Just another 325IX repair thread (Now with more TURBO!)

[driftxsequence]

This car has been a joy to work on. I am amazed at how pliable the plastics are. The RX7 is super brittle. These cars were designed to be worked on, and repaired versus replaced. It's great.


before....





After! all better :)






HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? It's like they're rubber!

[driftxsequence]

The transfer case was a pain in the ass. I think now that I know what combination of extensions and swivels work.

For anyone following and needing to drop the transfer case, it was a lot easier to get to the top bolts by removing the center console.

I think its safe to say these were the original linkages.



You know its really difficult to remember to stop and take pictures....here is the new DSSR attached with the new shift selector...



here is a video of the shifter before replacement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_twDKwthrDs

and after

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB-vmae5u_M

Here is the front drive shaft spacer

[driftxsequence]

Today was fun, I started disassembly to get to the shifter bushings. I will do my best to document this for future IX'ers...I think pictures are super helpful.

Anyways, upon removal of the one piece exhaust, I found the rear hole on the head was stripped at some point. Whats worse is when the stud came out, coolant started leaking out of the hole......How bad is that?



After that, I cleaned up the header and took it to get welded up. The nice fellow admired my RX7 and said he used to have one - total cost was $20 and 15 minutes of reminiscing for him hah!



On a good note, the front driveshaft was in great shape, and already has some sort of spacer that pushes it all the way in! I forgot to take a picture so I will get it when I reassemble. Very cool little piece and a lot cheaper than replacing splines on existing shafts.



And lastly, a dremel with a sanding drum makes quick work of the factory rear carrier bushing. Garagistic delrin bushing going in place of the torn rubber. I will have a before and after video of the shifter slop.

[driftxsequence]

Yep! I prefer the early models to the later. A lot of the electronics are repairable with solderimg unlike the later.

[JeLani]

you have the early model fc's telling from the tail lights , definitely an under appreciated rear end amongst fc's lol

[driftxsequence]

Does anyone know if its possible to replace the shifter rod from above? I have the garagistic 325ix dssr, delrin front and rear carrier bushings, a new shift selector joint, and new bitch clip. I will be replacing all of this from below the car. My fear is the bushing in the shift rod itself will be bad and will need the z3 1.9 replacement. Seeing as i dont have one, im curious if i can do it later after reassembly and from above inside the car.

[driftxsequence]

Forgot to add, when I jack up the passenger side of the car, the drivers side and passenger near the rear wheel has fuel leaking out LOL

Not sure what the heck thats about...Guess step 1 is remove the rear seat and check hoses under the access panels

[driftxsequence]

Then to end the day I tried to replace the o2 sensor...and ended up breaking off the o2 bung

Thinking I may replace the whole thing....or repair the o2 bung, take out the mild steel straight pipe section and put a cat or silencers, then put flanges on the catback.

can anyone identify this header?







comments always welcome.

[driftxsequence]

wife helping clay bar before polishing



Cleaning out the gas fill area..



much better



before polishing the hood.



and after! what a difference

[driftxsequence]

What an eventful weekend.

Saturday I started with cleaning out all of the door jambs and the interior. Most of the interior wasnt touched since it wouldnt have made a difference....but the carpet was cleaned up. What a difference it makes on a white car!









After that I moved to the wheels. They cleaned up fairly well, but I need a better brush to get into the weaves better...





That wrapped it up for saturday. Sunday me and the wife went to my parents house and spent the day using his power washer and dual orbital to clean up the outside more.

[jeenyus]

nice. The IX is such a fun car.

[driftxsequence]

Grocery Getter

[driftxsequence]

Brought the car home yesterday. What an adventure that was. We knew the car was overheating, and expected that it was the coolant fan. I ordered a fan and replaced it when going to pick the car up...unfortunately it still overheated. Confused as to why...we let it sit and left to go home for a uhaul trailer. Half way home we decide to turn around and troubleshoot some more. The drivers side of the radiator was blazing hot, and the passenger side was cold! After some reading we found out it was air in the system...but WHY was it doing this? was the radiator clogged?

To paint a picture, at this point it is now almost 8PM. The PO has left since the car was parked at his parents and we are in their driveway troubleshooting with hand tools and phone flash lights. We unscrewed the overflow hose and tried to blow through and it seemed blocked. Hmmmmm.....interesting...Pulled the hose off both ends and it was clear...so we turned to the overflow tank. Thankfully we had a set of tiny allen keys because the nipple on the tank was full of crud and was blocking the small hole!

Here is what I believe happened. The car drove fine for PO. He never let it sit and idle for very long times as he did not drive far distances. We drove the car on the test drive for 20 minutes and then it idled in the driveway for 10+ minutes and began to spew coolant. We think the clutch fan WAS bad, and caused this. but the blocked overflow hole added to this by not allowing the coolant to move as its supposed to. Once the car cooled down, the clogged hole prevented the air from evacuating the system and caused an air-filled system.

So, once we cleared that...it filled properly, everything got hot as its supposed to...and the fan kept everything at a nice cool 1/4 on the temp gauge!

Today I took some time and set the OBC to display imperial instead of metric, as well as set the clock. I jumpered the pins to reset the oil light and inspection light. I found out the check engine light code is 1221 for an O2 sensor so I'm going to pick up a 1990 5.0 4 wire O2 sensor locally and swap the plug. I ordered garagistic VDO odometer gears, as well as a complete package of fluids and belts and plugs from pelican parts to make sure everything is ready for some miles. Lastly I started reading up on the ABS light always being on...I need to find out if which ABS pump the car has so the right relays can be ordered.

More to come soon!

[driftxsequence]

I'm hoping the rust is minimal behind the flares. I really hope the battery tray area cleans up as well. We will find out soon!

The plans for the car will be to clean up the rust, fix the minor nuances, and DD when bicycling is out of the question. The RX7s I have are almost rust free so I wish to keep them that way.


Here are some pictures of my FCs!

Way back when i bought it in 2010



Gotta love 80s interiors...



Pocono Raceway



Current engine bay statuts:



twinsies :)



current status...





The NA (current DD) - mostly stock with 213k miles!

[slammin.e28]

I only clocked for pics of FC.....

Too lazy to click linky to RX7club, lol.