dbenzmaine

Hi All, I purchased an 87 Brat two months ago that's been treating me very well. It has a factory original canopy that came with it and fits well, but the rubber gasket that fits around the edge and protects the car where contact is made is cracked and not fitting that well. I'm wondering if anyone knows where to buy more of that material to form a new one or has good ideas for repairing an old one. Thanks!

I just noticed that you're in Washington. I actually bought this BRAT in Seattle last month. It was up on craigslist for a while. I was shocked to find one in such good shape.

Thanks! I love tips like that. Anything to save effort and knuckle skin is much appreciated! I'm hoping to get it up to my garage tomorrow or monday to see what's going on.

Thanks for the reply. Glad to hear it's easy to pull off. I haven't had to do that job before. It's been cold here most of the winter, but it warmed up a few days ago, and on the day this happened it was probably in the high 30s. I had left it idling for a few minutes while shuffling cars around before starting to drive, and it was already starting to put out some heat when i pulled it out of the driveway. Not sure what the gauge was reading while it warmed up though.

So my '87 BRAT had an issue yesterday. I started to drive it into town, made it about a quarter mile before noticing that the oil pressure gauge read zero even driving up a hill. Pulled over and shut it off. Checked my oil, and it wasn't low. Started it up again, reved the engine a few times, but the gauge stayed pinned to the floor. I would have towed it home with my tractor, but my whole place is snowed in a couple feet deep, and getting the tractor out would have taken a week, so i drove it back to my driveway taking it really easy. Just as i pulled in, i started hearing a squealing noise that i've never heard before. The oil pressure dummy light never turned on. I only noticed that the gauge wasn't reading. I know the gauge is notoriously unreliable, and the engine was still running fine, but the squeal in the last hundred yards is concerning. I just bought the car about a month ago with 158k on it, and i've driven it about 2,000 miles so far. Engine has run great, and i've had to add about a quart of oil every 1,000 miles to keep it full. I haven't changed the oil or filters yet (i love winter, but the snow is really getting in the way of my projects). Not sure what the prior owner was running, but i've been putting Royal Purple in since i bought it. I'm wondering if the detergents have loosened up some gunk and blocked some of the oil passages. My plan is to get it into my garage somehow in the next few days (gotta clear 100 feet of driveway first), and do some tests on the oil pump and sender. The "How to Keep Your Subaru Alive" book talks about pulling out your oil pump and doing repeated sprays of carb cleaner into the case. Anyone ever tried that before? Any other ideas on what might be up? I've never had an oil pump actually fail for me on one of these, but i guess it's possible. During the month that i've had it, the gauge on the dash has generally read high, especially with highway driving. It'll peg at 75 for the first half an hour before settling in a bit lower. Maybe the system was gunked up and forcing a higher pressure? Anyway, i'd love to hear any ideas

Unrelated question, but another thing i noticed on initially looking the vehicle over is that the transmission oil is low. In my old GL i used 80-90 weight gear oil from the auto parts store. Is that cool, or should i be looking for something special to top it off with?

Thanks all! I'm guessing that pulling apart the alternator to try to remove a soldered on voltage regulator is probably not worth the effort when a whole new alternator doesn't cost much. Gonna order a part tonight and see if it solves the problem. I've been driving a rusty diesel Golf for the past ten years, and i'm looking forward to working on a salt-free and simpler vehicle!

Hi All, It's great to be able to post here again! I had an old EA-81 GL Hatch from the mid 90s until it finally rusted out from under me in 2007, and then i was subaru-less until the day before yesterday. I scored a beautiful 87 BRAT without any significant rust. I'm definitely excited about it. It's in great shape, but i did notice an issue on my drive home yesterday. The voltage bounces around while driving. Particularly at highway speeds it will often peg at 18 for a few minutes at a time. The fans blow harder, and the lights get brighter. It will then sometimes run low at around 12, and then other times it'll be right around 14 where it should be. I'm guessing my alternator is bad, but could it be the voltage regulator? I've seen posts with people mentioning that they put a Nissan Altima alternator in their older subie. If i need a new alternator, are there big advantages of going that route? Just availability? Would it be a bolt on swap, or would i need to adjust the pulleys and or belt length for fit? Once i get rims, snow tires, and the electric stuff fixed, the Oregon mountains are mine for the taking. Looking forward to it. Thanks in advance for any insights! Dave

