edrach

Firstly, don't run in 4WD on blacktop or dry paveent; bad for the transfer case. In 4WD, the front and rear wheels are joined together through the transfer case. If the front and rear tires are not the exact same diameter, one axle will roll further than the other for each wheel revolution. Eventually, that difference causes binding in the drive train and can damage it....it needs to slip. Works fine in snow or on dirt when it can slip; but not on pavement when it can't. Now back to LSD; 86 Brats never came with LSD. However, if you find one, it can be installed once you convert it to 3.900 rear ratio from the original 3.700. That's a topic for another thread. However, some '89 Turbos came with LSD and I'd check the one you're working on for the disk brakes. Check the label on the rear and it'll give you part #, ratio, and if it's LSD will say so in large letters. LSDs are a bit rare and in great demand. Typically sell for $125 or more plus shipping here on the Board. I have a 3.900 LSD on my Brat and it is very useful on the rallycross circuit.

While you're at it, check the rear diff. If it's a late enough '88 to be considered an '89, you might be lucky enough to find an LSD on this one. That would be a real find.

Morning Session: Production, Production GT, Truck/SUV Afternoon Session: Group 5, OPEN, Group 2 8am Registration and Tech First car off at around 9:45am See you there.

It's a GREAT price. Just make sure you grab everything. You'll need rotor and hub, caliper and brakeline, AND the backing plate. Keep the hardware too since you never know what you'll drop. Make sure the donor car is a 4WD since the 2WD backing plate and hub are different. Bring some liquid wrench or PB blaster to help with getting the backing plate off. It's a straight swap, take off the old, on with the new. Bleed the brakes and you're set to go. Just be sure to route the brakeline away from the inside of the wheel rim; you wouldn't want to rub a hole into the brakeline.

Try ratty2austin or subiegal. Also Jason at www.1stsubaruparts.com (that's Auburn Subaru; Jason is the chief parts guy and he's not on the Board as far as I know). You could call them on their 800# and ask for him if it's a parts related question.

Glad to hear you're back online Jason. Time to get some sleep!

Another quick and easy visual check would be to remove the underside plastic covering under the steering wheel and follow the cable harness coming from the ignition switch. About 6 to 8 inches from the ignition switch the cable plugs into the main harness with a plastic connector. Usually a white one although I've seen light blue and pink ones. Examine the connector since the main current for the ignition runs through one of the wires in the cable. It's not uncommon on the older cars for that one wire's terminal inside the connector to go bad and not carry the current needed to start the car properly. When that happens, the connection gets hot and the connector starts to turn brown (or black) around that wire. If your connector has started to turn brown, it's pretty easy to splice a suitable guage wire (remember we're carrying a fair amount of current here) around the faulty connector. I've had to do this on enough of the older cars to realize this is a pretty common problem. A faulty terminal here can also cause your intermittant starting problem.

Just another thought. I would think that a bouncy front end is more a sign of weak shocks than springs.

Set of four alloy wheels 4x140 mm in a 14" persuasion if they exist. I'd take 5 if available. Thanks for going through the trouble.

I don't know what's up, but here it is: Hello everyone, Sorry this is such short notice but the has been a change in the schedule. Group 2 has been moved to the afternoon session Truck/SUV group has been moved to the morning session If you know of anyone I missed, or if you know of anybody planning on attending please help pass the word. Thank You, Julie Anderson SCCA Registrar And from John Nispel: Registration/tech at 0800, first run group at 10. Afternoon when we get to it. Corrected info at website (EXCEPT they still have Truck/SUV running in the afternoon NOT): http://www.nwr-scca.org/rallycross/July_18_2004.htm

In theory it should be okay. When you turn on the ignition, +12vdc gets put directly on your + terminal on the coil. If that 12 volts drops significantly (to 8 volts or less) while turning over the engine it would create your intermittant starting problem. By-passing it with a wire and switch directly from the battery will "cure" the symptom without really correcting the problem but it will tell you where to start looking.

