bratlife

Thanks a lot GD. Sorry for the confusing post. You have helped me out a bunch in the past, and I might need you to take a look at it this time. I'm gonna try a helicoil if the rain lets up. I just kinda assumed those weren't strong enough to take the weight and the vibration of the exhaust, but I trust you on this stuff. I'll see how it goes and I might try to come over to your place and have you take a look at it for me. I did have a support bracket coming from the tranny but it broke, I welded it again, and it broke in a different place. So now it just goes from exhaust mounts back to the rubber hanger, and strait out the side, right in front of the back wheel. So there isn't an actual muffler, so there isn't much weight on it at all. My roomate is out of town with our welder too, so I'm out of luck with trying to make another one till next month.

I know there has been a bunch of muffler questions on here, but I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for, so hopefully this isn't too repetitive. I have an 85 brat with an EA81 engine. The Muffler has broken maybe 5 or 6 times over the last couple of years. It never broke in the same spot twice, so my welds were real good. I just thought it was old and brittle, BUT yesterday it just stripped the threads out of the mounts on the engine on one side. So, now I have a couple problems. First, why does this keep happening? It seems like maybe there is too much vibration or something. what could keep knocking this? But, more immediate, is what to do to make it more drivable. I thought about trying to tap the mounts just a little bigger, or welding a plate to the muffler and drilling two holes in it and using the other two opposing mounts on the engine. But I don't have a tap and die. I would just take the muffler off cause I don't have emissions or DEQ at my address, but the noise gets hard to take after a while. Is there something you can do to just muffle the sound a little bit even without running a full tailpipe. Right now I just have it strait piped out the side in front of the back wheel anyway. Sorry for the long post. I would really appreciate any ideas that you guys (or gals) might have. thanks a lot.

Hi, I have a quick question. Just wanted to double check that the voltage regulator is IN the alternator on these ones. 85 brat with an EA81 engine. thanks

Wow. thanks for all the replies. I haven't checked back here since my last post. I ended up grinding down the old bearing on the bench grinder to use as a press while the new bearings were in the freezer and the knuckle was sitting on the wood stove. It all went in pretty easy, enough that I feel confident they weren't damaged at all. I just went real slow and only had to just tap on the old bearing that I set on top of the new ones and it pushed them right in there. thanks so much for everybody's help. Now I'm kinda hating it though cause I hammered on the ball-joint bolt of the tie-rod to knock it loose to take the knuckle out earlier, and now I'm realizing I think I hit it a little bit too hard and messed up the threads. I really need to get my car going again soon, but I might have to get a new tie rod end from a junk yard. wow, this whole "afternoon bearing swap" all of a sudden turned into, my car being out of commission for the last three days. thanks again for everybody's help.

Wow. I finally go those things out. I just had to go get a bigger brass punch, then it wasn't too bad. Now I can't get the new ones back in though. I cleaned everything pretty good and it seemed relatively smooth. I took a 1 1/2 inch thick slab of scrap walnut (heavy hard wood) and cut it into a hockey puck just a hair smaller diameter than the bearings, and I have been whaling on that thing and I'm really not getting anywhere. Half of the first bearing is still sticking out and it won't seem to go in any more. sorry for all the questions, I feel like an idiot. But are there any secrets to getting them back in at this point?

I went to mcguire just cause it was the closest (and cheapest place for bearings) and figured I would just try to get the seals from them too since I was there, but I ended up finding them at an auto parts store so thats all fine. Now I'm just having a real problem getting the bearings out. I couldn't get them out with the knuckle on the car still, so I took that out and I've had it on the bench trying to hammer or pry them out and I have only been able to move one of them a little closer to edge, and thats it. Any other tips or anything?

Thanks. yeah I might have to. I'm just about to try it here at my house though, since the rain let up, so if I get in a pinch i'll borrow a car and maybe come give you a visit. I got the bearings from mcguire in SE portland, but they didn't have the exact dimensions of the seals that the auto parts store said to use. I got what they had but they are a little bit thinner. mcguire said I could just bring them back if they were too thin, so I guess I'll just compare them to the old ones once I get them out. Do you think it would matter that much, if the new seals are a bit thinner? thanks for all your help.

Thanks a bunch for the reply! this seems pretty basic. I've changed the axles up front a couple of times, so i'm pretty familiar with getting all that stuff off of there. Thanks for the part number, but does anybody know the part number for the seals? thanks for the replies

I have and 85 brat (EA81) and the right front wheel bearings are going out (i think). I just put a new axle in on that side and I felt in there and the bearings seemed smooth but something is still pretty bad and its the only other thing that is a moving part in that area, so I figure its gotta be the bearings. I've never done this though, and the manual just says to take it to a dealer, so I don't even have that to follow, but from what i've read its do-able myself without the special tools. So, after I get the steering knuckle off the axle, do I just hammer away at the edge of the bearings? are there any tricks or tips, or order I should be doing it in? I'm gonna give it a go next time the rain lets up (tomorrow or the next day) unless someone here starts yelling "stop- stop!! don't do it!!" thanks in advance for your thoughts

thanks GD. I would definitely like to come ask you a few questions about a few things on my car. i've done the axles before on this car though and its pretty easy so i could do that first. But is the "inner axle joint" still part of the axle that comes as one piece or are you talking about something inside of the tranny?

