whistler

Which brand of hydraulic lines did you get? There's a plethora of options on rockauto and the wrong part is a lot more of a pain when shipping is involved.

yeah, this one was unusual in that they listed the same party number for all brats, gls and dls 82-87, it seems that either o'reilly has the wrong part in their database for the masterpro brand (all they had in stock) or masterpro doesn't make the correct ball joint. I usually do the "ask for 1984" trick is well. it often still takes two tries to get the right part.

I did, I ground down a cheap pry bar I have from harbor freight and pried a bit harder and it fell right out. of course the first replacement I got was wrong and I had to go get another one, but I've pretty much got everything back together. I need to go get a couple of cotter pins that I thought I have and don't and I'll be good to go.

By the way bratman2, where'd the get the new brake lines for your brat?

Thanks everyone for your replies. Western washington was doing it's Spring thing yesterday (lots of rain) so I didn't brave the weather to work on it. I was worried about widening the slot in the knuckle too much if I pried on it, but it doesn't sound like that's a major concern so I went ahead and pried on it a bit this morning and the ball joint fell right out for me. I'm about to install the new axle and ball-joint. Should be good to go again soon. Thanks again!

So... my brat eats front cv joints, I'm hoping I may have finally figured the problem out, but the the most recent axle failure happened along with a failure of the driver's side lower ball joint. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but the tapered end of the ball joint is sheared off pretty much flush with the bottom of the A-arm (ie no threads on it at all) and I have no idea how to get it out of the knuckle without having some threads on the bottom of it. Suggestions would be greatly appreciated. The taper is free of the a-arm so I can pull that down and see the whole tapered end of the ball joint. I was hoping to avoid pulling the knuckle off so I can avoid having to deal with bleeding the breaklines, but I'm thinking taking the knuckle off, putting it in a vise and hammering out the ball joint may be the only solution. Hopefully the collective will (as usual) be smarter than I am. Tom

My 05 NA Forester started bucking at acceleration a couple days ago and we discovered that it was down about a quart of oil. Today it threw a CEL which read as a misfire on cylinder 3. I went to pull the spark plugs as soon as I got home and discovered oil on the boots of all four. I'm hoping that it's just valve cover and spark plug gaskets, but it's too late and dark to do a compression check at this point. I need to get to work tomorrow, what is the likelyhood that it's safe to drive it for a few days until I can replace the valve covers? Thanks Tom

I've never seen the sender unit in the bottom picture, the top one looks like the one that's on the ea81 in my brat. Regarding the gauge reading, I remember reading someone else's thread where they talked about taking the gauge cluster apart and adjusting the gauge so that it read correctly. I thought it was Jeszek: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/member.php?tab=visitor_messaging&u=17344&page=1#visitor_messaging but I'm not seeing it on his visitor messages as a writeup. I would do some searching. It may or may not pertain to you if it was an ea82 gauge cluster, but it's something to look at. Tom

Hey everyone I thought other people who have put empi axles on their ea81s might be interested in this. I need to reboot mine due to failed engine mounts and couldn't seem to find the part numbers in their catalog for their own axles rather than the stock axles. Sent them an email: Thank you for your email and inquiry. The replacement CV Boot Kit part #’s for axle # 80-5515 are as follows: · Outboard = 86-1028-D · Inboard = 86-1159-D I just need to redo the inner boots but I'll report back once I get them as to whether they were right or not.

Thanks guys, that's what I thought there was. GD did the trans mounts for me back around February so they should be okay, but the front mounts are destroyed. I just rebuilt my pitch stop rod and the rubber bushing in there seems totally fine, but thanks for the reminder.

Can somebody please confirm for me how many engine mounts there are on am ea81? It seems like there are just the two on the crossmember, but rockauto lists a rear mount as well. Where is that one? I don't really want to pay shipping twice. Thanks Tom

I don't know, someone else should weigh in, but the loyales are switched ground also, right? So the relay should actually be controlling whether or not there is a path from the horn to chassis ground and the horn will always have a connection to the battery(with a fuse.) The horns are probably getting power from the headlamps (which sound like they are set up switched ground) and you are also giving the horns a path to ground because you wired them "normally" ie with switched + and constant ground. Read the rest of Loyale 2.7 Turbo's post about swapping out the old relays with bosch style if you don't understand the difference between switched ground and switched positive. like this: I drew it in series but it probably doesn't matter either way, one horn might be slightly quieter the way I drew it... probably just keep it wired parallel. Tom

I just saw the thread, and I'm working crazy hours right now but I'd be down to hang out and work on my brat sometime. I have a grey '85 brat and live out by evergreen right now, ill be moving to Boston harbor later this year though.

Sheared about 1.5 inches off the pitch stop rod on my 85 brat about a week ago while trying to tighten it a little. Finally had time to fabricate a new one. Cut the metal ring with bushingoff the old rod, welded it onto a piece of 1/2" rod, welded that to the longest 12 x 1.75mm bolt I could find, then welded a piece of 1/2" id pipe over the joint. The welds aren't very good, the mig welder wasn't letting gas through for some reason, but its working so far.

Any lights flickering or anything?. The ticking could be the contacts in a relay opening and closing. I'm sure there are other, worse possibilities but I don't know what they are. If you are sure that its inside the dash and not in the engine bay (ie not the starter motor or something) I would try pulling the relays that are below the steering wheel one at a time and see if it stops. I know there are two for headlights and I think a couple others.

On my brat there is a little bit of clearance, but hitting an sort of bump pushes the steering column into the boot and eventually pushes the boot off the half shaft. You can feel the steering column hitting the axle once you realize what is going on.

