see below

Beautiful car! Heres another for removing the vinyl roof strip! I think the original mirror was available for the drivers side only (U.S.). You may have to stick with aftermarket if both sides are wanted. Attached a photo of the stock mirror. I do have an extra used mirror ($50 plus shipping if interested).

If you want mirrors for both side you may be able to get one from aus for a RHD for your passenger side, and grab R100 guys LHD for your driver.

nice coupe it kind of reminds me of my friends coupe.

US market RX2's had a different drivers door mirror than RHD RX2's, what mazda dealers in the 70's did was they used what I believe to be the RX3 mirror to be able to have a mirror on both doors. I also agree that the chrome should be removed. Are you going to put on the pillar badges?

Well, thought I would have the car back last weekend, but to no avail! During this week, an issue came up with the temperature guage reading incorrectly, so that issue is now being addressed, further delaying the delivery of the car. So, to my dismay, another week will go by without my RX2.

I'll let you all know once it is back and how it has turned out.

P.S.- Does anyone know if four-door RX2 fenders are the same as 2-door coupe fenders. Just curious, as I may utilize some custom manufactured caster blocks that move the swaybar down and forward, achieving more caster for better tracking, with the drawback of having to re-shape the fender wells to compensate for the longer wheel base this creates. I would like to have backup fenders in case I choose to go down this road in the future. If anyone is familiar with this customization, please let me know your opinion on how it turned out, and the changes to the car this achieved.


Thanks all!

Okay,
Need a little help from you followers if you will. The car is having an intermittent firing issue, which has been attacked in different ways. The general thought was that it wasn't grounded properly, so that has been fully addressed- still the problem exists. We are now thinking there is corrosion or degredation in the wiring harness, so I am asking you fellow RX2 faithful if you would know where I might be able to find one quickly vs starting the internet finding process.

This would be for a 1973 Mazda RX2 coupe, left hand drive- Original wiring harness!

Any help would be appreciated!

Thank you much!

Its doubtful in my opinion that you have a corroded harness to the engine. Can you be a little more specific regarding your ignition system, are you using a later model Rx7 80 - 85 electronic ignition or are you using the original twin point ignition. The wiring to the ignition is very simple in these cars and easily repaired without replacing the harness.

If you're running an original twin point iginition.

- are the ballast resistors wired correctly above the coils ?
- is the dwell angle set correctly for leading and trailing ignition ?
- are the condensers OK ?
- are the points OK ?
- If you car has been sitting for many years change the fuel filter, they absorb water with time and dont flow fuel very well.
- Check the fuel pressure from your fuel pump.
- are the ignition leads in good shape. If you have cheapies throw them oput, they are useless on a rotary engine and will cause you grief in the future.

You can bypass the entire ignition wiring harness by "hot wiring" the car. From memory you run a lead directly from +ve terminal of the battery to the +ve of the leading coil. Its been many years since Ive done it, so check a wiring diagram to ensure Ive told you the correct side of the ignition coil ! If you hot wire the car you will need to disconnect the "hot wire" manually to stop the running engine.

Like I said, you dont need to replace your harness. The hot wire will quickly determine if you have a wiring issue without replacing anything. Good luck

...here is a link to a Rx2 manual so you can determine whether to connect the "hot wire" to the +ve or -ve side of the coils. http://foxed.ca/foxed/index.php?page=rx7manual#rx2 and how about some new photos

Gypsy,

Thanks for the feedback, but I am running the Electronic Ignition from 80-85 Rx7. Brand new Street Port motor was put in, and this issue has them baffled.

Here are the symptoms:

When they are driving the car, it seems to be at operating temperature that it will suddenly start cutting out on them. When talking with the Technician who is driving it daily to attempt to evaluate the issue when it happens, he said it predominantly happens when there is a load on the motor, or in more direct terms, when he is leaning on it. Obviously, the first thought in my head is that we are getting lean on fuel to the motor. He said they replaced the entire fuel line, fuel filter, and measured the pressure of the fuel pump, and they are not seeing a cause from that department. I have since asked them again to hook up the fuel pressure guage and get it on the road so that they can see if the fuel pressure is dropping significantly while they are driving the car hard, or leaning on it. They have placed many more grounds in the car, including grounding the battery to the motor. They thought the grounding was the main issue with the car, as when they grounded the battery to the motor, the dash lights came on much brighter, and the idle of the car was significantly better. When they ran it for a couple of days, the same issue came about, but like before, it is intermittent. They also hooked up an MSD unit to it, thinking that the coils were starting to fail, but same result as well. It doesn't always happen when they lean on it, just sometime. This is where the idea came up that we may have some corrosion in the wiring harness and should look at finding a replacement. It had been sitting garaged for 8 years, so I am on the fence if this could or could not be the problem, or a contributor to the problem.

All ideas are good ideas, so please keep them coming as I am sure you are all like me, and would like to see another RX2 on the road.

Thank you so much everyone!

Here is my 2 cents for what its worth

I assume your technician has already proved that the spark plugs are of correct type and that the fuel system is consistently good throughout the rev range? Adequate pressure does not always mean adequate flow rate.

Also sounds like your technician requires some electrical fault finding skills. Does he not have a multimeter to prove faults? He is wasting time and money replacing parts unnecessarily. Prove the harness is faulty before replacing it. As Gypsy said earlier a live jumper wire to the + term on your leading coil will quickly prove if your harness is indeed defect.

