of water into the passenger side tub.  The carpet was getting to be a complete soaked mess, and I needed to pull it up to dry everything out.  First thing out was the passenger seat, except the outer rear mounting bolt would not move at all.  A breaker bar got it spinning, but it was still not backing out.  I actually broke the welds that were holding the nut inside of the ridge in the floor, so it wouldn't come out, but the seat was also no longer held in in that corner firmly.  Time to break out the dremel...  After getting it off, pulling up the carpet, and drying it all out, I had to do something to mount the seat again.  I didn't want to weld on the chassis without removing all of the electronic components, so I came up with basically a piece of bar steel with 3 bolts welded on it, two of which would be used to hold the whole thing back on to the rail, and the other would be a stud to tighten the seat down onto. 



I had to drill one hole in that rail opposite the original nut, but the rest of the bolts went through existing holes.  There was a bit of rust forming too, so it got cleaned up and painted over.

After drying out the carpet, and going through inspecting and testing all the door & convertible seals, and making sure the hoses for the top's little rain pockets behind the door weren't clogged, and ensuring that the inner door sheet was intact & sealing, the options were running out.  The last thing to do was to pull apart a lot of the trim underneath the convertible top, and I found that the hose on the passengers side had torn almost all of the way off of the top's rain pocket, and was basically just dumping the water down into the passenger floor.  Some sewing to get it lined up again, and then a lot of vinyl glue to seal it up, and the problem was fixed!


I still haven't pulled off one of the door skins since doing the window wiring, but I need to take the drivers door apart to install the lock actuator, so that'll be happening fairly soon to get pictures of the relays.

[toplessFC3Sman]

The trip down to Asheville started thursday morning when my girlfriend (Helen) & I met up with some friends (Nadirsh & Natasha, another couple, in the blue 350Z) at our apt.  The plan was to drive down to a hotel on the TN/NC border the first day, spend the night there, and then the next morning we'd set off early to drive on the Cherohala skyway, Tail of the Dragon, and a number of other nice roads in the area for 4ish hours, and then head east to Asheville for a meet-and-greet with the bride & groom's family and wedding party.

Anyhow, the first morning we had the car packed, dogs taken care of, and had just started up the cars and were pulling out of the parking lot when Helen exclaims that she's forgotten something.  I don't remember what it was that she forgot, but we both pull off to the side of the lot & shut the cars off so that she can run back in and get it.  Well, she gets back and I go to start the RX-7 (Savannah - yes, a very creative name, i know), but instead of turning over, all the lights go out, the radio & climate shut off, and nothing.  Well crap then.  I'd been driving Savannah to work (100 mile round trip) for the past month to make sure everything was working well, and to find & fix minor issues that would pop up, and she'd been great.  Now we hadn't gone 20 ft, and she's acting up. 


Battery reads at 12.5V, megasquirt is connecting and appears to be working fine, we've got power, but as soon as I turn the key to start, everything's dead again.  Well, it seems like there's suddenly a massive short on the starter wire, or the battery is acting up but still showing enough voltage.  I'm able to draft my girlfriend and the other couple to give me a push, Savannah decides to play nice & start up, and we're on our way.  Other than push-starting her after every gas stop, pit stop, and going to dinner & the hotel that night (7 or 8 times total), the first day is fun but uneventful.

The next morning, I get up a little early to bust out the multimeter & try to find the problem.  It wasn't happening the first morning, but now, after sitting overnight the battery is at 12V, and drops to 11 when I turn the headlights on, and down to 10.5 when hitting the brakes, so it definitely seems like one of the cells in the battery is toast.  A little calling around, and a Walmart has the right size battery, and it's on the way towards the Skyway.  20 minutes in Wallyworld parking lot, and Savannah's got a new battery, and now has no problem starting up!


On our way then!  It was about 10:30 am when the group of us headed off
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login.  The skyway was absolutely gorgeous, and definitely my favorite road of the trip.  It was practically empty, had a huge climb & downhill with a great mix of higher (relative to the dragon anyway) speed corners and some tight stuff so you could really cruise along, and at one point we were literally driving through the clouds.