GD just installed a weber in my 85 brat a few weeks ago, ill try to take some pictures tomorrow for you. The EGR is in place, but not hooked up vacuum-wise so I believe all I have are manifold to distributor vacuum advance and manifold to heater box. I don't remember there being a third vacuum line from the manifold. Also, we got a 5/8" air filter for one of the valve covers and then connected the other to the weber air intake. If you are planning on mudding/setting it up with a snorkel you would not want to have an air intake on the valve cover obviously.

My mostly stock 85 brat (ea81 with Dr4mt) had the same problem when I installed new empi front half shafts. A combination of replacing the trans mounts and adjusting the pitch stop (which wasn't bearing any load prior to adjustment) fixed the issue although its back now and I'm not sure what changed. The new axles have significantly larger DOJ cups, I was told that they appear similar to xt6 axles... I think, some higher performance car from the era anyway. I would say start with figuring out a pitch stop. Mine is bad enough that going over a bump hard pushes the inner boot off the half shaft so you're in better shape than me. Tom

I replaced the Driver's side mount, the bushings that were on there seemed fine, so I didn't go to the trouble of taking everything apart enough to do the passenger side bushing since that one doesn't fit around but slides over. Between the new bushing and some creativity with washers I got it to only rub some of the time and I drove it some today. Unfortunately it rubs enough to have squeezed a bunch of the grease out of the inner joint. Looks like it was probably like a roll of toothpaste when I hint a bump, the boot is intact but there's fresh grease all over everything. Good thing I have another new axle to put on, hopefully this one can just be rebooted once it's done it's service in keeping me mobile. Going to send GD a pm to see if he has time to take a look at it tuesday but here are some pictures in case anyone has any more ideas. Just noticed the angle that the rag joint is at, I imagine that's probably related to the issue, but whether it's the cause or a symptom I don't have enough experience to say.

Hi I was wondering how the empi front axles fit on your brat. I recently replaced the front Driver's side axle on my 85 and it's rubbing on the steering column. I looked at my steering rack mounts but they look to be in good shape so I was wondering if you experienced any weirdness getting them in there. The axles that were on my brat had significantly smaller DOJ cups than the empis do but I was told that the cup size isn't related to the size or application of the axle and that as long as the splines were correct it should be okay. Anyway just wondering if you noticed a similar difference in size and whether it caused you any problems or anything. Thanks Tom

Finally got the steering column reattached and everything tightened back down this afternoon following too much work and the Western Washington Snowpocalypse of 2012 and the axle does in fact rub against the steering column. Sooooo since GD mentioned that it sounded like a major steering rack issue if the axle were rubbing the steering column is it an adjustment or a replacement? Is there anything else it could be? Really wish I had a garage to work on the damn thing...

Welcome! too bad you guys are all the way over there...

The empi axles that I ordered are 80-5515, which is the only part number listed for brats and it says that's for brats 1982-88 in their catalog. Since the part number isn't stamped on the axle anywhere that I can find I don't know for certain that that is what rock auto gave me. The DOJ cup on the new axle is definitely larger than what I pulled off the car though. I tracked down the diagram of front suspension and steering pieces in HTKYSA just now and it's definitely the steering column that it is contacting, I'm not positive but I don't think it would be an issue if I could actually get the half shaft on. I can see the u-joint in the steering column though, so I know that that's what I am looking at. I don't think there's any other way that I could run the half shaft that would clear the steering column any better. I'll try to take some pictures tomorrow afternoon after I get off work. I don't know that I'll be able to get a decent angle perspective-wise to see the angle of the steering column though. Either way, even if the steering rack has issues, the old axle did fit in there which seems to suggest that what I received may not be right. Thanks for your help. I'm still hoping to rebuild my weber this week and get it on the brat before school starts up again in which case I'll be bringing it down at some point so you can look it all over for me, but we can discuss that once it actually happens. Do you drink beer? What's your preference?

Well, I got everything taken apart with relatively little difficult The hub appears totally fine. The axle, was in fact destroyed, the outer joint had failed and the sound I heard at the moment of failure was almost certainly the ball bearings flying out of the joint as they are all gone. Obviously I'm incredibly lucky that the axle held together and didn't tear up anything else. Unfortunately, the axles that rockauto sent me, and that look the same as the axles that empi says are correct ones have DOJ cups approximately 2" larger in circumference than the axle I pulled off, and I can't for the life of me get the axle on the axle stub. Spline count is the same on both ends 23 inner / 30 outer. The DOJ cup is just hitting the steering column and I can't get it straight to the axle stub so that it will go on. As far as I can tell the length is correct, it's a little difficult since the old axle is in two pieces now. The second point of confusion is why the castle nut would be spinning when the hub appears fine... the spring washer was installed correctly, and the cone washer appears fine as well. I'm more concerned about finding an axle that will fit, if I can get it all assembled I can always put the new hub I have on later. EDIT: based on the picture in the first post of this topic: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?p=952745#post952745 it looks like I have replacement axles for EA82s so... how do I get the correct axles? or are the newer ones fitting for everyone else?

Got a wheel hub from jemmy3, now I just need a little bit of halfway-decent weather... probably a tall order since it seems to have finally started raining in earnest. Could somebody please weigh in on the empi axles? Do I need to worry that they look so different even though they're supposed to be the same. I'm going to do the axles anyway while I've got stuff apart since the inner boots have been torn since some unknown time before I bought the brat at the end of August.