I love everyone's loyalty to the subie. Yes, you're all correct in that this car is totally driveable and solid. If i hadn't been caught, i'd be driving it to Wisconsin this weekend. Unfortunately, the violation may have gone beyond rust, and it is best that this car stays off the road for a while. My other problem is that i live in NYC most of the time, and my ability to do my own work while i'm there is severely restricted. Sadly, i am actually thinking of going with a newer car that won't require any love or attention. I realize this also means that it will have no soul, it won't be able to do anything worthwhile offroad, it won't have as useful cargo capacity, and it won't feel like it's actually "mine". How do people feel about the EJ-22 Imprezas? Do they really only get 28 MPG on the highway??? My GL would get low 30's if i took it easy... I figure if i'm going newer, i should at least be able to find something that's more efficient than my old carbed 81!!

Thanks for the input everyone. Craigslist rocks, and i hadn't thought about looking at other cities. The bookmarking thing sounds like a good idea too.

Disorder - Yeah, it's definitely tempting to try something like that. Is there any decent classified add source that's available over the internet though? It's tough to scout used cars from far away, especially if they're more than 8 or 10 years old. I'm wary of trying to do that, and i also have limited schedule flexibility for traveling...

Hi Welder, Funny stuff. I grew up in Waterville, but my parents actually live in China now. Small world. The AZ reference is just my idealized version of where to buy rust-free cars. 89thorn Let's just say that i'm not revealing everything that was wrong with the situation and that i may have been in very significant violation of Maine's inspection law... My GL is definitely off the road for a while (super-sad given that it's mechanically a very solid car that i was planning to drive to Wisconsin this weekend and that i've actually driven as far as Costa Rica and back in within the last year and a half), so i pretty much have to come up with a different car. While i'd love to do a similar GL, the reality of the situation is that i live in NYC most of the time, and i wouldn't be able to do any of the inevitable work that would familiarize me with the car and make it my own. I will get another one, but i'm thinking that it's a few years down the road at the moment.

So the inevitable finally happened. I got pulled over for a loud exhaust this evening on my way back up to Maine (i was going to have a friend weld it tomorrow!), and the officer made official note of the amount of rust on my car. I have my orders to get it fixed, but it's really beyond repair. I've had this 4wd 89 EA-81 GL Hatch since January of 1997, and i'm completely addicted to the beautiful simplicity, excellent cargo capacity, totally solid fuel economy, and ability to have enormous amounts of fun taking my car places that Jeep owners fear to tread. I don't want to be driving any other car. Unfortunately, i live in the northeast. Finding another one up here that doesn't have major rust problems is next to impossible. I'm leaning towards doing the unthinkable and buying a different car. The plan would be to get myself something practical and reliable for the next few years and then spend some time finding myself a beautiful rust-free GL as my replacement fun vehicle over the long term. So here's the question: if you're a GL addict and need to switch to a more modern vehicle (i'm thinking late 90's is the oldest i'd go), what do you buy? I refuse to go with something like an Xterra or Wrangler, so i'm basically resigning myself to giving up some offroad ability. I also really really like hatchbacks and their inherant usefulness. I'd like something that gets good mileage and is environmentally friendly. Stuff that's crossed my mind so far: EJ-22 Impreza, late 90's Civic hatch, early 00's Civic hatch, possibility of Corolla (but have they made a hatchback recently?), i'd take a Jetta Diesel (but they're unbelievably hard to find), possibly late model Golf (but they've got reliability issues and aren't actually all that efficient...). I'm really not coming up with anything that excites me. They don't make em like they used to! Anybody have ideas on what car i should get as my daily driver until some beautiful day in the future when i can scoure Arizona for a spotless GL? Thanks for any tips you've got! Also for reading this crazy-long post! Dave

Hey everyone, Thanks for the tips. The cable should be coming in in the next few days, and the vice-grip repair has held so far. I hadn't thought of just driving it without. Now i kinda want to give it a try just to see how it feels! Anyway, i appreciate the advice, and i'll be back on here if i have trouble installing stuff! Dave

Thanks Torxxx! It's definitely nice to have some idea of what things should cost before looking for places to do the work. I've heard that pulling the engines in EA-81s is a pretty easy job. I've pulled engines from VW beetles and Karman Ghias before, and it seems like it should be pretty simple. Do you think it'd be a lot tougher though given that it's been through 17 New England winters without being pulled?