Absolutely fantastic time!  Then we got off the Skyway, and onto 129 north; the road that turns into ToTD in 15 miles.  The Dragon was fantastic; we were running a little late because of the battery stop, so we only went up and down it once, but once was enough. 



It was pretty crowded, especially with cruisers, but still fantastic.

The way out we took nice & easy, and when we turned around we got caught behind some pickup that would slow to 5 mph (no joke) for every corner, and refused to turn off.  Eventually he did, and we had lots of empty road ahead of us, so we bombed down it for a couple miles (still keeping things at 7/10ths or below, and mostly just maintaining momentum through the corners, not punching it when the road straightened out - tires were barely making a sound). 



Then, around one corner...

AAACK!  We both get signaled to the side of the road, and are written up for 45 in a 30, but by someone's good graces, we both get off with written warning! We definitely weren't being especially unsafe (besides being over the limit in turns, but definitely on our side of the road & with a healthy margin of safety), and I suspect that the combo of that and that we were down visiting as part of a trip to our friends wedding (as opposed to being there specifically for the roads) may have saved our bacon.  Either way, Thank you Officers!  Also, I was very glad that we got the battery that morning... asking the officers to give us a push-start on the gravel shoulder there wouldn't have gone over too well I imagine.  They both laughed a bit sternly when I mentioned that bit of the story to them.

The rest of the drive to Asheville was nice but uneventful; we had enough excitement for the day, thank you very much.  The wedding itself was beautiful, and overall it was a fantastic long weekend.  Overall, it was 1400 miles, and Savannah managed 21 mpg per tank, except for the one friday morning, which was about 15.  Still, 15 is better than what I usually see around town here in A2, with lots of stop & go, and cold-starts.

[toplessFC3Sman]

Getting ready for the warm weather, I just ordered a bunch of parts for the rear subframe and diff.  I picked up a torsen LSD out of an FD a while back, so that'll be going in, as well as replacing the broken front diff mount, installing the pinion snubber & an adjustable drop-rod for camber, as well as new rear diff mounts and rear lower control arm bushings.  I was on the fence about replacing the DTSS bushings, but I decided to hold off and visually check their condition.  I like the DTSS system and how it makes the car feel, and it hasn't "felt" worn out as of last summer, but we'll see how they look.

[ITSWILL]

Sounds good, that pinion snubber makes a world of difference even with the stiffer front mount.

[toplessFC3Sman]

I've been meaning to take some pictures, but keep forgetting every time I go to work on the car.  It's in my GF's parents garage, with the whole rear subframe dropped & in pieces. Its been a couple weeks now; it seems like for every problem I fix, I end up finding or causing another.

At this point, I replaced all the diff mounts (needed a shop with a press to get the new rear ones in), & just buttoned up the diff with the Torsen into the S4 TII case.  Then new rear LCA bushings are in, and I'm finally ready to reassemble the rear end.  Unfortunately, the Corksport rear camber adjuster is pretty junky, and def would not fit correctly, so I'm going to return it, and maybe go for the ground control one, since it looks like it has the bushings pressed in to make each end piece the correct length.  For the moment though, the stock one is going back in, since I'm trying to get the car ready for the auto-x school that CCM is hosting this saturday, and the auto-x the day after.

I also found that the front camber adjustment bolts on BOTH sides slipped, the top of the tires had canted in more, and were now rubbing on the spring perches.  Fortunately I found it when under the car changing the oil, and the sidewalls are still in good shape (it didn't get anywhere near the belts/plies), so the stock bolts went back in.

When I first swapped the TC'ed engine in, I got a used Blitz BOV from an SR20DET, and the spring's always been way too stiff.  Turns out it was the red, 17+ psi spring, so at anything less than maximum boost it wasn't even beginning to open, causing a whole bunch of compressor surge, so I cut it down so that it should be good for most of the boost range I'm running.

The pass front caliper also had 3 of the 4 pistons seized, so that's getting replaced prob tomorrow night, and hopefully by weds or thurs the car will be back together & ready to go! 

[toplessFC3Sman]

Got a little more done tonight after work; the diff is completely back together, torqued, filled up & ready for reinstallation, I got the front brake that was seized free, the snubber is installed, and the whole rear subframe is basically ready to go back in.  Then, its just replacing the front caliper & buttoning things up.

