TheSubaruJunkie

HE's right, i stand corrected.

The 1980 Brat came with a 1800 EA81. Same old body style of the '77, '78, '79... but the only gen1 Brat offered with a EA81.

Sweet, Make you guys come down here for a change My garage is about to turn into a Toyota Scrapshop here for alittle while.

This comming from a guy who just turned a Brat for nearly $3k... They are worth what somebody is willing to pay for them. I've never sold one for more than $175... but Ive never paid more than $30 for one.

The best place to learn about STi's is NASIOC.

I was just looking over the two craigslist ad's and the 81 looks like it has some blemishes on the hood and drivers side fender. The '84 just looks like the hood is mis-matched. The price difference isnt worth the time and trouble you'll invest in trying to get it passed smog. +1 vote for the '84

As I said before, your biggest concern should be the smog issue. Unless you plan on a EJ Swap. If The '84 is smogged, i would vote for it. But the '81 sure does look like it's in good condition.

My Schedule is Tues & Wednesday, Friday & Saturday. So I get Sunday, MOnday & Thursday off.

The Brat I found on Craigslist, and it turns out it was from an Old Board member, Will Smith. The exterior is in great shape, but he did alot of body work to it. Its actually two cars welded together. The front half is from a 1983 GL10 Wagon, and the rear is from a Brat. You couldn't tell unless I pointed out the welds (which can only be seen from inside the car). It runs great and even passed smog. I got it for $500 cause it needed a tranny. After I replaced the tranny, we found out it had the incorrect throw-out bearing all along. Now Im weeding through a handfull of wiring problems from his swap. It has power windows, mirrors and all the options a GL10 would have... but it looks like he converted from a digital dash to analog and its a real mess in there.

Well the brat runs and drives great, but its just a bunch of wiring problems that need to be sorted out. Unfortunatly, it looks like i will need a new wiring harness & dashboard, so as soon as I have those parts I can resume working on it. It's still my daily driver for the time being. Whats this project you're planning on picking up??

Hey man. Yeah im still around, and even tho I wheel a Toyota, I still daily drive a Subaru. My newest to the collection is a 1983 Brat. I tried to organize a meet up in the Tahoe area, but that kinda fell through. My Brat needs more work than I originally thought, and I can't rely on it to get me to Tahoe & back under its own power. A local meet tho, that can probably be arranged.

Doesnt look like any Pug I've ever seen. Definatly looks good though. I wonder how much per wheel?

To let your mind at ease, you could perform a compression test afterwards. That will tell you for sure if there is any terminal damage.

We do that here at work when installing bushings on excavators and stuff. We freeze the bushings over night, and prior to installation we torch the area recieving the bushings. It does make a difference, however... i dont want to see you burn your house down.

It may affect it a tad, but if it were hot enough to damage the engine, the needle would be far into the red zone.

If the temp gauge didn't peg in the red, than you should be okay.

Tap evenly around the outter race of the bearing. You cannot drive the bearing through the hub, you have to tap it out from the inside. Between each bearing is a spacer, which makes things alittle difficult. Once the first bearing is out, the spacer can be removed and the second bearing is easier to get out. If you tap using the inner race, it will break free and you will have a broken bearing stuck in the hub, and can make things alittle more difficult. !!EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!! When you are installing the new bearings. DO NOT tap or impact the inner race of the bearing. You must drive the bearing into the hub by the outter race. If you impact the inner race you risk damaging the bearing. It doesnt take much force at all to damage the bearing. Alittle grease on the walls of the hub and the outside of the bearing will make things go alittle easier. Once you get the bearing started, it will go in fairly easily. The problem is getting it started. Its an extremely tight fit. Its frustrating. If you start to lose your temper, its best to walk away and come back. The center of the hub has a raised portion which the bearings sit against. You tap the bearing all the way into the hub until it hits and sits evenly on this raised portion. Before you install the second bearing, make sure you have your spacer installed... and a good amount of grease between the two never hurts.

Dont forget bearing seals as well. Im pretty sure its the same part number for the inner & outer seals, but its been so long since ive done them i cant remember. 4x Bearing 4x Seals 2x CV Joints 1x Bearing Grease 50x Rags 1x Patience & Understanding. Its a pretty simple, straightforward job. Forget what the hayes manual says.

Bolt Pattern is what ive always reffered to it as. But yeah. Pretty much every 4 lug Subaru is a 4x140mm pattern. Only other vehicle (that any of us know about) that shares the same pattern is older Peugeot's.

Ive wheeled a couple EA81's and never broke a rear shaft. Except for once at the WCSS when I was going hog wild in the mud pit... and it had a LSD so thats putting even more stress on them axles. If your careful, you will make it through with only body damage. But there are some cases when tempers flare, and you end up using more of the skinny pedal. Luckily for us, the EA81 doesn't put out alot of power. Just keep certain things in mind when you're out wheeling. Primarily the position of each one of your tires. If you have one wheel off the ground, you probably do not want to drop the clutch at 3 grand. If you have your front wheels turned full lock, chances are you will want to take it easy for a second. Knowing WHEN to use the skinny pedal is the key here. Or you can cheat, and buy a more capable 4X4, but then your wheeling will get more extreme and you will still end up breaking something. Its a catch 22. Just go out, and have fun with it! Find a bypass if it looks like its going to tear your Subaru in two.

What is PCD?

Yeah, things are bad. It appears the car used to have a digital dash, and this was an attempt to convert it to analog.

S'Ko, thanks! Im looking for a complete dash. Blue prefferably. Uncracked but i know thats near impossible these days. Don't go out of your way for me, but if you come across something let me know.

No, actually my plan as of now is to replace the ENTIRE DASH. Im hoping I can get away with not stringing a wiring harness by just replacing the dash with the harness and gauge cluster already installed. Just need to find a decent replacement.

I think you're right Connie. After looking through the FSM, it mentions that large connector is only for digital dash models. So now im wondering if a new harness will do me any good at all.