Subaruist

I have to wonder, I have to know, I don't see much discussion on the performance on a Trike using a Subaru Engine Vs. a VW engine. Assuming that one used a regular\older EA81 engine without a super-charger or turbo, how much better is/would be the performance/speed/torque, etc. ??? I assume better, but how much of a difference? I cannot disagree with putting a super charger on it, but Crimony! Just being a light-weight trike, that thing must have plenty of power! Can you actually punch it and push it to its limit safely? I mean, I would think you would have trouble keeping the front wheel on the ground! lol...

Actually, I like your previous suggestion. Machine shops are rarely the habitation of incompetence. They do the very specific and direct jobs. They usually know what they are doing, and since the part would be out of the vehicle, the job would be quicker and easier than having a mechanic of any sort do it. IT all depends on me finding that housing and finding it as cheaply as possible, yet is good or better condition to justify using it, if not getting fancy and maybe even painting it, lol. The ball joint may be inexpensive, and I should be able to do it myself easily.

If I were to first get some recommendation from someone (here) about a particular mechanic, I might, and know of only one that I would trust so far. Otherwise, the mechanics in my area are idiots and people who don't do the job I paid them to do for the most part. - By the way, in Medfod, Oregon, DON'T TRUST LES SCHWAB FOR ANYTHING! They can't handle the simplest estimate for a serious safety-oriented problem, and tried to tell me that I needed work on my power steering - my Brat does not have power steering, and when I pointed that out, they stuck to their story anyway, maybe hoping that I was irretrievably stupid or something. - By the way, on this same subject, The REAL problem was that my Axel nut was loose (before I tried anything on it) . Either they did not actually check the problem out properly, or they took the wheel off and then did not tighten the axle nut. Either way, that is a FAIL. Either way, they demonstrated complete irresponsibility and utter incompetence on about 3 or 4 issues, so they will not be doing ANY work on my vehicles, not even changing a tire! - AND, since I attempted to to the bearings myself (Hense this thread) and discovered the real problem, and tightened things back up like they belong, the problem has 100% vanished without the slightest effect or noise, etc. I am still going to do the wheel bearings. and a lot of other stuff as well. When I was at my lowest point on this issue, just before coming online and posting this thread, I thought to myself "If someone just up and gave me a Corvette for free, and said it needed a whole lot of fixing up, how would I feel about that?" 2nd Gen Subaru Brats are worth more to me than a Corvette. I love them, I love this Brat. and if I have to do a whole lot of work and spend money every time I have it to spend, then its worth it! I do have the advantage that I don't have a wife or kids or other dependents of any sort, so I can go that way . (Thankfully! lol)

Good call on the ball joint.In the old days when I off-roaded and beat the crap out of these, I always kept a spare pair, as a ball joint is one of those things that can drop a Subaru dead on the road, and were fairly cheap to get (then). I also very much like the idea of getting the housing and having that done. I will have to check and see if I can find a pair. Money is more than tight right now, and if I had it to spend, I would be buying new rotors/hubs just for good measure. Hard to imagine someone doing them for only $35a side - but aside from the part being out of the vehicle already, I guess taking it to a machine shop instead of a mechanic is a good move. I simply do not/cannot trust the local mechanics here. I have seen a lot of inexcusable incompetence and times where I asked for a particular job done and they did not do what I paid them to. Yours seems like the best and most intelligent solution overall if I can swing it.

Good replies and info once again guys. - I still have two (smaller) problems though - #1: I do not have a place to work on my Brat, so I have to get away with doing things like this in a back parking lot of an empty store or something, and in order to do this, I would have to at least take the axle off (I am assuming that will not have any unpleasant surprises), much less takin the knuckle off. #2: Assuming I CAN do so one way or the other, I would still need something to do the hammering part. I don't have a socket that big and would not want to buy one just for this, although I will keep an eye out for such at the local yard sales, thrift stores or whatever. I am assuming I can use a regular nail hammer to do the hammering, don;t have a sledge. I am also wondering if I could find the right size piece of scrap metal. Funny thing is I saw a piece of round hardwood about the right size just the other day at the thrift store, held it in my hand and thought, nice, I have no use for it though.... Lol... This will take some thought and searching, etc. But at least I know that it is possible to do myself!

