RX7 Hillclimber Build Thread

God bless FedEx. My struts came in a day early so I can start hacking them up tonight!

Newsflash! Front koni inserts are junk. KYB AGX ordered as holdovers since the konis are discontinued. Yay blowing more money!

How so? Are they too rusty, or were they blown out?

A quick Google search found this. Might want to call ahead before ordering:

http://products.vividracing.com/koni_front_sport_shock_mazda_rx7_86_92_1013504217.php

Rusty and the drivers side is seeping oil.

You might want to look at GR Subaru, or Subaru Legacy suspension as it's easy to convert to FC.

modernbeat wrote: You might want to look at GR Subaru, or Subaru Legacy suspension as it's easy to convert to FC.

I've never heard that before. I'll have to check it out.

Mounted up!

Red for race car. These are my extra calipers.

Interior is coming together. Seat is going in tonight as is the front suspension. I'll remove the rest of the sound deadening this winter when I cage it. Right now it's "Good Nuff"

This is the side shot I sent to Kinetic Motorworks. They're going to vinyl the car for the hillclimb. They're supporting me with little stuff so I told them the car is their canvass this year. Eventually the car will be white with blue and red stripes ALA Racingbeat's racing FC RX7 from the 80's.

It's coming along nicely. The garage looked much less cluttered a month ago.

I just got rid of some interior stuff too, that pile is mostly stuff from inside the dash.

She's just about ready to stand on her own again. Also, I wired up the battery and she fired up no questions asked. However, the shift buzzer won't shut off, so I'll have to find that and rip it out.

I just posted a message and it didn't show up damn it!

The buzzing is most likely your power steering computer. It WAS located under and to the left of the steering wheel under the dash.

The PS computer will buzz if the wheel is put on wrong (if the two white tabs that go into the back of the wheel are 180 out, it will buzz) The white tabs are part of the turn signal cancelling device.

Also, if you did anything to the power steering system (removed teh pump or disconnected it), the buzzer will also go off. The solution is to unplug the computer.

I will try to find a picture for you.

Rob R.

modernbeat wrote: You might want to look at GR Subaru, or Subaru Legacy suspension as it's easy to convert to FC.

I can not find any info on this. Can you point me in the right direction?

Thanks!

Rob R.

The rears are close to bolting on. The front require you to cut and weld new ears on the strut. This works best with inverted struts as you can pull the insert and guide bushings out of the body before welding. Otherwise you have to disassemble the strut and manage the welding heat to make sure you don't warp it.

It's not that hard and the lengths (the hard part) are already correct.

If I rip out that computer will the power steering still function? I left it in tact.

I don't think so. I would verify that everything is hooked up properly. Make sure the arrows match up on the ring behind the steering wheel when you install it.

I thought of some other things that cause the same buzzer. It could be low oil OR low water in the radiator. Either of these will also cause the same sort of constant buzzing.

The sensor for the low water is right on top and in teh middle of the radiator. One wire coming out of it.

The sensor for low oil is on the oil pan on the drivers side. There are 2 plugs in that area. I can't remember which is for the low oil. Actually, now that I am thinking about it, I think one is for the low oil light and the other is for the buzzer (2 different levels). make sure they are plugged in and working properly.

Rob R.

I was just thinking about this some more. The power steering computer will constantly buzz if there is something wrong with the system. That "ring" behind the steering wheel will cause the computer to "beep" the buzzer if it is not installed correctly. Like buzz ... Buzz.... Buzz.... Not one long BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

I think you can rule out the ring behind the wheel.

However, If you have something disconnected at the power steering pump (maybe even low fluid?) it WILL cause the constant buzz.

To find out if it is the power steering, disconnect the PS computer. If it goes away, you have an issue in the power steering. If it is still there, I would check the water and oil levels and sensors.

I think it may be coolant. I rerouted some things and may have introduced an air pocket that needs to be bled out.

I'll double check all my levels tonight. Oil should be all topped off. If all else fails the buzzer dies a quick death.

The shift up light was on as well.

I think it is a different buzzer. Be careful what you kill!

To test if it is water, I think you can just unplug that sensor. If the buzzing goes away, that's the problem.

I sometimes unscrew that sensor and fill the radiator through that small hole (its VERY small), but ensures there are no bubbles in the rad.

When was the shift up light on? If you put the car in 5th does it go away? If so, that is normal.

Rob R.

It's on constantly. Most likely a bad ground.

Groups of 5 beeps - Broken turn signal sensor. I busted the old one when I had my JDM Mazdaspeed steering wheel in there because the adapter didn't quite fit. IIRC the ratio varies with speed, but I never had any ill effects besides the constant beeping when I still had the Mazdaspeed wheel installed.

Constant buzzing - Possibly coolant. If you still have the central idiot light cluster and wiring in there, plug it in and the check coolant light should turn on if that's the case

I think the coolant just needs to be bled out.

We ran out of gas on the tig welder last night so the harness bar is only tacked in. It felt good to drive the car around even just a little bit though.

No photo since I'm using my phone but the car is on the trailer and ready to roll!

So, am I mistaken, or no cage yet?

I implore you to make a slightly beefier cage than what your hill climb rules require at the bare minimum. I reference the Evo at Pikes Peak as evidence ("ass"uming the rules are fairly similiar for hill climbs).

Want to see you safe and not sorry! It's also awesome to see you going at this

No cage yet. I won't be skimping on mine either. Our rules are quite good and I'll be building beyond them.

Waiting to see if any photos from the event surface. I shot some in-car video too. Until then, here are some photos showing how much I need flares and to straighten out the ride height.

The real purpose of running in this event was to stress the drivetrain and see what I have. The answer: a damn fine running rotary. The car ran great all weekend with a slight miss at idle that I attribute to needing some fresh gas and plugs. Temps were great. No smoking and coolant stayed where it should be.

Handling was a little wonky due to my having to reuse the front top hats, which introduced some positive camber. The struts will need to be machined to fit into my camber plates. Still, the car proved very quick, taking fourth in class over a couple VERY experienced drivers in very well developed cars. My fastest of the day was a 2:34.XX.

The car is going back in the garage tonight and will be stripped even further to replace bushings, rebuild the LSD and do some seam welding before it goes to get caged. Also, the RacingBeat cat-back exhaust is for sale. The entire system will be replaced with something more in tune with track work. It sounds awesome, but is too quiet. People found it funny that the quietest car on the hill was a rotary.

MASSIVE thanks to Death Metal Fabrication and Kinetic Motorworks for their support.

Sidenote: I love my truck. 300 miles of towing, plus running the communications wire up the hill and taking it down on Sunday and I used half a tank of diesel.