I'm not sure about Rallitek (use that spelling and you should be able to find them) if qman doesn't post a response sooner. Otherwise, richierich has a shop in Portland and his dad has a shop in Vancouver. You couldn't go wrong with any of those three.

The best person to send a weber for rebuild is cameron but he's not doing them anymore. He recently posted his last rebuild on the Board for $180 (shipping included). I think you'd be lucky to find anyone else to re-do your used carbs for less than that. Add that price to your junkyard price plus about $50 for the adapter plate and gaskets and you'll be getting pretty close to the cost of new. You can save quite a bit on the used carbs if you're willing to do the work of rebuilding it yourself. It's just a question of whether you have more time or more money. Either way, it's a worthwhile addition to any of our older models. Here's the link: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=18511

So are you coming down to rallycross this weekend or the next one in Portland?

If you can get the check up to me at the Rallycross this weekend, I can make time to deliver the check and pick up your shocks/struts. I'll put them in my beige wagon for delivery down to Portland (I'd like the get the wagon down to you before the end of this month--whether or not I deliver the struts for you). ---Ed---

It starts every time when you pop the clutch? Have someone hold the digital voltmeter leads across the battery when you try to start the car (or see how far the voltage drops on the guage voltmeter when you try to start the car normally). If the voltage drops below 7 to 8 volts there's not enough voltage to fire the ignition. It's an area you haven't looked yet. If the voltage does drop significantly, start checking all the high current wiring to the starter and the ground wires to the battery. After that have the battery checked to see if it can maintain voltage while cranking. Good luck.

Someone was obviously interested in the d/r tranny; as of today it's gone.

Gary, you can find most of the information you need at http://www.nwr-scca.org/rallycross/July_18_2004.htm. Ignore the fact that they haven't listed a starting time, I'm sure they'll update the post now that I've "nudged" them. However, you'll find that morning tech and registration usually opens at 8am. Afternoon tech and registration might be open as early as 11am. The place is small enough you'll have no trouble finding us. I'll be there in the early morning with a blue brat and a camping canopy with all my junk and spares tires and stuff. It'll be pretty obvious where we set up for this. We'll look forward to seeing you.

Oil in the cable; sort of, Caleb has it right. The oil seal in the tranny at the cable output is gone or shot. Oil migrates up the cable and eventually into the speedometer head. Once it's in there, the speedo gets wildly optimistic. Replacing the speedo works for a while IF you clean out the grease/oil in the cable first. Only permanent fix is to ALSO install a new seal at the transmission. I can't tell you how that went although the seal is only about $15 from SOA. Before I installed it in my old GL wagon it was "retired."

What are the consequences of driving with a blown head gasket? Having just gone through an engine on my '84 Brat which was loosing coolent on an increasing basis, I can tell you. The coolent loss will continue to increase. Eventually, the car won't get you home. When you check the oil, it will look like a chocolate milkshake due to the water in the oil. And...this is the really bad part...the engine will have a rod knock. So if you want to avoid a major engine rebuild, address the head gasket problem before the effectiveness of the oil is compromised.

WD-40 just dissolves the glue and you can wipe it off with a rag. There are other solvents like goo-gone and goof-off, but none works as well as WD-40; an it does'nt eat away at the paint or finish!

If you have access to nichrome wire, you could wind your own resistors and have plenty of power dissapation. I just haven't spent the time or effort to follow up on that option.

www.1stsubaruparts.com; this is Auburn Subaru in Auburn, WA. Typical prices are 30% off list; will only sell mail-order at these prices. If you have trouble navigating the website, call the 800# and ask for Jason or anyone in Parts. Excellent folks to deal with. All OEM parts.

700 to 900 is the "official" idle for EA81. However, if you have a/c in your Brat it could be the a/c relay is not kicking in to raise the idle back to normal.

If anyone was planning to lift a gen1 Brat, this is the car to get. Some really good pieces there to salvage and they'd go for a song.