I'm used to the 1st Gen. Subaru Brats, I knew jut about every screw and bolt in them by name. My 2nd Gen Brat needs at least the right front wheel bearing, and with the 1st Gen Brats, it was a breeze of a job, easy as anyone could ask for;so I got the stuff, got down there with everything and started in on it - and... How the hell do I get these bearings out? They are not like 1st Gen Brats, so I look it up, and it says they can only be taken out and/or installed with a press at the dealer !!! Oh NO!!! - NO!!! - NO!!! I doubt I would actually need a dealer, a decent mechanic should be able to handle it, but still, the mechanics in my area have been miserably disappointing in their competence alone!, to say nothing about what they would want to do such a job! The place that told me I need bearings also told me that I have a problem with my power steering, -except that I DON'T HAVE POWER STEERING (Idiots!) - AND, it appears that when they checked it, they left the axle nut LOOSE !!! (idiots!) The bearing really does need replacing, even thought the Brat dries ok with out it, and the horrible noises have disappeared since I took it apart and put it back together - and tightened the axel nut!. But the grease was dark with rust, and the bearing balls were rough with rust. I could really use some good news here - like I don't really need a press at all?, or I can get an inexpensive toll to do it? Something? anything? (Sniff,sigh...)

(A) Yes, i have lifted - and thrown one of these transmissions once, when I was real angry about something - and it didn't hurt the tranny either,lol... ( I am SO relieved to see all the positive feedback about how to remove the transmission instead of the engine!!! I have very limiting circumstances, so a cherry picker would be out of the question anyway. What I am considering is finding a tree and using a come-a-long hooked onto the front crash bar (I have the solidly mounted kind) and lifting the whole front end of the Brat up a little bit. As far as lifting the transmission into place, I have a 6 ton bottle jack and some blocks and such, and will probably use that to lift/hold the weight, and use elbow grease to maneuver it. As I seem to remember doing such once n the past for some reason or purpose. I may even be able to rig something to bolt to the tranny and attach to the jack for a firm grip/attachment. Now it is a matter of seeing if I can afford/find one of those raved-about 5 speed transmissions before I commit to getting the parts. If I can, I may as well do it all right at one time. © Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the tips, instructions, etc posted here!!! EXTREMELY informative and helpful !!! Unfortunately, something else has come up that must be done first.... I thought it was about time to replace the front brake pads, and was getting estimates and considering if I should just do it myself. I heard that tell-tale sound the brakes make to let you know the pads had worn to that point a couple days ago,- but in the last 24-48 hours it turned into something else, and it seems that my front right wheel bearing is suddenly disintegrating and must be dealt with immediately, - just so I don;t have to see my wheel rolling down the street head of me, which did happen to me once, lol... Thanks again guys !

OMG... It's a nightmare! Because I know you are all right! lol.... I was really feeling good about getting an Automatic transmission too.... The thing I don;t understand is assuming I can jack/lift/hoist the Brat sufficiently, why in the world would it be easier to pull the engine ?!? I see the very informative replies above, and than you, but seriously... If I take the trans out instead, there is very little to unhook, it would be very straight-forward. I would think that the only issue would be getting the clearance to do it (Lifting the Brat). I work part-time as a Courier/Delivery guy, and my life is pretty much on the road and in parking lots, restaurants, etc. - I really don't have the space for an engine hoist, and hate renting such things. - Yes, I also face challenges with lifting the whole Brat instead, but it does seem simpler. My other concern is that I amused to 1st Generation Brats, where you had ONE (Pilot) Bearing,and according to the kits I have seen, there seems to be like 4-5 bearings that would need to be replaced, and I would probably need one or more special tools to do install them. There are few jobs I don't like like on a Brat: Electrical, Transmission, Engine rebuild. - And yes, I musty also admit that a clutch job, etc is probably easier on a Subaru Brat than most other vehicles made. It seems the only option is to go broke paying to have it done. - and there is the other option not mentioned yet, and that is how people rave about the 5 speed manual trannies. If I have to do it myself, I may as well see if I can get a 5 speed and do it right -right? As Dr. Zachary Smith would say: "Oh.... the pain..." lol

I need a clutch job, and I am not in a position to do it myself, especially on my 183 EA81 Brat, that means paying a mechanic to do so, and that is not cheap. Eventually, I would have to do it again too. My Brat is destined to be "Street", not off-road, and I do not anticipate or want to haul any trailer of any real weight if at all. I am thinking that for what it would cost me to have the clutch replaced, I could maybe just get an automatic transmission, I would kinda like one anyway, I think I could put it in with less work than doing the clutch myself, making it more likely that I could do it myself, and I would never have to replace the clutch again. What are the Pro's and Con's of this? Thanks.

