[Spridgets] Mazda rotary

[Rick]

I worked for Mazda North America in the early 80's.  They did indeed have a 
problem with the rotor seals on the early engines.  Mazda had a crew of guys 
at the North American headquarters that did nothing but rebuild engines with 
blown seals.  These engines were then shipped to their dealers for free 
replacement of engines that failed with less than 50,000 miles.  Over 50,000 
miles and the customer had to pay.

I worked there for less than a year as they ran the business in the Japanese 
fashion and it really really sucked.  Having round eyes I was on the bottom 
of every list and treated like a leper.  The only reason they tolerated any 
of us "round eyes" was because we could speak and write English.

Rick

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Larry Daniels" <ladaniels at sbcglobal.net>
To: "Michael Rowe" <mdrowe at optonline.net>; "Spridget Chat Group" 
<spridgets at autox.team.net>; "Peter Caldwell" <peter at nosimport.com>
Sent: Sunday, November 08, 2009 10:20 AM
Subject: Re: [Spridgets] Mazda rotary


> Peter, do I recall correctly that those early rotary engines had seals 
> that
> didn't last long?  I seem to remember that they were lucky to get 50K on
> them.  Not sure if that was a rumor started by other guys when the RX-7s
> started showing up at the track or if there really was a problem with 
> them.
>
> LAD