¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: Yep, Empire State Performance Rally- I think you might be able to do a single day volunteer thing, but you'd have to ask.
No rally in North America will turn down a volunteer because they can only volunteer for 1 day. I gurantee you they will need your help.
In that case all i have to do is convince the wife, unfortunately that might be a bit tough... but as long as the snow stays away it might be the perfect opportunity to go on a road trip in the GTX 
Finished up the seat mounts, can post pics but... it'll just look like the last update ¯_(ツ)_/¯
In other news, I went to remove the motor mounts to see if they needed replacement, and found the nuts finger tight 
The mounts look good so I tightened them up instead of changing them out. The trans mounts look OK too, but the central bolt looks to have lost its' rubber isolator thingy. I found some rubber washers at Tractor Supply that look like they should do the job though, will try and report back.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: Get Low (Seat Mounts) So, if you recall, the original seat mounts looked like this: The approved method of mounting seats is to run .125" wall tube from the sill to the tunnel, and bolt your seat brackets to that. Since the RX7 is severely lacking in the headroom department, my plan is to use bottom mount seats and bolt them directly to the tubes- accessing the bolts may be tricky, but I should be able to figure out a solution to that. First order of business is plates on the sill and tunnel for the tubes to tie in to:Then, weld the tube in between, remembering to drill holes for seat mounting and bolt access: One down, three to go. This is a rear mount, so I had to drill holes in the floor for bolt access- these will either be plugged or welded shut again if I feel like making it really difficult to remove the bolts.
Did you weld a nickle to the floor?
In reply to fidelity101:
I wanted to see if it would work!
It melts the nickel, but it did sort of stick. I removed it later.
You can weld change? That opens a bunch of hole filling options.
You couldn't plug a hole in the floor with it, it melts too quickly compared to steel.
Blue Interiors are so 80s
Welding complete, at least on the inside of the car, so I hit it with a few cans of "Ford Tractor Gray" from TSC. You can see just how much lower/further back the codriver's seat mounts ended up being as well.
The A-Pillar bars and anything else directly in the field of vision of the crew will be painted flat black with the same paint. I love this stuff, it's as tough as you'd think tractor paint would be, doesn't care a whole lot about prep... and there's a TSC 5 minutes from my house. Its' only shortcoming as spraypaint is that it takes forever to dry.
Chris, you should take a break from building and roll up and hang with us in NY this weekend at NEDiv 2-day event in Weedsport, which is running alongside the American Rally Cross (like J.V. GRC) series.
I'd love to, but I have the last MiniGP sprint race of the year this Sunday and I have to keep trying to bang this thing out before it gets cold enough that I lose motivation.
I hear you. Our last event is the 2nd week of November, then it's time to tear out everything inside the car and start prepping for cage and other things I need to do for RA. :P
And my welding needs a lot of work, lol.
Built In Differential Stand!
Pro tip- if you have an FC RX7 with a mangled core support and are rebuilding the diff, you can do this:
I got the diff back together with the plates in the "proper" order and a .007" shim. Feels good, breakaway is somewhere between "fully locked" and "kind of a lot." Then I put the beast back in its' carrier:
Writing it here now so I don't forget: I DIDN'T TORQUE THE BOLTS. THEY'RE JUST SNUG SO REMEMBER TO TORQUE THE berkeleyING BOLTS.
Now I just have to replace the bushings and come up with a solution for the utterly destroyed front mount.
A pinion snubber is a popular addition for higher power FC's, especially if they see drag racing use. Basically get a bump stop with a stud on top, like you might need for a solid axle car and bolt it directly above the pinion housing. This helps take some strain off the front mount, making it live longer. There's lots of talk about it on the various RX7 hangouts with instructions and part numbers.
I'm thinking I may just weld up a solid front mount- I had considered snubber+mazda competition mount, but welding the thing is nearly free, and I have a bunch of left over .125" plate from the seat mounts/cage feet.
Diffs and Balljoints and Bushings and Hydraulics and a Big Purple Knob
My front diff mount looked like this:
After that, I tore out the old diff mount bushings, which were in sorry shape:
Aaaand, here's the diff with everything installed and filled with gear oil- I do need to grab a bolt before I can install it though, because I killed one of the ones that holds the front mount on 
.
Then, while I was in a destructive type of mood, I decided to take the front balljoints off, since they might put up a fight. Like many of you, I tend to second guess the engineering decisions made by auto manufacturers when I work on E36 M3... but I was pleasantly surprised here.
The balljoints are held in by a pinch bolt, and bolted to the control arms! No stupid tapers, no press fits, they come right off- and what's this? Same control arms on both sides!!?! Mazda I berkeleying love you!
Then I replaced the clutch master and slave cylinders- which wasn't fun but I was still in a good mood from the discovery of my favorite lca-balljoint combo.
After that, I rebuilt the very sloppy shifter:
It's now incredibly notchy, I guess it has some sort of short shift kit? Don't know, we'll see if I like it when it's running again.
I finished the day off by making a shift knob out of a sweet super bouncy ball:
Yup, that certainly looks like a short shift kit, as it looks to me like there's an extension bolted on top of the turret where the shifter sits, plus the distance between the two balls is longer than I remember seeing on mine.
On the front diff mount, it may be prudent to reinforce the subframe where the diff mount bolts on, as I recall seeing some people having cracking and tearing problems in that area.
Those are S4 control arms, on the S5's they went to pressed in ball joints and one piece arms, probably for cost savings.
For all you're doing...
godberkeleyingdammitgodberkeleyingdammitgodberkeleyingdammit
Attempt number one to fix/diagnose electrical problems has resulted in a blown main fuse, vast quantities of swearing and a dent in the garage wall. Maybe the electrical issue can wait 
Changed the front control arm bushings and balljoints today. Strangely, the balljoints (same mfg, part number, etc.) came with different hardware:
The first one I opened had the trustworthy looking black oxide coated hardware with the gr 12.8 stamping you see installed here; the second had the sketchy unmarked zinc coated hardware, and the box smelled like weed. I reused the factory hardware on that side.
RX8driver wrote: On the front diff mount, it may be prudent to reinforce the subframe where the diff mount bolts on, as I recall seeing some people having cracking and tearing problems in that area.
It looked to me like the welds on the subframe typically fail there- I zapped a few more on (well, what I could reach without fully removing the subframe).
I crammed the diff back in last night and re-learned something I've learned too many times already- when you read something on a forum along the lines of "you can do X without removing Y and Z" it's technically true... but it's NEVER actually easier. In this case, X=diff, Y=subframe, Z=exhaust. Next time I'll remove it all as a unit.
I have JB welded change to plug holes I don't see why a welder wouldn't work just as well if not better!
How did you get that long rear bolt that holds the case to the carrier? I have 2 out of 2 seized now :(
I love the progress!
fidelity101 wrote: How did you get that long rear bolt that holds the case to the carrier? I have 2 out of 2 seized now :(
Impact gun- Harbor Freight "AK-47" electric model.
Help!- Are These Factory?
As I get further into the wiring I'm finding more of these splices wrapped in yellow/green tape:
They look like this unwrapped:
They tend to have the right wire colors, and are MUCH better quality than the rest of the wiring hackery on this car- did Mazda put these here?
They look like the factory splices in my Miata harness.
Thanks, also confirmed in thread in main forum. That's good, means I can stop digging since it's all just these now- the PO splices are mostly twisted together and duct taped
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