No, the stock relay had some sort of issue so I wired my own. Fuel pump is on any time the ignition is. I also have an override which can provide constant power to the fuel pump regardless of ignition- at one point I ran it with the override on and it still hesitated.
The car has been an NA its' entire life.
Well, the rewire would have negated that anyway.
So in order to totally rule out the fuel pressure, can you take a fuel pressure gauge to your hood and watch it whiel this issue occurs? See if your fuel pressure is dipping? Or maybe your fuel pressure is marginal to start off with.
Just a fairly easy check to verify if the fuel system (short of the injectors) is working properly.
In reply to wvumtnbkr:
I'll need to get a gauge, but can do that. Any chance the MAP sensor connector was the issue? What does the shift light issue point to, TPS?
The shift-up light has a sensor in the trans to determine if you are in 5th gear. I need to read up on what the system monitors to control the light. It MAY be TPS or it could be TPS and RPM or some other concoction. IT never really made sense to me.
The fact that the light goes out (assuming you are not in 5th gear) tells me that either your dash has an issue OR whatever the system monitors is having an issue. If it is TPS or RPM or whatever else, that could point to your issue.
The map sensor connector could totally be the issue. By MAP sensor are you referring to the AFM or the boost sensor (boost sensor = MAP sensor)? The boost sensor (for some reason it is called that even on NA cars) has the 4 prong plug. The AFM is some 15 or 20 pin connector on the AFM.
The reason I asked about the connector is that on an older BMW, connector issues at the ecu coolant sensors could cause something like this. That sensor is one of the biggest factors in altering fuel/timing trims.
No idea if that's relevant to a rotary, though.
In reply to wvumtnbkr:
"Boost sensor" then. Not the AFM. The shift light works correctly when it's working- only comes on at low load, higher rpm, and doesn't ever come on in 5th. This cluster is ancient, it may honestly just be a cluster issue.
I doubt the issue is related to reading RPM, the tach works perfectly during the hesitation. I ordered a fuel pressure tester, I'll have it Wednesday.
I believe the tach works off the trailing coil only. It could be something up with the leading coil, though I would think if either coil fires you wouldn't notice as large of an issue.
Maybe the spark plugs are gapped wrong or a valve train issue... 
wvumtnbkr wrote: Maybe the spark plugs are gapped wrong or a valve train issue...
Oh yeah I forgot to mention it's been doing this right around the vtec engagement point:
Probably means it has bad rings.
Drove it home without issue- and I took the scenic route so I could beat on it more 
The shift light worked the whole time too.
I signed up for the make-up event of the rained out BMR RallyX this Saturday. With the weather we're having and all of the snow melting, it will most likely be extremely swampy again, but hopefully they learned their lesson last time and will cancel ahead of time if the conditions aren't acceptable.
Site currently:
Idunno if you follow their facebook page but they said they will make a call on Thurs. after all the Wed. rain.
Possible I'll sit this one out, haven't had a chance to work on the car due to sick offspring and wife working evenings.
In reply to RedGT:
I know that doesn't look bad, but I would bet that it's SOFT under all that snow once you break through whatever compacted base layer there might be, at least at the bottom of the hill. It will probably be cancelled but I signed up anyway to force myself to get out and test the car if it's on.
Aaaaaand the event on Saturday is cancelled- at least we didn't have to go there to find out!
I installed the Terraphone headsets in the helmets today. It went pretty smoothly, but I did a little extra work to try to make things nicer- Terraphone recommends that you install the earphones using their supplied velcro backing, but that leaves you with a pair of hard plastic things sitting in your helmet, which invariably end up getting dislodged and moving around.
Instead, I decided to put them in between the lining and padding of the helmet. Step one, remove cheek pads:
Step 2, pull out lining where the chin strap passes through, and separate from the foam slightly:
Step 3, wedge headset speakers in between lining and foam:
Then just tuck the wires in, reassemble, and do all the other E36 M3 the instructions say, and you've got yourself a fancy rally intercom helmet!
The car had a couple more hesitation incidents today, so I checked the fuel pressure. 40psi with the pump running and the engine off, 30-32 with the engine running but jumps occasionally when I rev it. Bad fpr? Everything else in the system is fresh, I swapped the fuel filter again too.
Hmm- the initial source I looked at was wrong I think, now I'm seeing what I have as normal fuel pressure. I went for a drive and got it to hesitate again- fuel pressure is 38psi under load and remains steady during hesitation.
Unplugged the TPS and went for a drive this morning. Apart from a lack of engine braking, the car runs better and does not hesitate.
So, is it sensor or wiring?
No idea, it's absolutely impossible to replicate on purpose! The wiring seems fine, and the sensor passes the resistance tests. Sensor getting vibrated to death or having heat issues maybe? The good news is, if I need to there's no reason I can't run a rally like this.
A used but good (passes resistance tests) TPS causes the car to flood immediately and run like poop when I can actually get it to start. I'll be running Waste Management sans TPS.
Also, the car split a heater hose during testing today. It was just generic straight hose, so it was rubbing on something where it didn't bend tightly enough- I've got some silicone repair tape on it at the moment, and have the proper molded hose on the way. Amazon Prime shipping may be the only reason I'm ever ready on time.
Weird. I have not had an rx7 run well at all without tps. Hopefully knurled speaks up on this one.
In reply to wvumtnbkr:
It runs the best it ever has without a TPS. The only downsides are fuel economy and engine braking.
Did you adjust either tps to 1k ohm at idle?
In reply to wvumtnbkr:
Yes. On the original it made no difference, on the new one it helped but I still needed to give it gas to prevent flooding at idle, and it ran like E36 M3 in general no matter what.
My understanding is that the ECU reads voltage, so I may have some sort of wiring issue causing a voltage drop somewhere. The thing is, it runs so well without the TPS that I don't see a reason to chase it right now.
Maybe I missed it, are you trying to run WMWR?
edit: never mind, you're the first name on the entrants list :p
Gave the car a solid "once over" and with the exception of the heater hose I'm waiting on, it's ready to go.
I also rotated the tires front to back, to get some nice square braking edges up front and acceleration edges in the back. The front wheel bearings were a little loose, so I cleaned and repacked them- all looks OK in there, but I'll replace them after this rally.
Finally, I borrowed these snow ladders from my dad. He's been using them in various cars since before I was born, and they're way higher quality than the plastic junk I find when I search for new ones.
In theory, the magic of these is that, if you carry some, you never need to use them
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