edrach

Ditto on qman's advice. The 2nd test is free, but if you fail that one, the third one is a charge again. Just some comments about emissions: BEFORE you go, make sure you have a new air cleaner in the car, make sure your timing is at spec, make sure your vacuum advance is actually working, run the car down the highway at the speed limit for at least 15 minutes to be sure that the catalytic converter is hot and working efficiently. Most of these things help the HC portion of the test. Good luck with the retest.

Firstly, make it reliable and stock. And run rallycross for fun and not necessarily to win. If you run to win, you'll get discouraged and all your modifications will be wasted and you'll probably find something else to do. As you gain experience, you'll find that you are getting better and you'll also find you will have an idea what you want to do to improve the car. All the car improvements in the world won't do a thing for you if the driver isn't up to the task. My son won the truck/suv class last year with his '82 Brat and consistently beats the majority of WRXs and other "hot" cars in the field. "Seat time" means a lot in that sport.

Another thought that hadn't come up on this discussion and I don't know if it's applicable. On the older EA82s and EA81 engines, almost all the vac. advance diaphragms are shot anyway and you don't get any advance from that; you're only working on the centrifugal anyway. Take that from an old junk yard dog who's found the 19 out of 20 distributors don't have a working vacuum advance unit.

Also, your severe vibration could be due to a bad DOJ on one of the front axles. I've had one so bad if felt like the whole transmission was about to fall out. The tip-off is that the vibration goes away if you let off the gas, and then comes back when you get on the gas again.

I've no info on the location, but I think it'll be the same place as the last one.

Rumor has it that there will be a Seattle area rallyX on July 18 put on by NWR-SCCA. I'll be looking for confirmation. First ORG event is tentatively planned for May 30th; still waiting for a site and confirmation of that also.

My Brat is currently waiting for some major engine work. Until now it's been exceedingly reliable but it's developed a massive head gasket leak (losing water out the exhaust). I'm wondering if the higher combustion temps might have had something to do with that since I've never seen it overheat. Of course high mileage could have something to do with it also.

Look at the "EA82" on the underside in the casting; plain old EA82 is gen 1, EA82 underlined is gen 2, and EA82 in a box is gen 3. All three heads will work fine until the engine overheats; gen 1 is most prone to failure, gen 2 is more robust and gen 3 is least likely to fail. If the engine never seriously overheats a gen 1 head can last a long time and is really not a serious detriment.

Rick, thanks for the info. I've always wanted to hook up the EGR again, but haven't looked into it far enough (or understood the vacuum system well enough) to do that. Thanks again.

Austin, another way to accomplish that is to have CVaxles of Ocala make you custom axles with the correct inner spline count.

Rick, the next time I see you at the rallycross (May 30th ?), catch up with me and show me how you hooked up the EGR. I cleaned it and it is still there, but it is not hooked up to a vacuum line since I'm not sure where I would pull it from.

Cool, you guys are too crazy!

I'm with caleb on the cresent wrench. I suspect you're not getting enough torque on the nut with a cresent, even if you're standing on it. A 36mm socket with a breaker bar (and maybe a 2 foot extension with a pipe) is a good bet.

Castle nut loosening has nothing to do with the bearings being bad. This happens for one of two reasons: Either there was dirt or goop on the inside of the wheel hub where the axle enters the hub that has worked its way out hence loosening the nut. The other possibility is that the beveled washer wasn't tight and finally seated itself which results in loosening the nut. Thirdly, it might not have been tight enough to start with--145 ft-lbs is a lot, but you can tighten it even more if you like without damage. Oddly enough when it loosens like this, it even sounds like the bearings have gone bad on that side.

Boy, that certainly changes things. Just for laughs, does the vibration still occur when stopped AND the clutch depressed--that would eliminate anything in the tranny as well as the drivetrain which seems to have been eliminated. Perhaps a resonance resulting from a flakey tranny mount or engine mount.

DOJ is double offset joint. This is the inner joint (transmission end) on your front axle; as opposed to the CVJ (constant velocity joint) which is the outboard joint (wheel end). CVJs start to click under hard lock when failing, DOJs tend to vibrate during acceleration and stop when you let off on the gas. Trust me, very classic symptoms. Sometimes the vibration is so bad you think the transmission is about to fall out of the car; sometimes it's so minor, an experienced mechanic won't notice it. If you pulled too hard on the axle during removal and/or it was difficult to get off your old tranny, you could have damaged the DOJ which might be causing your vibration--it doesn't take much.

You might have a totally different issue. If you run the car up to 60mph and then let off on the gas, does the vibration stop? Then if you step on the gas again, does it come back and increase with speed? If that's the case, you have a bad DOJ on one (or both axles). Vibration on acceleration that goes away on trailing throttle is a classic symptom of a bad DOJ. I can't tell you which one, but if you have a torn boot on one side that's most likely the bad one. Good luck. The other possibility is that you actually have a bad transmission; I had that mis-fortune with the first 5 speed that was installed on my Brat. 2nd tranny cleaned that right up. I also forgot to add, I did use a EA82 flywheel and an '88 d/r tranny for my swap.

Dan, get ahold of Jerry's (bratsarus1) upgrade kit and a good 5 speed dual range tranny. You'll never be sorry. The 4 speed is too wide between third and fourth; you wind up either running high rpms in third or too low in fourth. Also highway speeds in fourth are up in the 3500 rpm range. With the 5 speed, you'll always have a gear which will allow the engine to run at it's happiest between 2000 and 3500 rpm. With my 5 speed, 3500 rpm is over 75 mph.

Paul, too bad you're not in Seattle. However, I re-read your post. Whatever are they testing NOx for? I thought that was only a problem for diesel engines and shouldn't even be tested on a gasoline engine. Sorry, shows you how much I don't know on emissions.

Depending on which bolts, but if you don't care about destroying the bolts/nuts, try a dremel tool with an edge cutting disk can cut a bolt or split a nut easily; just remember to wear safety glasses.

I queried the seller on the 390 question. I'm awaiting response. I don't know where he got his minimum shipping price; $147 seems a bit high--perhaps he's taking them to a pack and ship store and paying top dollar to them.

Wish I could be there Jason, but that weekend is dedicated to "homework." We're still playing catchup from selling the old house and moving into this one. Happy Birthday. I'll be thinking of you since we share the same date.

I'm with GD; bad seal in the tranny is a very common problem. Problem is you have to open the tranny to replace the seal. Replace the speedometer and put in a new cable; it'll be a while before the transmission oil with migrate up the new cable and murph your speedo.

Jerry, do you remember my Brat? If I'm not mistaken we used the EA82 flywheel. Is that because I have extra vibration going down the highway? We can eliminate that soon since I've got to pull the engine to replace the head gaskets. Timely piece of information.

Another hint; drop the bid in as late as possible. That way you won't be tempted to bid more that you would have bid without a bidding war. Also, it prevents others from upping your maximum bid. I know, it's called sniping. But I've found that bidding early just seems to increase the desirability of the item and tends to get others interested and bid the stuff up un-necessarily.