Hey there Turbo, Thanks for the welcome and for the advice. Sadly i'm back in the US right now, but i'll be in Honduras again for most of the summer. Never been to Roatan, but i hear it's pretty amazing. Going at the headlights with a tester sounds like a good idea. I'm guessing that i actually messed something up in the steering column when i was playing with the ignition switch since the lights actually worked properly after the fire. We'll see! Dave

My main concern for today is making the clutch work, but i figure i'll tell another story and ask another question while i'm at it. The car is an 89 GL Hatch with EA-81 and about 207k on it. I drove the car down to central america last year, and it performed like a champ. However, i only stayed a month before flying back to the states, and my brother got to play around in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico for the next six months. I was very jealous! Anyway, i get an email from him one day saying that the car has been overheating and the thermoswitch isn't working. This happens all the time (i have bad luck with thermoswitches). He also said that he had wired the fan directly to the battery so that it would just stay on all the time. I wrote back saying that he really should put a switch in the circuit so that it wouldn't overhead and cause a fire. I get an email the next day saying that before he had even gotten my reply, he had had an engine fire and had to be towed behind a big truck for about 8 hours in the mountains of Nicaragua. Anyway, he and a local mechanic replaced all of the burnt out electrical stuff and put in a dashboard fan switch. It worked well, and i love the switch. At this point, the headlights still worked the way they're supposed to. Then last fall, my brother managed to put the door key into the ignition and get it stuck there. We couldn't get it out, so we followed the advice of some posters on here, took the ignition switch apart and mounted the relay in the passenger footwell where we can now start the car with a screwdriver. It's pretty cool Since that last repair, i've had some weird headlight issues. When i have the selector in the low-beam position, all four lights are on, but they aren't all that bright. Plus, the dashboard "high beam" light is very weakly lit, even though the high beams aren't selected. If i switch it to high beams, the right-side lights both light up exactly like they're supposed to, but the left-side lights are barely on at all (if you look right at them up close you can see a very faint orange glow). When the high beams are on, the dashboard high beam light isn't on at all. I have no idea what's up with that. The lights work well enough to drive, but they certainly aren't ideal. If anyone has an idea of what's going on or how my recent electrical adventures might have impacted the headlights, i'd love to hear it! Thanks! Dave

I've got an 89 GL Hatch with an EA-81 in it. It's at about 207k, and the clutch has been getting progressively worse since about 120k. Basically it's getting harder and harder to disengage. It got to the point last week when even pushing the pedal to the floor wouldn't take the car out of gear. I tightened the cable enough to make it driveable and got it back to NYC where i'm living now. Then i get a call yesterday that my friend has it down in brooklyn somewhere and the clutch cable snapped. This wasn't really unexpected as it had to be pretty seriously tight in order to work. He loosened the cable all the way and then reattached it to the pedal with some vice-grips, so it's drivable for now. Of course this isn't a long-term solution though. Anyway, in my experience with other cars, a worn clutch usually goes the other way (it wears out and will no longer fully engage, leading to slipping). What does it mean when it's worn out so that it's engaged all the time? I figure i probably need a new clutch, but i'm wary of doing the work myself here since i don't have a garage or a particularly full set of tools. Also, this car has a fair amount of rust on it, and the engine has never been pulled. I don't want to get myself into a bad situation doing the work on the side of the street. Do any of you know what a fair price would be for a clutch replacement in a repair shop? My other option is to order a new cable, put it in, hope it lasts the 450 miles back to Maine, and try to do the repair up there where i have garage space. Thanks for any comments, criticisms, or advice! Dave