Nice car apple guy! Or should I say Lucky Guy! I just cant stop gawking at it! Im a hubcap man but I got to say those wheels look sharp!

Hang on while I pick my Jaw up off the table!

Okay, now things get real interesting. My technician was driving the car today, and suddenly there was a large warning sound coming from under the dash. He pulled over and attempted to assess the situation. He said that it seemed to be a flasher issue, so he disengaged the flashers and ran without turn signals on the car until he arrived at the destination he was going. Once he arrived, he tried to shut off the car and it wouldn't turn off. He realized that he had to lift his foot from the brake pedal, which would then allow the car to shut off.

Options:
1. My car is now possessed!
2. Something was hooked up horribly wrong, causing this issue to suddenly rear it's ugly head.
3. Degradation in the wiring harness (system) that now requires a new wiring harness.

I'm no automotive electrical specialists, but option #3 seems to be most likely, as they have thouroughly addressed option #2, and since I am not a Devil Worshipper, I have to assume I haven't brought this onto my car myself.

Once again, any ideas are more than welcome here, but I am feeling the replacement wiring harness is the direction I need to go at this time.

Anybody out there know where I might be able to find one in good condition in a short amount of time? I would really appreciate any leads you could provide.


Thanks everyone for all the help!

Why are you so convinced the wiring harness needs replacing?

Your technician may be good mechanically but he obviously has no electrical skills. Your strife is not necessary.

Did you know there is a buzzer to warn you of a faulty brake light bulb when you press the brake pedal?

I believe your technician has disconnected the brake light checker relay making your initial problem worse.

The solution to your problem is very simple.

Get an auto electrician

and arm him with this wiring diagram below.

http://iwankel.com/manuals/public/RX-2% ... 201973.pdf

You have a special car, only let competent people work on it.

Thanks for sharing with us.

Round 3 on the car begins.

Still don't have the car back, as we still have not remedied the intermittent cutout issue where the car just unexpectedly dies while driving.

We think we have ruled out the wiring harness, as the battery was hot wired directly to the coil and the issue still persisted.

On numerous occasions, the fuel pressure was measured at idle as well as high load on the engine, still getting at least 6 psi to the Holley, so we feel we have ruled out a sudden fuel pressure drop.

Issue still seems to take place at operating temperature with a high load on the engine, so another thought was brought to my attention. Could the coils be overheating trying to fire the incremental fuel that is rushing through the engine at higher load and RPM's, to a point that they can no longer keep up. I know that when this cutofff has happenned, the car has had to sit for 10 - 15 minutes, then it starts and runs normal again. My tech did utilize an MSD Blaster Coil to address this, but stated that the issue still continued.

The car is now going to an electrical specialist armed with a factory wiring diagram, who is going to start from scratch, starting with fuel, air and spark. Once this is fully established, he is going to start adding the non-detrimental electrics to the mix until he can find a contributor to the problem, attacking each one as they are added.

Comments on this path or other ideas are much appreciated.

Outside of this gremlin issue, the overall car, motor and drive train are superb!

Thanks alot!

Hi,

What fuelpump are you using? Because this happened to a friend of mine, as soon as the fuelpump gets too hot, it cuts out. And after a while you can start it up again.

I suggest that when the car cuts out again, remove the fuel pipe supply to the carb and check if it pumps any fuel.

Regards

_________________
1998 mazda 323 200e, 2.0l 8V
1979 mazda 323 glc, 13B Bridge

Great idea and I am all over it.

Thank you very much!

Are you NOW saying you have NOT ruled that out??

If your fuel pressure regulator has been set over 6 PSI in the past then you may have a bent float level arm in you Holley fuel bowl.

Check the fuel level in the bowl is correct.

A bent float level arm will cause the bowl to run out of fuel prematurely which would certainly cause the symptoms you describe.

Madaz,

I am not sure I can rule ANYTHING out at THIS point!

The fuel pressure guage was put on the car, at idle, and during high load, purely to test PSI. The intermittent issue didn't happen during the time that they had the guage on it, again, they were purely testing PSI at both extremes. The reason I liked the idea is that it is still a possiblity, and can at least be tested in a controlled environment- run the car on the roads with the guage connected, under conditions that the issue has taken place before, until the issue happens again. If the PSI suddenly drops at the point that the issue takes place, then "Ding Ding", we have a direction to go. If not, then this completely rules out the theory that the fuel pump is overheating and then failing.

Thanks,

Okay, some success recently!

Discovered a firewall fuse that had let go, possibly some time ago, that was potentially making contact again, allowing the car to run until enough heat or voltage caused the fuse to separate again. This, in turn, may be causing the intermittent shutting off of the motor and electrics. Still not sure, but repair has been made to that fuse as well as subsequent wiring, and we are now puting some miles on the car to see if it will fail again like it had been, or if we are good. The recommendation has come from the new technician we are using to indeed replace the wiring harness, regardless. We have secured a factory stock, 1973 Mazda RX2 wiring harness, that has not been tampered with, and we'll either go with this, or an aftermarket harness available from several companies.

Will update after a few days of driving to see if motor failure happens again or not.

build your own harness for 1/2 the cost.

Alrighty then, I think we are in the money now. No issues since the firewall fuse replacement, so we are now in the final leg of tweaking. Going through the entire electrical system to find any potential future issues, attacking driveability issues, as the front end tends to wander a bit, and finally re-working the carburator for some flat-spot issues. Schedule should allow the car to be back by end of next week. Hope to supply pictures to everyone at that time.

Thanks to all for the help along this path!