It is on the drivers side, but I do have a little bit of the exhaust on still i guess. I have both sides that come back to the catalytic converter but nothing coming out the back side of it, and its just empty anyway. so most the actual exhaust i think would be a little bit behind the axle. I'm thinking/hoping it is just the axle, i just wish i knew how to confirm that.

Yeah, I always hear about checking them by turning really sharp and listening for the click, but I don't have to turn at all. It is really bad just driving strait. The whole car shifts to the side, and ONLY while accelerating. it is perfectly smooth while coasting. also I had said that it came on suddenly, but I haven't had an exhaust on my car for a couple months, so I can't really hear anything over the sound of that.

thanks for the reply. I had looked at the transmission mounts and they are not obviously bad. would it be obvious? the axle is pretty new, but the boot has been ripped for most of its life. is there a way to confirm thats it without just taking it out and putting a new one in?

This problem started all of a sudden. The whole car violently shakes kind of side to side. I can feel it under my feet and the seat. It is a rhythmic knocking ONLY when accelerating. It does not do this at all when coasting, even at higher speeds. I sat on the car and looked in the engine while somebody else drove and I could see the entire tranny shake from side to side every time it knocked, so much even the engine shook with it. I put in a "new" tranny about 8k or 9k miles ago. I got it used from the mt tech guys out in oregon city and they thought it was a pretty good one. Also I put new axles in both sides about 5k or 6k miles ago, BUT the boot on one of the axles tore open only a few weeks after i put them in. Does this sound like its the maybe something in the tranny or do I just need to put another cv jount in? I would very much appreciate any thoughts you guys might have.

that would be awesome. i would really appreciate it. let me know when you're around and I can see when I'm free.

awesome! thanks so much. and yes, I mean breather lines. I have read your posts about routing these, just wanted to make sure it would work the same by re-using some of the stuff i took off when I put the weber on. Also: it doesn't have quit as much torque as it did before the old carb crapped the bed, have you experienced anything like this? or know of what could be causing it?

Just put in a new weber and it fired right up and ran really well. but now having some problems so I wanted to make sure real quick that the vacuum lines all look good. could somebody more knowledgeable than myself help me out and confirm that this looks right. I just want to be able to rule this out while diagnosing my problems. I would very much appreciate it. thanks in advance. The two bigger hoses that go out of the picture on each side are the ones that go to the top of each head.

well its running crappy again today. I drove it yesterday for about 100 miles and ran great. drove it today for a little bit and and it felt good at first then kinda felt like it was skipping and when i came to a stop it almost died and would barely idle. I sprayed around with carb cleaner, even on the mixture screw, and nothing really. the engine was fully warmed up and the choke plates were completely open. everything else I can think of wouldn't make sense with the fact that it comes and goes without me changing anything. any more ideas would be greatly appreciated.

yeah I changed both fuel filters right before I put the carb in but I don't have a fuel pressure gauge. no smoke though. as far as the fuel tank vent, I read somewhere that when weberizing an old subaru, and you're taking out all the vacuum lines and valves to make sure that you do not cap the fuel tank vent line. I'm not sure what that means. I know what you're talking about with the vent line back by the tank, but in the post it sounds like they are talking about something under the hood. the problem is that today I drove it and it worked fine all day. I know this sounds good, its just that I'm worried i didn't do something right in the carb swap. if the choke is sticking would it do it more frequently than less than 50% of the time i'm driving it? thanks a lot for your help- I just don't know what to do while its working good. also it feels like there is maybe a little LESS power with the weber than with the old hitachi carb. maybe i should make a different thread for that though. I'm not too sure how it all works on this forum yet.

Thanks a bunch for the response. I think most of that is good, I just had my distributor rebuilt and had a new vacuum advance put on it. I sprayed around the base of the carb and everywhere and seemed fine. All the plug wires are pretty new. It started not idling for the first time while it was completely warmed up- could that still be the choke? I took all the vacuum lines out and everything i didn't need (looks so much better under the hood without the "spaghetti bowl"of vacuum lines and valves). I capped everything. I read that you have to leave the fuel tank vent line open to the air and NOT to cap it. but what is the fuel tank vent line under the hood? I was a bit worried that I had maybe capped something I shouldn't have. The most frustrating thing is it is one of those self fixing issues so its hard to check things, also makes me think it might be a vacuum leak.

I just put in new weber in my 85 brat. I followed all the steps about adjusting the mixture first and then the idle next. It fired right up and ran great for a few days. but it just started acting up. It will barely idle and sometimes will actually die and while driving it runs like crap and maybe has slightly less power than it should. then it mysteriously fixed its self. then it started running crappy again. I feel like the carb is adjusted right so i am wondering if something is wrong with the vacuum lines. like a small air leak or maybe I capped something off that I shouldn't have. has anybody experienced anything like this? any ideas? I have read all the threads about the pcv hose routing and I think mine is good, but everybody talks about how confusing it is and that everybody does it wrong, so it kinda worries me. if that was wrong could it act like this? I would post a picture but I can't figure out how to attach a jpg. sorry. thanks for helping me out.

cool, thanks for the links. I'm pretty new to this forum but I have read over a bunch of stuff like that and it seems people are a bit (understandably) frustrated about explaining it over and over again. I just have a question about the hose going from the T by the air cleaner to the T at the pcv hose. If it is ok for the whole hose to be smaller or if it has to taper from 5/8 down smaller? its hard to explain so I might try it again once I figure out how to post a photo.