Don_Quixpunch

Blah! Half the fun of being on the board is that other people have figured out most of what I wanna do already. Guess it will be up to me to find better halfshafts then. Don't hold your breath, right now the job hunt is a much higher priority.

What about modifying the car to take different halfshafts? Once I find myself a job, I really want to give my 81 Brat a couple inches of lift along with a 5 speed d/r and eventually, an EJ.

Now those are slick. Where'd ya find 'em?

I've had larger plywood baffles buzz, so I quit using it at all, prolly would work fine for a small baffle that's not bridging a large hole. That's right about MDF being intolerant of moisture. Mine are getting paint and Herculiner, guess I shoulda mentioned it.

I'm putting 6.5 separates in the doors of my 81 Brat and have the same issue. The best solution is to make a custom baffle plate outta MDF. Measure first to see how deep your speakers sit, you need the baffle plate to get you at least that far from the surface of the door. If you get MDF that's thicker than the space you need, you can recess the speaker into it. If it's not too late, you might also want to add some sound dampening to the inside of the door skin while it's torn apart.

That is freeking sick! Now I know just how ugly my Brat really is. On the bright side, I can drive mine with minimal stress. Were it as nice as yours, I'd be terrified to scratch it. Congratulations though. That is spectacular.

I got my jets from John at Aircooled.net. He's not so much a Subbie guy, but he is a Weber expert. If you get jets from him, let him know you talked to the guy with the red Brat and I'm still just a shade rich. HCs are at 2%. It passes emissions and is definitely acceptable, but if you can be even tighter on your jet sizes it's got to be a good thing.

I had an intermittent problem with my fuel pump in my 81 Brat. Ended up being a loose and corroded ground next to a relay under the driver's seat. Dunno that that is the fuel pump relay for sure, but that ground seems to be connected to the pump, and I can't imagine the point of any other relay being in that location.

I've never done one of these lifts, but I'm fairly knowledgeable about hardware. Not to start an argument, but grade 8 tends to be a bit brittle, might it be a better idea to use grade 5 so that bolts can bend and stretch before they fail catastrophically?

Oh great! Now I know what mine would look like if it weren't trashed beyond saving. But seriously, nice ride.

Wow. That's one harsh looking rig. Is it still Subbie powered?

Long time ago, I helped a friend drop his EA18 with a short chain and a 2X4. More recently, I've done both an EJ25 and an EA18 in two seperate vehicles using a Harbor Freight cable hoist mounted to the ceiling in the garage(Love how the Subie hoods open so far!). Rather than jacking the front of the transaxle, I've had great success standing on the front bumper while gently pulling the engine forward. Although, putting them back in hasn't been as easy.

In that case, can anybody describe any distinguishing characteristics that will help me determine which compressor I have? Apparently, there are two options, and I find no marking that label it as either one. Once I know which I have, I can purchase a belt and know how functional it is before I pull it out. The thing still has pressure, so I wouldn't be overly surprised if it does still work, and I'm sure anybody looking for A/C would be interested in knowing that it does work. That said, perhaps I should announce that I have a gen 1 air conditioning system that I'm willing to part with.

Tongue weight affects your suspension. And total weight affects your brakes. Never actually been, but my impression of Australia is it's relatively flat. If I'm correct and you have no severe mountain passes to cross, you can get away with a lot more weight than is recommended by the factory. I think the biggest factor is simply that dragging more weight is making the car work harder. If you're able to take the extra time to casually bop around at 55 or 60 MPH rather than trying to scoot at 75, you'll put far less stress on the car. Were I taking my Subbie on such a long trip, I would definitely bring a few spare parts, and I'd throw in a simple tool kit. Kind of a gimme, but sometimes we get so busy thinking about the out of the ordinary stuff we forget the obvious. Best of luck with your trip.

So my 81 Brat has factory A/C in it. Dunno if it's functional, but the lines still have pressure. Since I put the 85 Brat radiator in it, there's no room left for a proper coolant reservoir. Add to that, the whole thing seems to be heavy as hell and I never use A/C. So my question is, is factory air in this old of a Subbie special? Should I make a point to keep the system together and pass it on? Or should I just junk the whole thing and be happy for the weight loss? If anybody's thinking I should keep the car original, don't. It's too rusted and beat up, the interior is too thrashed and I'd be silly to even think about a restoration.