Due to various reasons and purposes, I have to get rid of my Brat's shell/canopy... I have had no takers or serious offers, and have been faced with actually having to throw the thing away, which I have serious problems with, naturally. There is one other possibility, and that is one of those farings? or partial canopies that basically only covers over a rollbar in the back, kinda like what Big-Rigs have as a wind break on thier cab in front of the trailer. I guess the proper term is an "Air Deflector". I THINK I could cut that much off the rest of my canopy, it could serve a purpose, not look too bad, and be a place to mount antennas, lights, etc with just a little reenforcing maybe. (See attached pic(s) However, I would like input from anyone who has successfully or even unsuccessfully tried or done this, both for overall advice, but also because I am not yet sure how I would mount it properly, as the canopy as it exists now naturally mounts via long eye-bolts in the bed further back. Thank you.

I know this is probably supposed to be for mechanicery and customising, etc, but I just thought that I would post that I finally took my Brat out for some fairly serious off-roading. Being that I will be fixing this one up for street and looking nice, I will probably not be able to do it again, but will have to stick to tamer roads once I start paintingit, etc. Took a friend out to the mountains for some camping, went exploring, found a dirt road that got real bad with deep hard/dry mud ruts all over, and had to take it slow, but it performed just as casually as I remember they do. The road we ended up on had clearly been unused in probably years, as there were old dead bushes that had overgrown the road crossing more than half the roads width before they eventuallly died, dried out, and now were grey with age and weather, etc. We went places nobody in thier right mind would go, as is the true spirit of what Brats do so well. The body got all scratched up, but not nearly as bad as it sounded as we pushed through all the hard, dry, dead thickets and such. I will miss doing that, but its more than compensation that I drive one of the coolest vehicles in town even as it is, before I have done much with its look, and for the fun and joy I have driving it around.

- Could this be caused by someone installing a wrong clutch cable? I looked, and the one in there is definitely not stock, and likely not even meant for a Subaru.....

Very good input guys, thanks!

Regarding the 'bar' style small speaker boxes pictured above that will go where the visors are supposed to - it turns out that I forgot what I actually had in there - they are actually 20 and 40 watt speakers, manetically shielded, but the funny thing is they each have center speakers that are 100 watt tweeters! - 100 watt tweeters?!? - Well, since out of the 5 speakers in each bar speaker box, two will be let channel and two will be right channel, I can wire them in pairs to give more effective wattage, and can combine the two channels tweeters into that one center tweeter. It means some possibly tricky wiring or extra wires, but the result will be well worth it ! I think I will also drill a couple holes that some speaker boxes use both for sound pressure relief, and which also act as minor speakers in themselves, and plan on putting them in the ends of these bar boxes facing the windows, so they will bounce off the windows, adding more dimension to the sound. I am also considering getting a batch of small potentiometers, just a few ohms difference in each to act like trim pots, for minor volume changes for each speaker, so that I can fine tune the whole system once it is on line for the best effects. Likely will add sensitive fuses as well, but I am undecided if I need to put those in each speaker/box, or just on the power outputs only. - Mind you, I am NOT one of those people who think that the goal is to turn the whole damned vehicle into a vibrator and rattle box for maximum volume! I like the quality of sound that you get when you have a large variety of speakers. In such arrangements, no matter what sound the song broadcasts, there will be speakers ideal for it, and with so many (?) speakers, properly wired, I will actually not have to turn the volume up much, because I will essentially be surrounded by the sound, and all but assaulted by the sound from every direction possible. Talk about sound 'immersion', lol...

I broke out a box full of Home Theater speakers that I have been collecting over the last couple years. I have been taking them apart, finding the best case fronts that I could easily mount, and space the speakers out from the doors/etc, and mating the best speakers together. These are all magnetically shielded speakers, which I prefer anyway, as I will have a lot of radio and other equipment in the cab, including a very good UMPC that will be the main source of music - MP3's that is. I will need to get a moderate Graphic Equalizer Booster to power the system, one with separate sub-woofer outputs. The plan so far is to use that horrible mounting spot the factory chose on the doors, facing directly into the side of the seat for some dumb reason. HOWEVER, I will not be mounting normal speakers there. I have put together mini sub-woofers and strong tweeters in a kind of two-way speaker. The reason for this is that even facing the side of the seat, sub-woofers can work really well, and tweeters are also less affected by such horrible mounting as all of your mid-range average speakers. There is also room and 'door frame holes' to mount small, almost flush-mount 2-way speakers on the forward corners of the doors. I was tempted to mount tweeters where the doors have what seem to be holes for those rear-view mirrors that you can adjust from inside the cab, but decided I want to save those for eventually getting those kind of mirrors. All of these speakers are 50-80 watt, whichis plenty enough for me. I intend to defeat the problem of channel balance for driver and especially passenger by doing one of two things: (A) Inxstead of 'Left' and 'Right', I will convert them to 'Outer' (door) and 'center' channels. (Anywhere I can mount speakers down the centerline of the cab) This way, both the driver and the passenger will have their own Left and right channels, without interfering with the other. ( I have speaker switch boxes which will handle 3-4 sets of speakers, except that instead of sets of speakers, they will be switching the same speakers to 2 or 3 different arrangements, so I can have traditional Left and Right, Outer and Center channels as mentioned above, or something else, such as my plan to eventually make it effectively a 5.1 to 7.1 surround system. - Why? Why in such a small cab? - Do I plan to watch movies in my cab? - No. I am just a real Audiophile. I tend to look for anywhere I can put more speakers, which is helping in this difficult task of where to put speakers in a Brat cab. Take lemons and make lemonade - that's something I love to do! In that tiny cab, I will have all that sound concentrated and compressed into audio rapture bliss! In the end, I may have to find a way to apply sound deadoning material to the inside of the doors and maybe have to defeat potential rattles of the mechanisms in the doors. Today I got the first speaker mounted on the drivers door - once I get the other one on the passenger door I will take pics.