Well, the problem is now dealt with! I got a couple of friends to help me roll start it last week, and i made the drive up to Maine without ever shutting it off. No problem. The next day I went about figuring out how to fix it. After taking off the plastic on the steering column, i got a look at how everything works. The barrel that the key goes into is just a simple locking mechanism like any other. It feeds into a switch that's mounted on the left side of the column. That switch can be taken off with a screwdriver (two dinky little screws). Basically it has a little slot in the plastic center portion that is activated by a little metal tab that feeds into the locking mechanism. Once they're pulled apart, you can put the ignition in any position you want simply by sticking a screwdriver in the switch and turning it! So i drilled a big hole in the console plastic over by where the passenger's legs go, and i mounted the switch over there. There's plenty of excess length on the wiring to it, so it wasn't a problem. I just had to add in some wire on my manual radiator fan switch (i love my manual fan switch! subie thermoswitches and me just don't get along). So now i can start or stop my car with a screwdriver and a quick lean over to the passenger side. Life is good! That's one of the beautiful things about driving an old subie. I don't have to make it work the way it's supposed to. I just have to make it work for me! Thanks for the tips everyone. Dave

Thanks Turbone! The PITA part wasn't what i wanted to hear, but as long as there's a way to operate it without too much annoyance, the problem becomes much less urgent. Still, i should probably be nice to the car. It's been through a lot lately. It managed to drive me across the country with my brother and probably 1500 pounds of my friends' (moving to Arizona) stuff in the back / on the roof, then went all the way down the pacific coast of Mexico, up across the middle of Guatemala, through Honduras, all over Nicaragua including two trips all the way across the mountains on a dirt path, a side trip to Costa Rica, and most impressively six months of having my brother be its exclusive driver! EA-81 subies rock!

So here's the deal. Yesterday my brother went out to move the car across the street (stupid alternate side parking rules in NYC) and made a bit of a mistake. My 89 EA-81 hatchback GL had it's ignition replaced back in the late 90's, so it has separate keys for the doors and the ignition. He managed to put the door key into the ignition and turn it to the "on" position. It didn't go any farther than that, and it also wouldn't turn back or pull out. So i've got a GL with the door key in the ignition with it stuck on the "on" position. No amount of jiggling or WD-40 has made any progress on it. Local Brooklyn locksmiths are quoting $60 to $70 to fix it, and i'm cheap! After my brother placed some frantic calls to me (he of course couldn't lock the car and leave since his door key was stuck in the ignition) i headed out there and we pushed the car to a parking space that's legal until Tuesday morning. We disconnected the battery to avoid draining it, and now we're trying to figure out what to do next. I'm heading to Maine on Tuesday night, and i know people there who wouldn't rip me off. I could roll-start it and just drive it up there without ever shutting it off. I'm not crazy about this option though, since the throttle has stuck once or twice before, and i'd be in a bad way if it happened without me being able to shut off the engine. Does anybody know any tricks for extracting a miss-fit key from an ignition? Thanks in advance for any advice! Dave

Thanks DP! I'll pass that along.

Thanks Wintersubaru! This guy sounds like just what i need. I'll pass the information along to my brother.

Thanks for the mechanic tip, wintersubaru! That guy sounds perfect. And i'd be stoked you were right on the lifter and clutch adjustments, Qman. For Erik, i'm not sure exactly what the clutch is like right now because i haven't driven it since i entrusted it to my brother in Honduras back in January. For the past 8 years though, it's usually had a fairly shallow clutch in terms of only needing to push in a little bit to disengage. It's never slipped though, and it's really never given me any trouble. In your experience, have any of you had lifters go out of whack all at once? The knocking sound that my brother is describing is definitely not something that i ever remember experiencing. Also, since i've never pulled the engine, i don't know much about the mounts. I've done a lot of off-roading with it, hit a speedbump in mexico at 55mph, and my brother recently drove it over the spine of Nicaragua and back on dirt tracks, so it's had ample opportunity to break a mount. If one is busted, should i try to get it pulled and fixed ASAP, or can i let it slide for a while? Thanks again!

I'm going to school in NYC, and the Alaska trip is going to be pretty spontaneous. We don't have particular destinations. We're just hoping to see some great mountains, do some camping, and explore as much as possible. But yeah, that'll be tough to do if my car is in bad shape. Does anybody have any commentary on my brother's story? I just don't know if this is something that i should be freaking out about or whether i can put it off and deal with it back on the east coast.