Gotta get her ready for the CCM test & tune on saturday, and the auto-x on sunday!

And, remembered pictures finally! - not that there's really much to look at, especially since the diff is buttoned up already.


what a mess!




you can see where the hole for the snubber pops through in the left middle of this.  After drilling it I hit it with some paint to hopefully try to delay some of the rust.  I drilled from the inside of the car right on the dimple that was described in the thread on RX7club.

[toplessFC3Sman]

Diff & subframe are back up in the car and connected, all thats left to do tomorrow is replace the front pass brake, bleed the brakes, and install the back half of the exhaust.  Gotta schedule an alignment for thurs or fri too.

[toplessFC3Sman]

Brakes and the rest of the small stuff got done last night, I just have to get it down off of the stands tonight and clean up the garage & all the tools I've accumulated at my GF's parents place over the past couple weeks.  I was hoping to drive it to work to get a couple miles on it, but its probably for the best since I really should get it aligned first

[toplessFC3Sman]

Well, things didn't exactly go to plan this weekend (isn't that what plans are for - to be broken?), but on friday night I got everything back together & buttoned up, and go for a quick spin around the neighborhood, and the brakes are feeling a bit mushy.  Then, the throttle sticks open and the car wants to idle at 7000.  I get it back to my gf's parents place by regulating speed with the brakes & turning the ignition on & off, but after going over all the vacuum hoses after the throttle, and making sure the throttle was closing, everything seemed fine... its gonna require more time & digging than I have before the auto-x school/test 'n tune on saturday.

Anyhow, my GF & I take the Saab to the auto-x and have a blast anyway, and definitely learn a lot in the process too.  Then today I got to work on the 7 some more, and found that there was a little piece of plastic wedged on top of the secondary throttle return so that the secondaries weren't closing all the way, but enough so that the primary could close fully so I couldn't see it from above.  Then, when re-bleeding the brakes, the front caliper was leaking from the bleeder, even tho it was fully "closed"... turns out the aluminum was stripped, so I had to drill it out, re-tap it for a larger bleed valve, and re-bleed all the wheels. 

Fortunately, now the brakes feel great, its not leaking anymore, it idles normally, and I think its ready to put the wheels on and drive again!  Now it just needs an alignment & its time for the next auto-x

[toplessFC3Sman]

Alright, well, the alignment is done, and I have about -0.5 deg camber on the front, and -2 on the back.  Unfortunately, there's also a whining from the diff on decel between 60 & 75ish mph that goes away if you get up to 80... definitely seems odd that its only between those speeds, but I'm worried that it means I need to take it apart again and try to re-set the lash.  I thought I got it within specs, but I guess not quite.

Originally, I bought the Corksport adjustable subframe link, but they sent it without the bushings needed to properly hold it in place.  After I let them know & sent pictures etc, they had them made up & sent to me, and I got the link installed on friday before the alignment.  At this point I need to see how much camber I can take out without putting too much of an angle on the driveshaft rear yoke, and then shim the pinion snubber appropriately too.

Unfortunately its a bit more work, but hopefully it'll go a lot more quickly since all the bolts have been broken loose lately and other issues resolve.

Its very nice to be back behind the wheel though!

[fidelity101]

yeah corksport is crap. Have you read the mazda competition mag/pdf? They have specific setup instructions for rear diff aimed towards competition use, they do note it may be noisier.


work spiel:

CSR advised that noise is not a warrantable concern since noise is not a defect in Meritor workmanship or material but noise is usually the symptom of something else that is occurring. CSR noted that facility needs customer's authorization to perform any further teardown then emailed a copy of the case to the dealer as a reference.

[toplessFC3Sman]

After driving for a bit today, it doesn't sound as bad on decel as it did initially, so hopefully I can avoid tearing it apart again.  The adjuster isn't too bad, at least for the 50ish miles i've put on it so far.  I need to crank it in a little bit more to get the rear camber out, but it seems ok

[ITSWILL]

It's more than likely the adjustable drop rod.  Andrew installed one in his car and it did the same thing.  IMO there are much better ways to adjust rear camber.