[82 brat coastal Cruiser build]

Rebuilt the front end. Lots of mud and broken parts. The smallest amount of play in the inner tie rods. Lordco wants 70$ for one... 

Outers are discontinued so I ended up using an Imprezas from around 2000s I think. Just short enough to  towe the front in Just a touch. Tho the threads aren’t fully tight. I wonder if this is just the worn inner tie rod or the new Imprezas is just a slight larger diameter thread.

manged to stuff some BFG Baja 215/75/15r  (28in?) tires on some 6lug Nissan rims.

Bolted to some ea82 hubs. there’s maybe a slight offset difference between ea82-ea81 hubs?

 

my questions is, are the front and rear bearing seals the same? Ie will a front hub seal and set on the rear? if so I could fab a backing plate and mount ea82 front disks on the rear with what ever calipers I like

 

Shimmed the radius rods maybe 1/2  for more caster, and some fender bending. No rub in the front.

 

the rear inner fender needed just a small trim on the bottom . Still need to do the outer because of alight rub on the mud flaps.

Blending everything to keep it nice looking.

 

I adjusted the front spring preload all the way and now have bad camber, so off to fit some ea82 lca and cv axles? 

[82 brat coastal Cruiser build]

On 4/13/2019 at 4:31 PM, el_freddo said:

Neat (but dirty) looking brat! 

Heads up: EA82 shafts are not compatible with the EA81 units. Only usable part is the inner joint unless the EA82 shaft is from an MPFI/turbo. 

Cheers 

Bennie

Is it just length? Seems like the bearing will take the stub shaft, just maybe swap the inner knuckle seal? to an ea82 seal? 

and use ea82 lca and adjust for the offset 

[Johnny 5 is alive]

Some of the pop top construction 

 

used the roof as a mold. Trying to make it look like there is no poptop!

Here is the wood Frame for the shell and the metal frame for the car with the lift mechanism,

befor install.

 

 

[Johnny 5 is alive]

New(about 9 months ago) adjustable ifs.

car now has slight negative camber and larger track width. 

 With lots of tuning, it now handles extremely well (no sway bars) on and off the hwy.

 

 



thick DOM and a Johnny joint

very over kill. Its what I could source locally in a short manner of time.

 

These have hand many hwy and off road miles on them. No problems. Car has been jumped probably 8-10 times.

 

 

Hard to see, but in the top Conner here, the radius rod/trans mount is not dropped, instead the radius rod is longer. Much stronger this way as they no fulcrum to shear the mounts off.

the trans cradle is extend accordingly 

 

 

 

being the engine cradle is dropped 4inchs, but the radius rod mount is not, the geometry has changed.

There is now minor caster change threw suspension travel, but this dosnt effect hwy driving negatively.

[Johnny 5 is alive]

Reposting here as this is where it belongs*

 

 

Long time lurker. I’ve been building out my ea82 Gl for a a while and I thought I should start a build thread.

 

 

 

here it is in Baja Mexico!

 

 

so here the build so far:

-4inch body lift(6inch currently)

-ej25dohc

-poptop 

-crustom ifs (I bent one of the original lca)

-modded rear seats so the sit flat

-projector bulb retrofit/angle eyes

-custom aluminium bumper

 

Currently in the middle of building a vlsd rear diff.

which requires completely dismantling the vlsd and ea82 diffs, to the point of pressing out the threaded inserts in the spider gears.

[Johnny 5 is alive]

 

New(about 9 months ago) adjustable ifs.

car now has slight negative camber and larger track width. 

With lots of tuning, it now handles extremely well (no sway bars) on and off the hwy.

 

 

thick DOM and a Johnny joint

very over kill. Its what I could source locally in a short manner of time.

 

These have hand many hwy and off road miles on them. No problems. Car has been jumped probably 8-10 times.

 

 

Hard to see, but in the top Conner here, the radius rod/trans mount is not dropped, instead the radius rod is longer. Much stronger this way as they no fulcrum to shear the mounts off.

the trans cradle is extend accordingly 

 

 

 

being the engine cradle is dropped 4inchs, but the radius rod mount is not, the geometry has changed.

There is now minor caster change threw suspension travel, but this dosnt effect hwy driving negatively.

 

[Johnny 5 is alive]

Long time lurker. I’ve been building out my ea82 Gl for a a while and I thought I should start a build thread.

 

 

 

here it is in Baja Mexico!

 

 

so here the build so far:

-4inch body lift(6inch currently)

-ej25dohc

-poptop 

-crustom ifs (I bent one of the original lca)

-modded rear seats so the sit flat

-projector bulb retrofit/angle eyes

-custom aluminium bumper

 

Currently in the middle of building a vlsd rear diff.

which requires completely dismantling the vlsd and ea82 diffs, to the point of pressing out the threaded inserts in the spider gears.

 

[82 brat coastal Cruiser build]

Temporary fix for the driver side strut top hat.

 

1/4 in thick steel plate to sandwich the torn rubber. Then filled with a rubber compound to take up any slack. No more vibration driving.

 

 

Found a ea82 loyal at a pick and pull luckily. 

pulled the front cv’s off, one inner was missing the doj balls. should be able to make two good cv’s out of the broken 4. 

[Cleanest Loyale ever! Nissan KA-24 swap coming soon.]

Vancouver island. Know for it’s clean environment and beauti.

and your just ganna haphazardly vent your oil everywhere.

 

Just at least put some filters on those vent tubes. Better yet do a catch can. 

if not I’ll drive my wagon over yours...

 

tho I am curious to see you try and pull of a ka swap... tho there’s plenty of ej’s floating around the island

 

 

[82 brat coastal Cruiser build]

On my my way home from Mexico I found this guy on the side of the road...

 

 

 

 

So i drove it back it back to Canada!

 

let the fun begin.

 

 

the good: 

 

almost everthing is there, jump sets and everything.

No real body damage and no bad body rust from what I can tell.

runs!

Shifts pretty good(4spd)

 

 

the bad: 

 

Torn cv’s 

lots of caked oil, 

Mexican wiring

oil sender dosnt work

driver side strut top is completely torn(found this once I got it home)

leakying front main seal 

bad rad fan

Truck bed leaks into cabin(when it rains)

 

 

 

Plan: since I’ve been building my crazy off road poptop gl wagon, I thought it’d make this more of a daily driver. 

bushings upgrades 

2 inch lift

215/75/15 Baja bfg on yota drilled 6 lug. 

camber/caster plates

longer ish dual rate suspension 

Electric swap?!?!