I bought my 81 Brat in June. Since then I've replaced the engine and radiator(thanks GWilson87), added a Redline Weber kit, rejetted the Weber, put in a new tailpipe, removed the mangled push bar and hammered the bumper back to roughly straight, installed a Kenwood Excelon head unit, added Aura Bass Shakers, swapped seats from an early 90's Eclipse, put in a big ole battery, rewired the headlights with relays straight off the battery, replaced the rotors with slotted and crossdrilled ones, put new tires on, new clutch, finally passed emissions and safety, and upgraded to a 100 amp alternator out of an old Astro van. Upcoming projects in no particular order are, install a proper coolant overflow tank, rewire the rest of the lights, sandblast and powdercoat my white spokes, fab speaker pods so I can install a pair of MB Quart 6.5" separates, patch the inner front fenders, cobble up some sort of amp rack, fix the sloppy shift linkage, put new boots on the front CVs, replace my sorta functional ignition switch with a toggle and push button, rip out the A/C, and then maybe I can finally start fixing the body rot.

Since this seems to have turned into a Utah thread, I thought I'd poke my head in. I would be interested in those white wheels. Whaddya want for them?

Checker has 'em for $5.99. Or, I have an extra.

I hate you. I spent twice as much and mine is ratty as hell. I'd put up pictures, but I'm ashamed.

Yay! Just finished the alternator swap in my 81 GL Brat. I used a different alternator sourced from an old Astro van at Pick n Pull. It's a 100 amp Duralast with a lifetime warranty. I'll hafta find the part number, but mine was a little more tricky than the ones already discussed, but it's even smaller than the stock alt. The headlights haven't got any brighter, but they no longer pulse with the engine. It probably helps that I have them relayed straight off the battery. I had to swap the pulley and trim down the spacer from my old alternator. Then I used a 10 mm bolt through the factory swivel point. Had to grind that hole a touch bigger with a Dremel to fit the bolt through. Then since this alt is too small to reach the curved slot in the bracket, I cut a piece of 14" x 1' steel strap to go from the adjusting hole to the curved slot. The suck part is that the new alt was mounted on the right side of the engine. So I had to grind notches in it to clear the alternator and allow the strap to take a very extreme angle. Had the new alt been a left side alt, the strap would have been much easier. Now I finally have the juice I need to install the stereo amplifiers and speakers I want.

I have an 81 Brat and can second the info that they came minus the air pump setup.

I have a Weber in my 81. Keep in mind that I started out with a rejetted Hitachi that turned my sweet little Brat into a gas guzzler. The Weber has given me a bit more power, but it runs much smoother, and instead of low teens, I'm getting high 20 mpg now. I think it'll do much better if I can keep my foot outta the pedal. But did I mention the Weber gives me a very cool sound? Anyway, I started out with the Redline kit. I installed it as shipped and it was a thirsty beast. A little research turned me onto Aircooled.net. The owner John is a Weber genius and he's got the master jet kit of death. He showed me how to properly set the float and replace all the jets. Now my throttle response is crisp, the engine doesn't hickup when I alternate between throttle and coasting, fuel economy is way up, and in spite of throwing out half my emissions stuff, the car passes emissions easily. If you do hit up John for new jets, tell him you heard from the guy with the DGEV in a Brat and while mine runs wonderfully, my CO level is still 2%. So you might wanna go a size down with your primary.

I think that is a tad high for a Brat that's so rough, but then I got a sweet deal on mine(I think?). So I possibly have a skewed idea of what they should cost. On the bright side, it runs, has some pretty slick wheels, and the t tops are just too cool for school. I'd be jealous if I wasn't so busy fixing my own Brat. Actually, I might be jealous anyway, I don't have t tops. There's tons a great info on here and some very helpful friendly folks. And I think most of us Brat owners have the same feelings for them that you have.

@ GLoyale, yeah, but it's a Brat and not a wagon. The passenger compartment ends just behind the seats. And I lack jump seats, so they can't make the argument that the bed of the car is a passenger compartment.

A Subaru you don't recognize with round headlights sounds perilously close to a 360. Did you happen to notice if the Brat with t tops was a first gen? I need fenders and a tail light. As for later model EA's, have you checked out the Tear a Part in SLC? I saw several later EAs both there and at Pick n Pull.