When I bought this Brat, the guys who put it together to sell were likehilbillies or something, and they obviously thought that the solution to everything was Zip ties and sheet metal screws, but they did make a point of saying that they replaced the clutch. - For some reason I tend to belive them on that. However, no matter how I adjust the clutch, either it so tight that I can;t get it into gear without grinding, or at the other end of the spectrum of adjustment, the clutch starts slipping badly above some speeds. Funny thing is that it has never once slipped taking of in 1st gear, or right after putting it into 2nd gear - only half-way through 2nd gear does it start slipping. I think the clutch cable is not stock, and might be something improvised, and they used some genaric hardware store key pin to link it to the pedal assembly. I have a stock clutch cable, but not that proper pin for the pedal yet. Could this be caused by a clutch cable that is not stock and too long or short in its housing or something? Could this be anything but but a bad clutch disk?!? I know that replacing the clutch disk in one of these is about as easy as you could hope, compared to most vehicles, but I am really not in a position to do that job for some time to come, so I have my fingers crossed! - any Ideas?

I may have to expand on this concept, as I have plans on replacing the sliding rear window in my Brats' cab with a center piece of glass, and panels directly behind the head for speakers to solve the problem of where to put (more) speakers. One narrow pane of glass in the center would not be able to be opened without obstructing the sound from the speakers on one side or the other, but I may be able to figure something out, as I think a vent there, high, between the seats would allow more air through when I have the T-Tops popped. I can also still use the holes here posted about to pass a couple of wires through for LED lighting effects for the Louver covers.

Uh... I don't think so... I think they would be called "Louvers", so louver covers? Louver panels? Oh what does it matter anyway I guess...

Thanks everyone! I was hoping it had some more sexy purpose, but I have thought of a couple small uses for it, like to pass through the wires for some accent lighting for those... what are those decorative vent looking covers over that area anyway? lol...

I thought it was the website being down, was not on my end, something with the connection or in between in the net, server, or ISP maybe.

Ya know... I wuold think that I would have, but not as of yet anyway, lol.... Maybe I broke the server with all my rabid posting? Yesterday and this morning I could not evan bring the site up at all...

I have been getting a: "Forbidden You don't have permission to access /forum/index.php? on this server." When trying to post in 'off-topic' forum... - what's the deal?

Don't you know ?!? - just look at the picture! He obviously traded-out those lights on top for that spare tire on top! lol... That, or maybe you guys crossed each other's paths unkowingly in some parking lot, and accidentally switched cars? Alien abduction and return? They are twins switched at birth?

Hmmm.... You seem to have a point, but I am wondering if the underside, and the dirt protecting it, just don't get wet very often or for very long, as that dirt would actually hold the water against the metal over time, as opposed to the water naturally drying in basically minutes once the source of the water ceased. However, I see you live in Washington, so water is a semi-regular occurance there. There could be contributing factors too, - where did your subaru spend most of its life before you got it? Maybe in dryer areas? My Brat has same thing. LIttle to no rust underneath, lots of tenacious dirt. Personally, I think we both may just be lucky, and have subarus that have not been exposed to too much road salt and water, and may have spent time in drier regions. If you have no rust, then what better reason! You won't have to scour rust off in order to put the bed liner on! - Preventative maintenance!

Ya know, that stuff could be very good undercoating for most of the underside of the vehicle, except where it might be close to a heat source, like the tail pipe. It would make good protection in general, and especially against rust, which loves the underside of a vehicle...