edrach

I thought I was the only one who used tie-wraps for the throttle return spring!

Brian, does this mean your Brat is up and running again?

Far away! I live in Bothell. Still wouldn't spend $100 for it!

Any chance that the ASV reed valve is toast? If so, that's something that needs to be fixed ASAP.

Actually, that's only the jump seats; not the car.

Take the passenger side door lock tumbler out of the car; it'll take you less than 20 minutes. You'll find a number (e.g. W138). Take that number to a good locksmith and he'll cut you a master key from which you can make as many keys as you need. Local locksmith here charges $15 for that service. Driver's side door tumblers don't always has the number stamped on them. GD has the right idea with the mirror thing; sometimes you can't read the numbers that way since it's hard to get enough light in the right area to read the number.

Chris, fight them. Two years ago they totalled out my son's '83 wagon and offered $600. I pulled every receipt we had for parts, started clipping ads from the paper, checked NADA prices, checked Edmunds prices and Kelly Blue Book and found a range of prices for the car: $900 to $1800. 'Finally settled for $1430. Good luck with this. When you have time, drop me an email. Thanks.

Of course there's the approach my youngest son had. He swapped the upper panel for the lower one. Now the radio is where the heater controls were and the heater controls are where the radio was. It only took him about 20 hours with his little dremel tool to accomplish that. I'll have a pix one of these days.

Some of the early hatches ('80 type I think) had a center console where the radio was mounted at a 45 degree downward angle. I think that can be adapted to your Brat. My '84 Brat has the standard console with an adapter plate for Subaru (check the car audio places) that works just fine with a DIN size radio. I did have to trim the existing opening for the radio in the console.

Try Emily at ccrinc. She could advise you of sources and prices.

The reason for being exposed to the air is that the resistors are very high wattage and the air flow is there to cool the wires so they don't burn out quite so often. As much as these guys fail, remember that most of them last more than 10 years before they fail. Great picture, Skip, it's about time someone made it easier to find the resistor block. I can't think of how many people come back with "I can't find it" after being told where it is. Your reply should definitely go into our online service manual and be preserved forever.

Most important item: your hatch is most likely a 3.9 rear end ratio. Most of the Subaru LSDs are 3.700. You'll need to convert a good 3.900 rear to LSD using parts from the 3.700 rear.

Not to be a pain, but be carefull with the wiring. On high beams you are now running two filaments for each side effectively doubling the current on the old harness. Be smart and install a new harness running the power directly off a FUSED line from the battery and supplying power to the lamps from a pair of relays (one for low beam and the other for the high beams). If you use 12 (or 10) guage wire for the power to the headlamps you can even go with higher wattage bulbs than stock. 18 guage wire for the relay control is more than adequate. Ground the headlamps to a good grounding point and use the old headlamp socket to operate the relays. As old as our cars are, I wouldn't go through all this trouble without rewiring. Old wiring, old connectors, and more current draw are a recipe for a fire under the hood; besides the fact that you'll probably loose about 2 volts in the old harness and the new lighting will be relatively dim.

I was planning on doing this swap on my '86 wagon since the quad headlamps are a lot cheaper than the composite ones. Parts from an '88 DL fit interchangeably with my '86 GL wagon. I'm not sure since I've never tried it, but the quad lamp assembly from an '83 wagon might fit in your earlier vehicle. You'd probably have to get all the trim and grill pieces too (as well as the wiring connectors to the headlamps) to see if it would fit. Our local PAP yard will accept the parts back within 30 days if they don't work (if it doesn't fit, I guess it could be called "not working). The other half of this is the wiring and I'd suggest you re-wire the new lights via a relay directly off a fused line from your battery. Activate the relay from the old headlamp socket. If I can get my old computer running again, I'll get you a link to a site that can show you the wiring. PS: Bratsarus1 might have the link to the headlamp wiring site since I sent it to him at one time and he's more organized than I am.

Richie, It is called a Certificate in Lieu of Title. The lady in question can go to any D.O.L. office, tell them she lost the title and give them the tag # of the car as well as identification. They will check the computer and verify that the title is in her name and issue the Certificate to her which she can sign and turn over to you. You can then take that certificate to an Oregon motor vehicle agency and transfer the WA title to yourself or anyone else that you sell the car to. No need to wait for the actual title to be mailed from Olympia. Last time I did this, it cost $8.50 and is done on the spot at the D.O.L. office. Re-reading your post it sounds like you already transferred the title and I'm not sure the above will work now that it's in your name. Although you might go to Vancouver and get a Certificate in Lieu of Title if the title is now in your name. That should be an immediately transferable title so you can sell the car without waiting for the 8 weeks.

I can't improve on the_bard's description for the red, yellow and black wires. If there's a blue wire it goes to an electric extendable antenna motor if you have one. DO use a test light to make your measurements; using a digital multimeter can mis-lead you on the voltages due to it's high internal resistance. Frye's carries the adapter harness for '86 and newer wagons. Also, here are the colors for the speakers: Gray/Gray-Black is right front White/White-Black is left front Violet/Violet-Black is right rear Green/Green-Black is left rear These are the standard wire colors from the new deck. Your best approach is to run new speaker wires to eliminate the common ground problem (might as well change the speakers on a 17 year old car too). The black stripe on all the speaker wires goes to the negative side of the speaker.

Next time this happens, verify that you have spark. Just because it was a fuel related problem before doesn't mean it is again. Eliminate spark as a potential before you go ripping apart the fuel system.

The nut doesn't loosen. What is happening is that when the axle was installed, there was dirt, grease or something on the curved part of the axle stub (on the backside of the hub). As you drive down the road, that material works its way out and the nut "loosens." Usually, tightening it once is all that's needed. Sometimes you might have to do it twice. Actually, you can over-tighten that nut without damage to anything else. The real fix is to pull the axle out, clean the mating surface on the axle as well as the hub and then re-install.

Lack of fuel doesn't sound like an alternator problem to me. Altho I'm not familiar with the older cars, but I'd start with the easy and obvious--when is the last time you've replaced fuel filters? Including the one at the fuel pump (if it's like my son's '82 Brat, that's the one that most people forget about). I know the problem just started when you shorted out the terminal, but stranger co-incidences have happened before.

Galen, here's the link: http://usmb.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7917&highlight=March+RallyCross New search engine is so cool!

The $30/person is not cheap, but I think it's justified. It costs money to rent the water truck, the field, and the insurance. I'd say there are other costs there too.

I don't know; I'm still waiting for them to post results/minutes of the December meeting.

Not sure this can happen on a Subaru but I've had it happen with an older VW Beetle. There is a vent on the gas tank to equalize pressure as the gas is drawn out. If the vent clogs or the vent line is kinked, a vacuum is built up in the tank and the fuel pump can no longer overcome that and the car seems to run out of gas or exhibit fuel starvation symptoms. Next time it happens, stop and pull the gas cap to equalize pressure. If the car is okay again for a while, start looking to clear the vent line.

There are certain items I always buy from a Subaru dealer. Thermostat is certainly one of them.

Is the flapper directing air flow from the the blower closing when you need heat? I went to fix a similar problem and found a mouse had build a nest blocking the heating air duct.