edrach

We owned a 1982 Mazda GLC for a while and all three of my boys learned to drive on it. The car was a gem and in spite of the trio of novice drivers, none of them could do the little car in. It just kept running and running. Finally, there was more work to be done on it than I was willing to do--brakes, exhaust, clutch--so I decided to junk it since it was too ugly and too unsafe to sell. One of my son's friends talked me into giving it away and I did. Luckily I filed the seller's report since 6 weeks later it got a parking ticket which was mailed to me as overdue. Turns out my son's friend had never transferred the title or registered the car. He was only using it on weekends so every Thursday he would get a three day temporary registration from DOL and drive it. About 6 months later, he decided he liked the car (it was STILL running) and he spent about $800 to have it repaired. Remember it still wasn't registered. Anyway, I get a 'phonecall from the local Police saying they had recovered my "stolen" car. Seems after it was repaired it was stolen. Of course the thief was pulled over for having expired tabs and then arrested for driving a stolen car. The kid who had the car chose not to rescue it from impound since he spent all his money on repairing it and didn't have enough left to spring it from the police impound yard. The car went to auction and I was considering buying it back but decided I had enough Subarus and didn't need a Mazda beater even if it was running okay. A few months later, I was driving home from Seattle and I saw a beige Mazda parked at the side of the road. Boy, that looks like my old car, I said. Turns out I stopped and it was mine. Just then the new owner came out of the local park and we chatted a bit and I told him of our good luck with it. His comment was, "best car I ever had; runs like a top and it only cost me $15 bucks at the public auction!" For all I know it's still running out there.

Haynes has a weber book out that covers many of the webers available in addition to the DGAV 32/36. You'll find it pretty informative. The book I have is Haynes #393 which covers Webers to 1979; I suspect there are later versions available.

As near as I can tell, the regular commercial photographer didn't make it to the Oct. RallyX.

Search to board and repair manual. There's a pretty detailed description on how to replace a front axle.

Title says it all. http://www.rallyrabbit.com/rallyx9a-03/

Actually, James is a pretty decent mechanic. I'd have to be pretty shrewd to sandbag him. However, that's not the point. I need the competition (and so does he). We'll all get better. Besides there's a whole bunch of other people in our class who might have something to say about who places where.

Not likely. Competition will be good for you!

Change the fuel filter if it's more than 4 or 5 years old; 20K seems like it's time. It's certainly not a waste of your time or money. However, I think you may have something regarding a restricted exhaust. I've recently changed fuel filters on my two sons cars that were in excess of ten years old based on the date code stamped on the filter.

Certainly disconnecting the battery with the engine running will toast the alternator. Two other items I've found will toast an alternator: heat (i.e. turbo with its underhood temp) and excessive oil in the engine compartment. Best alternator repair place I know of is Greg's auto/marine electric in Ballard (on 14th a few blocks south of Market). He's a bit pricey but he's "old school" thorough. Best to catch him off season if you can; the boaters keep him very busy in the summertime.

Gosh, what will you do when it's installed!

So did you try to see if the belt is loose?

Kelly, Glad to hear that you've succeeded in getting it together. I'm sorry I didn't get back to you on mine but I think you're better off getting a new one; probably less expensive too considering the time you might have wasted on my used one. Anyway, I have the same problem with the throttle return on mine. I think my solution will be to go to a stronger spring for the return. I did have to move the spring support up and forward of the throttle return plate to get a better angle for the return spring to work properly. That cured most of my problem, but I need a slightly stronger spring to get that last 1/16" of travel to get the idle to return to normal consistently. Qman did the installation of mine and managed to get the throttle cable lined up as needed with existing parts. I'll try to get a photo to you about how it looks along with the throttle return spring support I rigged up. You will be even more amazed about the performance when you notice the change in gas mileage. Not only is my setup emissions legal (they only check the exhaust gases and if that passes never open the hood), the performance is outstanding (I love that noise when the secondary opens up around 3500 rpm), but I've found my highway gas mileage is up by 20 to 25% (on my car, 3500 rpm is about 80, so if I'm cruising at 70 to 75, the car never sees the secondary barrel open up).

Best bet is to re-wire the speakers yourself and then you know that it's right. Might change the speakers too since the originals might be 20+ years old.

Hatch Patrol and USMB members made a significant contribution to the entrylists as well as taking home quite a bit of awards. Yea, I finally got James to run and he cost me a position (that's okay); but between Mudrat and James, I dropped from second for the series to fourth. No offense John (or James). Next year I hope to be more competitive; takes a long time to teach an old dog new tricks......but it's sure fun learning. (sorry Skip I couldn't help myself).

I couldn't find the URL for PDX photos (it's not in the thread I thought it was in). Also, by the time I hit that backup it was only about 25 minutes of slow speed driving.

There was someone out in the field taking photos. Try the PDX website (see the Sept. rallycross thread) and see; he's pretty quick in posting photos.

I'm pleased with my 4th for the season. Definite improvement over last year when I was running 15 sec. per run behind my son and Luke. This year, I'm only a couple seconds behind them and I actually beat Luke on the last event which I've never done before. If I could have matched my 2nd run's time on my third, I might have placed high enough on the last run to move up to 3rd or 2nd in the series behind Eric. All in all, it's nice to see all the extra competition and the increase in the size of the truck/suv class. Moving the wagons into truck class took cars out of an overly large production class, eliminated an argument about the 4WD capabilities of our cars, and allowed modifications (tires being the most important).

I've been told that my Brat will pass by a state certified technician. Also Ratty2Subaru has posted that his wweber equipped '80 wagon passed.

Unbelievable! They did a fine job in posting results so early. I thought 23 cars in truck/suv was just fantastic. Competition makes us all better. Next year should be fun. Nice to see new people doing so well.

The plastic parts do seem to melt from the inside. You might put a screen over the intake of the carb to keep from swallowing any more chunks of plastic. This cost my son a carb re-build since the plastic got in deep enough to prop the throttle open and over rev the engine.

So I found out reading the other post. I figured the battery was dead based on the size of the speakers behind the back seat.

We had a big discussion about that valve in the past. I hope it's still in the archives. You can buy a replacement valve with the newer style body for about $17; open it up, take out the reed valve portion and put it in the old body. Also, check the local pull a part yard to replace the plastic pieces. You need to replace that also since now you're pumping exhaust gasses into the underhood area; it's not nice stuff to be breathing while you're driving. Give me a call and I'll try to get the part number of the valve for you. Rick, here's the link: http://usmb.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2569&highlight=air+suction+valve

Link to fieldracing.com seems to be "dead."

He's got it. I hope your car is feeling better; re-charge that battery!!

Fine photos of the rallycross. Did you post them elsewhere under rallycross topic? Got any more? "Imposter" does certainly look fine. Saw you caught in the traffic south of Olympia. Matt was kind enough to call me and warn us so we stopped to eat in Centralia but still got caught up in a little of the traffic. I tried to call you but your 'phone was turned off.