78TurboBrat

I will do my best to try and get the whole car from him, but if he doesnt have a title there isnt much i can do, i will talk to him about maybe doing a mechanics lein on it or something else. Its kinda funny that i posted the 84 Turbo coupe in another thread and no one seemed to care, and now i posted it here and i get the response i was looking for. yeah the car is loaded, power everything, sunroof, and digi dash , and yes it is a turbo. but if i cant get the whole car, the next best thing is to part it out. as the car is in a wrecking yard and if i cant get the whole car, all i can do next is to take everything and find another body to build , or to part the parts out to everyone on the board. cause without a title that car wont leave his sight. hes made that very clear. I will also go get some pictures of it as soon as this rain goes away.

Ok bad news for the one here in McKinney Texas, the guy at the yard and i went through over two hundred titles and couldnt find the title. So I am just going to pay him what he thinks the car is worth and maybe steal Calebz for an afternoon with my truck and tools and i think between the two of us we can have that car stripped into nothing in a matter of a couple of hours. when i get it all back to the house i will make a new email address so that anyone wanting parts can email me and i will be glad to sell them, i do want to keep the motor , tranny for the 83 brat i have. and everything else will be either sold or donated somehow to help the board.

Yeah the one here in Plano texas is pretty much complete except for two wheels on the front, and an alternator which is in the turnk, and looks like it needs nothing to be running and driving again, i might just buy it too. its the Diamond Edition. what does the Diamond Edition mean ?

I used the same alternator on my tbird and i had to use a smaller pulley to spin the alternator faster, so my light and gauge wouldnt reflect not charging at an idle of only 450 RPM's. I went to an alternator shop and they had on that worked for like 5 bucks. I did the swap to compensate the power accessories i had in the car. along with two batteries.

Yeah you can do that too, just so many ways of doing it, and all work the same.

Hope this can help you, the red wire the usually thicker one on the double plug goes to the back of the alternator, and the other wire, if you have it inthe plug, goes to your idiot light, or your gauge. this essentially makes you a one wire setup, taking your output of the alternator to the battery is the best way. and then just connecting the old output wire on the subie to the battery as well, as that it can draw its power for the rest of the car. i would recomend puting in a fusible link at the batter connection for the alternator output, the fusible link on the subie harness will take care of the old out put wire now going to the battery. hope this helps, I know its not a subie motor in the pic, but it will give you an idea. I use these alternators all the time as they are the easiest ones to deal with on getting an alternator to work with motor swaps. like ford v6's in nissan pick up trucks. alot cleaner looking for the wiring also.

Thanks for the correction Caleb, i just know i had to keep two. Call me later today on my cell when you get this. even though i had a seperate fuel pump wiring system, i still had to have that relay hooked up.

Yeah that is pretty much what i did also Tom, i just untaped everything, grabbed the ecu plugs, and started following what i needed and started putting tape around a bunch of wires that i needed , and pulled the rest. then if there was something i didnt need , after the instalation for instance, cruise, ac and so on, i just pulled them afterwards. it probably would have been easier if i had marked the connectors before i pulled them out of the car, but i was planning on using the whole harness, lights and all into the brat, but Chris wanted to use the brat harness for the lights and accessories, and just tap into it at the alternator, and just powered the new harness at the battery with a fuesable link. with the hot wires i had going to the battery that i needed. i didnt use the fuel circuit with the ea82t motor , i made my own and just ran the wires through some hose all the way back to the fiat pump. the brat seems to run fine with the stock fuel lines of the brat, but i had to use some heavy duty fuel line for the rubber parts. next on my list for upgrades is to find a fuse box that uses the plastic fuses found in the wagon, and pull the wires from the brat fuse panel, and attach them to one of those so that i can get rid of the poor contacts with the brat fuse panel, as cleaning them doesnt seem to do much , they just corrode back up, even applied dielectric grease , didnt help much.

Engine ? hmmmmm i found two in a yard today, so i know i have plenty of parts to go with. Yeah its like Caleb said, there is already a EA81T in a hatch, so it wont be the first one, so maybe i should drop something else in it instead. Fads are cool, i did my 78 one way but i like the way Garner did the frame rails, hey Garner wanna come do mine ???? i will pull everythign out of the way for ya

Well the sad part is that the hatch is an automatic, the coupe is an automatic, and the wagon that Chris ( the other half that created the 78 turbo brat) has is an automatic, so i would have to search out an automatic, and seems that the yard i was at today had nothing but autos. what cars would be a good donor for a 2wd 5speed ? or would going to a 4wd conversion be easier as i have a 5speed i can use for that ? with the drive shaft and rear end and all from another car ? Would they bolt into the hatch ,even though the hatch is a 2wd ?

