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If you don't see a navigation bar at the bottom of the screen you are missing out on the rest of my Mazda rotary stuff! Please click here to reload the frameset. Thanks! For those of you who have no idea how a rotary engine works, here's a cool little animated GIF image showing what happens.

Last Update 6/4/2001

The June update includes a bunch of repair pics I took with my new digital camera and a bunch of new Mazda RX advertisements from old magazines. Most pre RX-7 models are well represented. On the Mazda Model Lineup page there are a bunch of new photos of R100, RX-2, 3 and 4 as well. More pics of my RX-2 with its new tires and other mods will be posted later in the month.

I've owned my 1973 RX-2 for a year and a half now, and I've done the following repairs, upgrades and modifications. See pictures below for pics of repairs/upgrades etc. I've done this year so far. The yellow rotary rocket now has 71,900 miles on it . . .

Rebuild Carburetor - for a big page of pictures click here. Not much to say other than I am surprised the car even ran as dirty as the inside of the carburetor was. I also changed the overly large 94mm Primary Jets to the Racing Beat recomended 90mm jets. Secondary jets stay a stock 150mm.

Install Gauge set - I removed the upper part of the center console and put the gauges below the ashtray. They fit well and look nice. At the moment, only the volt meter works. The wires are all in place for everything else but I haven't made the connections yet.

Install Tokicko Black shocks on rear - got this done for $70 but didn't have lowering springs yet, so the ride height is still stock.

Get new tires - Had some 205/60/13 Cooper Cobras put on. Nice and wide and sticky!

Rebuild Brake Master Cylinder - found a kit for it, but due to the complexity of the MC and some trouble with reassembly, the brakes don't seem any better than they were (takes too much pressure IMO). At least they aren't any worse, but for $60 and 4 hours of time I was hoping for some improvement :( Pictures are here.

Front Brakes - I rebuilt the calipers with new caliper kits, and replaced the pads with Raybestos premiums. I painted the calipers with Cast Iron Grey Krylon. cost - $30 for everything.

Rear Brakes - I rebuilt the brake cylinders and replaced all the springs, pins and shoes. Painted the drums with Krylon Cast Iron Grey. Cost - $40 for everything.

Electric Fan - the fan clutched seized up on me, so I bought a 900cfm electric fan from Derale and installed that. I nearly put one of the mounting pins through my thumb until I figured out a safer way to get those things through the radiator. Performance gain: ~5 HP. Cost - $110 including variable thermostat.

Racing Beat Air Cleaner - This is an open element style air cleaner made for 12A engines by Racing Beat. Performance gain: ~5 HP. Cost - $44 on eBay.

Dye interior - the vanilla interior was looking pretty dingy after 25 years, and since the front seats had already been replaced with black ones, I pulled all the interior save the headliner out and dyed it all black using Krylon Auto Upholstry Dye. The interior looks brandnew now and is all one color finally. Cost - $24.

Battery cables - the original battery cables were almost entirely gone so I spent an hour one winter morning and replaced them, including all the pigtails as well. Car seems to start just a tad quicker now. Cost - $30.

Sway Bar Bushings - I got some generic style sway bar bushings, polyurethane from a catalog. They weren't an exact fit and I'm a little displeased with that so I will probably try and find model specific poly bushings for my car. I didn't notice any handling improvement at all but the misfit may be to blame, Cost - $15.

Thermostat - had some overheating problems that were making me nervous so I changed this out. Didn't help. Cost - $8.

Hoses and Belts - changed both belts, upper and lower radiator hose, front heater hose section, both hoses to trans cooler. Front heater hose is kinked and I've been having heating problems in the summer since the change so I'm gonna fork out the cash for a 90 angle heater hose and redo that thing. Cost - $30.

Disassemble/reassemble Distributors - as part of a tune up, not only did I replace all the points and condensors, but I removed both distributors, completely disassembled them, cleaned and lubed everything, fixed broken vacuum and mechanical advance mechanisms and put it all back together. The 12A runs much better now.

Plans for 2001

Pictures from 2000

Here are the pictures of my new RX-2 that I've been promising. As I mentioned before, this Series 2 RX-2 has 61,000 one-owner original miles, the original paint, no rust or body damage, and everything is original except the front seats which have been replaced with black ones from another RX-2 sedan.

Glossy paint! My '71 had working hood vents - this '73 doesn't - they are for looks only and their orientation is backwards from the '71. The '71 had vents that were kind of like this - [ | ] while the '73's vents go like this - ] | [.

Even the trim rings and center caps are original!

Only body damage is small ding present on right side of trunk lid (boot) - service mechanic did it backing the thing up.

Love those taillights! The small trunk lid ding is more visibile in this view. Original "Thermal Reactor Pipe" is still present and functional as well as the ORIGINAL muffler and pre-silencer! Aussie RX-2 owners will note the lack of the decorative panel above the taillights and missing Amber portions of the lights themselves. My '73 is missing the "Coupé" from the trunk lid that my '71 had.

The view many people see of my car - quite unexpectedly I might add.

Our Lady watches over my RX-2. The Capella badge on the '73 is different from the '71 style - '71 was smaller without colored surrounds, '73 is bigger, and has red and black inserts for coloration.

Another good view of the RX-2.

No it's not sagging - I'm parked on an incline. Original 'RE' is in place. Aussie RX-2 owners will note the different turn signals and 'RE' in place of 'Rotary Engine' like the RX-7s have on their tail end.

My car is licensed as a '74 but the emissions sticker (above the coils) clearly states that this is a '73. Most everything is original under the hood as well. Note the summer/winter valve on the air cleaner intake and the "sub-zero starting fluid resevoir" which really can't be seen but is below the coils on the 'frame rail'.

Note original radiator cap, top mounted starter, charcoal canister inside the air cleaner lid. Everything is still original except plug wires and cap/rotor/points, and the oil and fuel filters. The wiring for the modified starter/ignition switch is visible also.

Even the dash pad is in perfect condition with no cracks what-so-ever! Above the ignition switch you can see the "sub-zero starting fluid" button which has been rewired to be a starter button, since the original ignition switch no longer starts the car. The "sub-zero" fluid was just a 90/10 mix of antifreeze (ethylene glycol) and water, which was injected directly into the carburetor to prevent freezing around the throttle plate/butterflies. Since the RX-2 is parked in a heated garage, I don't really need it to be functional. Also note rare Automatic Transmission - it's a little slow off the line, but once it spools up, it takes off. The torque converter sound is quite noticable in this car, and sounds like a 747 taking off as it winds up. I hope that isn't a sign of impending failure . . . .

In this photo you can see the supplemental choke mechanism which has replaced the original failed unit, as well as the new wires that go to the starter button. The replacement seats are absolutely perfect. I need to put seat covers on them for daily driving soon. The emergency brake boot is worn out from the continual blast of hot air it receives while the heater is on. Aside from the chrome plating being worn off the panel decorations, the interior is 95% perfect, with an intact headliner, no rips in any of the panels and only a few rips in the top of the back seat.