A new challenger 'The Beast from the East'

[rotarypower]

Surprisingly good actually.
At first they were bloody awful and I wondered if I'd somehow ended up with air in the system despite bleeding it all twice to make sure. (With fresh fluid of course)

But I did a bit of a high speed stop and that seems to have bedded them in, wonder if I somehow had some residue of grease on them or something, but they're pretty potent now, initial bite isn't amazing but then they come on pretty strong.

Not a fan of the pedal feel however, would prefer a firmer feel, I wouldn't say its 'mushy' but it feels a bit soft in comparison to the braking force you're getting.

[rotarypower]

So some more progress, the pads arrived so I could finish off the rear brakes.
Or so I thought, unfortunately the rear disc that I bought from America despite being the correct PCD, Diameter, thickness etc, were not the correct hub size and they wouldn't allow my wheels to sit on flush.





The old ones measured 59.5mm, although I guess they’re supposed to be 60mm. The new ones measured 62mm. Not much but enough that the wheel wouldn’t fit. Luckily a machinist I go to a lot turned them down for me while I waited, however still a lot of hassle for something that’s supposed to bolt on. But never mind, got there in the end.


Now I turned my attention to the fronts, where I encountered a horrible piece of design. To remove the calliper carrier, there are two bolts. Nothing new there. However one of the bolts on this thing is basically inaccessible. I couldn’t find any tool in my arsenal that would do it.


In the end I managed it by unbolting the two bolts that hold the strut assembly onto the steering arm and ball joint. Easier said than done as I don’t think they had moved in over 30 years. But a combination of a pipe slipped over the spanner, a blow torch & a lot of swearing eventually did the trick. This allowed me to rotate the assembly enough to gain access to the bolt.


They have seen better days, the dust shields are pretty much gone, they’re also NLA from Mazda so will either have to make some myself, or find some used ones.


Much better!

As sad as it was that I sold the FC, at least it gave me a more civilized place to work out of the rain.


Gave the front callipers the rebuild and zinc spray treatment, they didn’t look so bad, but while its all apart it seemed logical. I was glad I’d ordered new bearings as they have to be installed into the new discs. It saved me knocking out the old races, and lets be honest, for the price you may as well do the bearings every time.






All of this meant the Rex was ready in time for date night, it sounded mint driving through the multi-storey, I could have quite happily done several laps.

The final job I got done was fitting the new radiator, while the old one seemed to have fixed itself, after nearly 40 years it was time for a replacement.
For some reason the Haynes manual tells you to remove the fan for this job, I just unbolted the shroud.




Fitting was remarkably straight forward and it actually bolted straight up, with 2 caveats. The first being that the coolant level sensor has the wrong thread and leaks. The second being that oil cooler holes for mounting, while in the correct location are not spaced out like OEM rad. Hence you can see a gap between the two.

As an interim solution I shimmed the gap with 3 pieces of drilled out aluminium bar and used longer bolts.
At some point the engine is coming out for me to paint the bay, so at that point I’ll make a custom bracket.
For the time being I shorted out the coolant sensor wire, I’ll either get a new sensor with the correct thread. (Whatever that it is) Or an adaptor.

This radiator also comes with provision for a fan switch, which should make doing a clean install of the electric fan(s) nice & easy, no need for over complicated temperature dials and the like.



To test it I took it for about a 70 mile drive, mostly country roads, but got caught in heavy traffic near Scarborough, temperature didn’t budge and no leaks, so that’s a win.

The drive did expose several other issues.
- Front ARB bushes need replacement, getting knocking over bumps
- Whine from the rear that changes with road speed, pretty sure it’s the bearings
- Front bearings need readjusting now they’ve set in, left one has started to make some noise.
- Clunk when changing gear, combined with a knock when getting on and off the throttle & a whirring whine from the rear that only happening under acceleration or engine braking, I think its probably a driveshaft u-joint. (or both)
- Wheels need balancing.
- Annoying vibration from some panel in the rear.
- Awful fuel economy, a lot worse IMO than it should be, gone through ¾ of a tank in 100 miles, and I’ve not been driving like a complete loon.
- Combined with the above there seems to be a constant fuel smell around & sometimes in the car. Bears investigating, I don’t want to die in a fireball or pass out due to the fumes
- Drivers seat bolster is gone, it won’t sit in an upright enough position and the whole back rocks forward under braking! Apparently the FC seats fit pretty easily. I’ve got a set knocking about so I’ll give it a go.

[rotarypower]

Well another small update.

First up I discovered the source of my poor fuel economy and the fuel smell:



Leak from the tank! Short term solution is don't fill up all the way. Long term solution, drop it and see if its repairable.

Following the previous theme of reliability mods, I decided to do something about the cruddy old engine wiring & prehistoric fusible links and replace them with something, slightly more modern.



All replacment lines are 25mm wire with adhesive heatshrink over the crimps. Proper battery terminals as well.




The old fusible link didn't want to leave, but some careful incision with an angle grinder made short work of him.


The retractor wire and headlight wire had heat-shrink terminals attached. Again adhesive lined so no chance of water creeping along the wire.


Finally I fitted the fuse box. Its originally from an FC and IMO looks pretty factory.
I now have easily replaceable fuses, and lots of spares to run stuff like E-Fans and other stuff I have planned.


I may change again in future, long term I plan to put relays on some of the components like the lights and retractors, fuel pump, etc, a lot of the load for that stuff goes directly through the ignition switch, and as they are NLA from Mazda, it makes sense to look after it.
Alternatively I may find a hidden location for the relays as I really want a 'clean' engine bay.

