Me and a friend of mine (lxk199, on the forum) just picked up an '85 base (I suppose, I'm not too familiar with 1st gen model trims) with a freshly rebuilt and mildly ported 12A, and a bunch of new, just replaced OEM parts. The car was pull started and run for a few minutes when the rebuild was installed, then it sat in a garage for 4 months, and was periodicly turned by hand and treated with ATF.



Now when we went to pick up the car, we couldn't get it to start, and pull starting resulted in the motor starting, but only for a few seconds, then it would die immediately, like it was turned off. Apprently, there's no fuel getting to the motor. We checked the fuel filter on the underside of the car, in front of the gas tank, and it was completely clogged, so we replaced that, but still didn't have any luck with starting it. My current thought is that the fuel pump is broken, or that the wiring for the fuel pump is shoddy. I'm going to get a working fuel pump for it, and double check the wiring, but first I need to tow it home, because it's still sitting in Reading, PA, about an hour, at least, from me.



Any suggestions on what else may be the cause, or other things to double check? Are there any other parts of the fuel system that may be faulty? The previous owner said that the carbuerator most likely needed to be adjusted and such, but I don't have much experience working with carbed fuel systems and 1st gens, so any help is appreciated. Thanks.



Btw, we got it off of eBay. Here's the link to the auction: FB eBay auction

 

Whoops, that was the wrong eBay auction, lol. This is it: For serious.

 

i would check the fuel pump first. disconect the line from the carb.( its the fat one). then start and see if any gas comes out. if it does, thats a good start. then you can either open the throtle (or have someone press the peddal down, which might be easier to see) and look in the carb to see if and gas is going through. if it is thats better, then you can adjust the cables and ,or the iddle screw. if not, the top of the carb comes off easily with 4 screws? you can get into the carb and clean clean clean. you don't even have to take the carb off to do this. if that doesn't work, rebuild the carb. but FIRST check for SPARK.





late

 

I remeber seeing that auction.Looks to be in good shape.

 

Thanks kettlman, I'll give all that a try. Hopefully I'll be able to get it down to my place within the next few days so I can seriously get down to work on getting it started. This car's supposed to be my RX-7 to drive while the motor for my TII is being rebuilt, lol. But, I must say, it's fun being the proud owner of two non-running RX-7's.



Yeah, other than that, the car's in really good shape. Only thing wrong with the body is that someone tore off the side moulding on the right fender and the 18 year old paint is pretty faded. But, for $500, it's quite a steal.

 

This FB is awesome...I cant wait to get the fuel problem fixed. I remember the dude saying the carb is a fresh rebuild (or brand new, not sure). I'm prettu sure its getting spark also, because it's starting up...it just doesnt KEEP running...Oh well, it will be a sexy beast...LOL

 

Okay, quick update, 'cause I was finally able to do a little work on the car today, dispite having to go to class (*gasp!*). Anyway, I took the fuel line off, and lo and behold, gas is being pumped.... except it's not all nice and clear like normal gas. It's a really disgusting brownish-orangey gross color. What does that mean? It had better not be something like rust contaminating the gas because the hard fuel lines are rusting out or something like that...



Anyway, I couldn't see if fuel was going through the jets in the carb, 'cause it's kinda hard to see when you're cranking the engine, and nobody was around to help me, lol. But, I'm pretty sure it does, because I was getting fuel leaking out of the carb when I took it off too fiddle around with it. The secondary throttle plates (the bigger ones?) don't seem to be opening when I pull the throttle cable. Could that have anything to do with it?



Thanks again buckaroonies.

 

How long has that gas been in the tank? If it's sat for over a year, you should get all the old gas outta there and put in a fresh tank.

 

In all my experiences with brownish-orangey gross stuff (don't take that the wrong way) it was from rust. The tank is pretty easy to take off. I would recommend taking it off, draining it, then unbolting the sender unit so you can get a good look inside. I don't think its your fuel lines.

 

Even less time.

My car was down for 1 mo. while I swapped motors and I left the gas in the carb, sitting in an old bus. when i put it back on I was getting gas out the jets but the car ran terrible. I finally broke open the carb just to see if something had crawled into it or something and the bowls were full of corrosion (white stuff) and not everything was stopped up but alot of stuff was.

Pull the top off your carbs and check for trash and corrosion flakes. If your engine has alot of new parts and stuff, you may want to adjust your floats a little bit anyway.