The Beast I Drive

I never really had a problem, Les Schwab didnt even notice until I told them I did it then they were like Oh ************..... But they had already mounted them. I used to do all my own tire mounting at my buddy's shop, but they went out of business...... -Bill

I dont know about the preload tension, you would have to ask Brian about that, as he took it apart..... He would know -Bill

I ran a single power wire up through the roof no where near the mounts, so its in a ridiculous location. If I were to do it again, I would run the wire inside the mounting legs on the drivers side. Kinda a pain in the rump roast, but Ive done it before on other rigs and it makes things 1000 times nicer in the end. I still have no leaks though, I siliconed the snot out of every place water could possibly go.... -Bill

IIRC, dont the Brightons have rear drum braks instead of disk brakes? If the drum liners got glazed or are inferior quality Im sure that could be part of the problem, though most of the braking power comes from the front brakes. Check all the pads and the rotors/drums, look for signs of excessive heat/unusual wear. If they got too hot and glazed over, have them resurfaced (as long as they arent warped) and get new pads. -Bill

The way it works though it the fluid heats up as its pressurized within the "grooves" that you see when one wheel begins to spin, and thus it locks up. The clutch types have plates and springs that press against each other. The viscous ones act like an open diff until there is enough wheelspin to heat up the goo inside to lock it up. Once the viscous fluid has been heated up too many times though, it will break down on a molecular level and no longer work. -Bill

I used a bar for a fullsize Bronco that I got super cheap.... I just shortened it a bit, and drilled holes through the roof, and used lots of silicone to seal everything. The only thing I would do different is how I ran the wiring, Im still not sure why I did it the way I did it..... Thats the only real picture I have of the light rack.... -Bill

the word or phrase you are searching for has to have at least 4 characters. If the word only has 3 characters, like hub, then you can use the * as the wild card, i.e. hub* or 5 lug*. -Bill

I would rigid-mount the motorcycle motor to the Subie trans, then use solid trans mounts and rubber motor mounts. On the EA82 trans crossmembers there are already a pair of rubber bushings where the x member bolts to the body, IN ADDITION to the rubber trans mounts. The other way to go would be mount the crossmember rigid, then use rubber mounts on the tranny and motor. Either way, you have to build some kind of structure to tie the motor and trans together rigidly, otherwise you will blow up that adapter shaft or a trans bearing or a main bearing on the motor, unless you make a new shaft that has some kind of joint in it. I see things just like this every day where I work, and I know exactly what can happen if its not done right.... -Bill

You tighten the bolt to raise the ride height. Ive done it. It works -Bill

that Vespa 400 is freakin cool! I cant imagine that thing wieghs hardly anything, so with that VW motor in there i bet its a rocket! -Bill

Definitely looks good man! Worthy of this project indeed -Bill

Chances are it will have to be ordered in, my parts guy couldnt get one for me, so i made one by turning down a normal one and welding it to a 3/8" drive extension. Best bet would prolly be Craftsman, Snap-on, or Matco to get a quality E10 deep socket. -Bill

I think Jerry only did it once, but he also was making that hatch into a Brat, so he just replaced the whole top/backwall... I have seen 1 pic of the Chef_Tim Hatch with the T-tops, and it looked like a lot of work... -Bill

Try taking the trailing arms from the '80 brat off of the torsion bars, and put the '74 torsion bars on the Brat trailing arms... that *might* solve it. Also, the '74 wagon is refered to as a Gen 1 Stage 1, and the '80 Brat is a Gen 1 Stage 2.... There were some major changes made when the Stage 2's came out in 77, so it is possible that the Brat rear end could be different. If you can, try to find a 76 4wd wagon, the rear torsion bars from it *should* bolt right up to your wagon, but maybe not. Id have to go measure my 73 and my 76 4wd to be sure. -Bill

If you know what you are doing, and you have all the right tools, and everything goes exactly like it should, you can do it in an hour easy. If you are like me, it will take 4+ hours to do it for the first time, with stripped stub bolts on both the donor diff and the one you are swapping, some clearance issues, and not having the right socket. you REALLY need to have the E10 Torx deep socket, I tried using a couple regular sockets that fit OK, and they worked 50% of the time, which was NOT good enough and I had to cut 2 stubs off with a grinder. Make sure you have your Subaru LSD oil or some kind of gear oil and an LSD additive before you do all this. Also put the bolts for the ring gear in AFTER you put the LSD chunk into the 3.9 housing, otherwise its a very tight fit, I had to tap it in with a rubber mallet. If you want you could get the rear cover gasket from the dealer, Or just do like me and use RTV silicone -Bill

In 1974 the EA71 was not an option, the EA63 is what your car should have. The EA63 is *similar* to the EA71, but not the same. ATM, I cant recall all the dimension differences, but I do know the belhousing/cam gear cover is totally different than the one on the EA71 (smaller bolt pattern). They are the same width though, I have a EA63 manifold on my EA71 in my 1980 Brat right now... The EA63 is the 1400 cc motor just FYI... The EA71 was basically a hopped-up EA63, same desing, just with bigger bores IIRC... I know the waterpumps and a host of other parts interchange between the 2... If you have the original motor, it should have the number EA63 or *maybe* EA65 stamped on the block, near the bellhousing. And yes, Historic section is where this should be, as thats where the REALLY old-school gurus hang out -Bill

I know that with My 85 brat, I had a corroded ground cable to the battery, and one day it just died out of the blue whil I was driving it.... I made a new cable out of some heavy-duty Welder ground-lead cable and a new terminal and all was good with it! So, definitely could be a bad cable.... -Bill

Bah. Just tack it back together, it will be fine.... -Bill

If you have 4" strut blocks and 4" crossmember blocks, then you should do anout 12 degrees. Its easier than lengthening the control arms... -Bill

Also, if you have a hard time finding CB stuff at Napa or Radioshack, go down to the Flying J or any major truck stop, they always have a ton of good CB stuff. -Bill

Sounds like a plan, hopefully I dont break the Beast before then.... -Bill

I was able to get started, but we had a major equipment failure (read: Burned to the ground) at work.... So I had to tend to that -Bill

If it was a good runner, I can prolly swing that... Any chance you could hold it for a month or so, I need to get a trip planned to go up that way and swap parts with Jeff anyways.... -Bill

Depends on what kind of lift you have. If you have the struts and crossmembers lifted the same amount, you need 12-23 degrees, but if you go 1-2" higher on the struts, you need 15-16 degrees or so. -Bill

Radio Shack has some cheap (like 60 bucks) 40-channel units, which arent bad. Hook it to a bigger antenna and you can get plenty of range. I find its the antennas that break the deal for me, a new fiberglass whip is like 60 bucks with the coax cable.. I got my 15' whip on the Beast off a old-school Van at the junkyard for like 15 bucks Cobra makes good CB radios as well, huge selection from super simple little 40 channels to uber-fancy ones with a billion adjustments. -Bill