Interestingly enough after all this the idle on the car is up by around 100rpm, its far smoother than it was. I suspect the earths were a bit dodgy before. For a start the old Earth cable was tiny, the grounding bolt was covered in corrosion. When I installed it, I made sure to clean away the paint under the terminal for a better chassis connection.

With the car hopefully reliable, it was driver comfort next. While the brown seats didn't look to bad, the drivers bolster had collapsed, it wouldn't sit upright, under hard braking the whole backrest would rock forward, and it was also collapsed in the middle. Not comfy on any kind of drive & I had to brace myself against the steering wheel in the corners.

According to the internet S4 FC seats are a direct bolt in, with just one bolt hole needing to be stretched.
I was a little dubious but given I had FC seats in my lockup it seemed worth a go.





And they were right! The seats maybe the wrong colour, but they're 10x the comfort & hold you in very nicely. I've blitzed them with some car upholstery cleaner, but I think they need a wetvac treatment. And probably re-trimming down the line.
They make the car a much more pleasant place to be, the height is ever so slightly higher, which actually works out OK as I can rest my arm out the window more easily.

Finally, I fitted MX5 wiper arms, so that I could have a hook attachment. (Well one anyway, the other is in the post still)


Quick test after wiring to make sure nothings going to catch fire.


LEDs for the number plate lights.


And that's all I managed. Progress will slow in future as I'm on a training course next week, holiday the week after & two weeks at work after that.

[Casey]

"And that's all I managed"

That's some significant steps to making the electrics more reliable, plus seats to make more drivable.

A few more bites of the elephant! Bite by bite you'll get there with steady progress

[rotarypower]

Haha, thanks!

It really doesn't seem as much when you type it out, compared to how long it takes in real life.
And that's exactly it, I'm getting everything mechanically where I need it, after that I'll sort out the cosmetic stuff, drop the suspension and paint the undercarriage etc.

[rotarypower]

A little update, I've not done a huge amount because I was away for a week and catching up with other stuff.

The main task I got done was to (mostly) complete the E-Fan installation.
The original plan was to use the unused bung on the top left of the radiator, unfortunately however its G3/8" thread, which is BSP Parallel, and I've had no luck finding a radiator switch in that thread that will work.

I bought an adaptor to convert it to the M22 thread switch I already had, however this didn't work out.

First business was to remove all the old fan & shroud.



Then mount the twin fan setup onto the rad:




I decided to go twin relay with the twin fan setup to give myself some redundancy, so I bought a pair of 40amp relays & plugs.
I prewired them on the bench, so they have have shared power feed & earth, the energise circuit earth is shared as is the trigger wire, but the outputs are kept separate, one per fan.




Next up I removed the battery & tray so as to hide the wiring behind it, I mounted the relays on two existing holes that exactly lined up. Long term I want to do a full wire tuck in the engine bay so it will all be hidden, but until that day I didn't want to add any new holes.
I did make a little mistake with the circuit, I forgot to heat-shrink the sensor wires which I'll have to go back & do.








So anyway, after all this it was time to test, I refilled the coolant & ran up the engine and it warmed & warmed & warmed, still not fan. Shit.
My conclusion is that the switch is too far from the main coolant flow, its also set stupidly far back due to the thread adaptor thats fitted and because it has a hydraulic standpipe inside it doesn't get coolant across its hole face.
So I need either a G3/8" coolant switch, or more likely an inline mount for the top radiator hose and put the sensor there.

My interim solution is to wire it to the unused radio antenna switch in the centre console.


Testing on the drive had the double fans easily cooling the engine, which is much more rev happy now its not spinning the fan. The belts also seems less prone to slipping.

With all that done it was time for a blast out in the countryside, a run to the N. York Moors





The car was looking great, but now some bad news, I hit a sheep. Or the sheep hit me more accurately, unfortunately it looks like I need a new drivers wing & light.






It doesn't show up well in the photos, but the front of the wing has pushed into the light & put a crease in the top of it, that may knock out, but I'm gonna have to search for a new wing. Drat.

It ruined an otherwise great drive, I was having a great run, sun was out, engine was really on song & running impeccably, the road had a great 'flow' and then 3 sheep just decided to run across in front of me, luckily it was just a glancing blow, and animal lovers will be pleased to know that the sheep was absolutely fine. Ah well, another job for the list. At least the damage was minimal.

[Casey]

What a bummer, baaaaa-d sheep

What a shame, after making all that progress, to have that setback. Looking on the bright side, I guess the damage could have been far worse.

Annoying though

[Hobbawobba]

At least it's just visual aye! Still a bugger though

Running electric fans with just a manual switch! Very risky business there! Hahah until you've sorted the sensor that is

[rotarypower]

That night I was wishing the sheep a slow and painful death. But c'est la vie.

Luckily as you both say, damage is minimal, hopefully the fact its nipped up on the light has saved any structural bits at the front from moving, so its just a case of replacement light cover or repair this one and try and find a replacement wing.

Honestly I've had no trouble remembering to turn on the fan, plus it actually takes quite a while before it starts getting close to overheating, the new rad seems to work pretty well.

[rotarypower]

I'm still offshore, but as I just discovered these on my phone I thought I'd post them.

Halfords sell an (overpriced IMO) rattle can of black Vinyl paint, so I thought I'd have a go at blacking some of the interior parts that are currently brown.
I washed and dried all parts (using fairy liquid) and lightly scuffed them with a scotchbrite pad followed by some brake cleaner to really try and get any remaining oils off the surface. (I also repainted the catch surround that was rusty as heck)





Before:


After:



Fairly happy with how it came out, I might try some plastic primer on the next bits to see if I can promote some more adhesion as this stuff scratches easily.