Yeah yeah i know, now you need to update your mods to your car on your profile.... Also that pos of a car that you took pics of, runs like a bat out of hell now. LOL 49.99 for a fuel pump. it would work when it wanted to even with direct power to it. so i put another in and whaammm it purrs so smooth

Looks like i started a fad, woooohooooooo Let me see what else i can dream up like an MR2 with a Ford Taurus SHO motor stuffed in it. LOL

Its a huge game with that wiring stuff, i just pulled everything off like lights, and horn and a/c and so on, but thigns are working and going well, just took some time to get thigns like the tac, and some other sensors to show the proper responses for the 78 brat but thing are jsut a little slow at the time but working out slowly when i have time and getting it together. Good luck, i think i only needed one or two of those relays if memory serves me right i think one was for fuel , and the other was something with the computer , dont remember but i know that i had to have one or two of them in order to get what i needed outside under the hood like fire, and injector pulse. so i again i am not too sure, i played that game and will definately make sure i keep notes next time when i do that, shame on me

As far as pricing goes it is hard to say, i got my first 78 Brat " the turbo one for free" due to it sitting in a feild for 21 years. but when i found one sitting at a wrecking yard i traded a 1994 nissan 240sx with new tires, exhaust, clutch, rod and main bearings, ac system, struts all the way around, and brakes, and yes this all was done in like a month to the car so when i say new i mean it. also new radiator and water pump and thermostat. and no body damage, and only had like 80 thousand on the car. tagged and inspected. cause i wanted the 79 brat he had in the yard that he was going to crush that day it was in a line of crush cars that was being crushed that day. the motor in that brat was locked up, but the body parts and everything i needed was right there. Ok you must think i am stupid for giving up a car like that right ? nah when it was cold it took an hour of running for a mysterious knock to go away inside the motor so when it was warm it was fine. he replaced the motor later in the car, and then to do nothing but total it pulling out onto the hiway leaving his shop less than 5 miles after he put the motor in it.

I have an 83 Hatch, only two wheel drive though, but have now found an EA81T motor , transmission and all other goodies, might take on another project of putting the EA81T into the hatch... Any body got any ideas ? ? ?

Ok i went and looked at it again and it is a Diamond Edition with only 109005 miles on it. yeah i know the peice you are talking about and i would be glad to grab it for you next time i am out there for you. guy says he hasnt sold a single part off the car since he has had it, but the alternator is in the trunk. so it is still there, even looks like it might be a newer one so not sure what the deal is on it. oh yeah i forgot to get the camera....

If i get lucky today i will try to take my camera and get some pictures of the car. Is anyone interested in it for parts or whole car ? ? ? ?

Oh well, didnt read first , just posted when i got home so i wouldnt forget the details....

Caleb, just thought i would let you know you have my sympathy, NOT. Since you left my house when it happened. Going to go get that harmonic balancer later today, and a few other parts. Anything you want me to grab for ya !! just no more IC, oh and leave that 13b on there, or you can buff it off easily. just use some elbo grease. lol

Who needs to worry about emmisions when you can papers and inspection for 60 dollars, of course i wouldnt do it to a smoke train or an obvious car that i know for sure that wont pass, but here in texas if you have a good inspection sticker, that could mean an extra 500 dollars on the sale price.

Ok Caleb, i now have a rx7 motor with out any IC and piping, in my back yard, wanna help me pick it up and load it on the back of the truck to junk it, unless someone else you know might want it.... get that IC in there yet ? P.S... My hand and my thumb that you smashed still hurt. But i will get over it as always. and i also shoved that Vol^%%$# thing in the back yard and i dont want to look at it anymore. But chris has new pics of the dash so i will try to get them as soon as i go over to his place and get them loaded on my camera.

OK i did the 78 model, Garner did the 79 model Who's going to do the 80 model ? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ?

I used the wagons booster and a ford probe master cylinder that i had under liftetime warranty, and the fuel pump i am using is from a 1981 Fiat spider 2000 let me know how things go.

Not a problem, put the blame my way, what have you done about the brakes ? did you run across the same issue i did with the master cylinder hitting the disty cap ? The steeering is solved by using some steering knuckles and reforming the angle of things, works great, just had to change a few things but i have plenty of room there now. Well let me know when and if you need help with the wiring.

Congrats, now i get the blame LMAO its ok i was the crazy one for doing it the first time, but just wait until you feel the pull of that motor with out all the extra weight. REMINDER : put pillow behind your head, whiplash is possible. If you have any questions at all about your wiring, please dont hesitate , do get ahold of me, as i have pretty much perfected the wiring from the brat as a matter of fact the harness or what was left of it is in the back of my truck i will post a pic of it for you in my album. and also to come are the pics of the new fiberglass dash that only cost 150 to do. looks outstanding. Have fun and enjoy, oh yeah also lawnmower blades make great tranny mounts. just use cutting torch, sawzaw doesnt cut them.