TomRhere

atleast I'm hoping that's what it is. '86 BRAT 4WD D/R 4 speed Stopped to get some go juice Thursday after work. When I pulled out onto the road, I spun the tires on wet pavement, nothing new there... The exit of this gas station is up-hill and you're making a righthand turn pulling onto the road. The PS axle has been protesting tight turns in the past few weeks, been putting off repairs until I get garage cleaned out some. Anyways, Get up to speed and head on towards home. About 10 miles later, I had to slow down for a car turning. WHOA!!!! Vibrations up the yingyang, not using brakes, just let off the gas to slow down. What the 'ell?? Get her back up to speed, and now it's vibrating at anything over 50 mph. This is not good, still have about 15 miles to drive yet. No vibration during accelleration, just when coasting or let off the gas. Had to stop for a stop sign. Definate click/clunk with each rotation of the tires at anything under 20 mph. Man, I don't need this right now. Get going again, luckily traffic is light and I can drive it at 50 mph. Now, I'm in the hilly part of my trip, about 8 miles of up and down hills. Vibration is reallly picking up in intensity running these hills. Drove the last 4 miles home in 4WD, roads were wet from it raining so I figured I was good. Not so much vibrating with it in 4WD, but it's still there. I'll be heading out to the garage here in a bit to make some room to get the front atleast in on the cement, and hopefully out of the wind. I hope it's just the axle, and not anything like tranny problems. Don't have spare 4 speed, got a 5 speed D/R, but don't have all the goodies to swap it in yet.. Don't have extra axle either, but I do have a set of outers I can put in and just drive it in 4WD. It's that or see if I can fix the wiper on the XT6, again! It fubared on me yesterday. Just ain't having good Sooby luck here this week..... Update; This ties in with this thread on tire wear also, http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=66233&highlight=Excessive+tire+wear Since pulling the front axles, and driving in RWD, most if not all of the vibration that's been there "all along" in this BRAT has disappeared. Still does a shimmy over 65, but I don't usually get up to that speed. She just seems to go down the road better, but still has that slight pull to the right. OK, on Monday 12-4-06, I headed for work in the BRAT. We had an overnight snow that coated the roads with real fine powdery stuff, a little slick in spots. Remember, I only have RWD now, and BRATs are not gifted with much rear axle weight. Made it about 10 miles down the road, when I hit a spot of snow covered compacted ice. WHOA CHIT!!!! Had issues with making the turn onto this road, and had a heck of a time picking up speed, just couldn't get any traction. Doing about 40 MPH, and making some head way. Thinking about some of the hills I have to go over, and how I ain't getting any bite here... Hmmmm... Driving on a flat straight stretch of road when all of a sudden, I'm sideways and on the wrong side of the road. What the 'ell!?!?!? I didn't move the wheel or nothing to cause this, it just happened. Scared the crap out of me for sure. Especially when about 10-15 seconds later a Semi went by me headed the other way. The County line was just ahead of me, and when I got there, the road had atleast been salted/sanded. I got a bit more traction after that. Made it to work with no further problems. Now, today, I have the BRAT in the garage, and have been looking, checking, bouncing, prying, everything I can think of on the steering/suspension items. This is what I've found so far. 1st, I drove over to the Factory I used to work at. Nice large flat parking lot, with 4 double-row parking lanes, and 2 single rows. Pull in, set BRAT to head across the lot and do so letting it drift as it wants to. It pulls to the right, no matter which way I headed across the lot. Steering wheel is about the 7 o'clock postion. Ok, head for the house and put it in the garage. Take a string and run it across rear tire heading for the fronts and check as to how/when string lines up with front tire. Not even!!! I can see atleast a 1/4" gap on the trailing side of the PS tire, and a 1/2" gap at the front of the DS tire when the string just touches the opposing sidewall of the tires. I rolled the vehicle forward about 1/2 revolution of tire and rechecked. Same thing.... I still can not find any slop or play in any of the steering or suspension parts. So,,, I'm just going to adjust the tie-rods ends to square up the tires, and center the steering wheel. Then see what the heck happens..

I'd look around the oil pump area, see what you can find. Could be bad pressure switch or gauge sending unit. Posible leak around filter itself. There's a couple of plugs and caps on the pump that could leak also. edit; The lines on the crossmemeber are for the power steering. Don't own an Auto so don't know how tranny coolant lines run. But you're loosing engine oil, not tranny fluid or PS fluid, Right? So that would knock them out of the question anyways...

NAPA sells, (or used to anyways), a product called MAC'S Radiator Cleanser. Stuff is great!!! Directions say to run it, (after flushing system and filling with plain water), for 20 minutes, then flush again. I've left it some systems for a day or two. And at one shop I worked at, I left the stuff in one of our chiller systems for a week, you should of seen the grunge that came out of that thing. YeeeUuuck!

:clap: :banana: :burnout: Wish mine looked that good.

PM me your email addy and I can send you some pics.

originally posted by GD In truth the same problems with the old Hitachi carbs are still a problem with the SPFI. The added complexity of the "emmissions" equipment makes the fuel and ignition algorithms in the ECU software overly complex. It muddy's up the water such that it's hard to pinpoint the exact component that's failing or out of range. In the world of "reliable" fuel systems, less really is more for this 80's stuff. The ECU's in the newer cars have become complex enough (faster processors, etc) that they are able to do much more diagnostic work and provide more accurate feedback to the mechanic. That, and the advent of water-proof under-hood connectors has helped a lot to prevent often difficult-to-find corrostion related problems, and ground issues of the past. AMEN Brother, AMEN!!!!!

Can't tell from what you posted, so... Have you checked the right side out yet? You may have a problem on the right side, which gives you the pull to the left, as it's the only brake working now. Hasn't been that long ago that I tossed a brake pad out of the PS of my '86 BRAT. Hella noise from that wheel well area, and sound of something skittering along the road afterwards. Aaauuggghhhh!! No Brakes!!!!!

Hear you loud and clear on the rust............... On the other hand, I've drove to Central Eastern Illinios to get the '82 BRAT. Central Wisconsin to get an '84 BRAT. The '88 XT6, '86 BRAT, and '88 GL10 Wagon came out of Ohio. Ain't boo around here for older Subaru vehicles.

+1 Got an '88 GL10 Wagon 2WD Auto here. Plan is to do Manual tranny swap and convert to 4WD. Have the rear suspension stuff, collecting the tranny swap pieces, getting close on those parts.

Gut the interior, then weld some 1" 16 ga square tubing in on the inner panels between the inner/outer body panels to give it some rigidity before cutting the roof off. If you don't want to use the rear doors, you can extend the square tubing thru the doors to insure they stay shut. Use more tubing to make a framework for the floor of the bed so it's level front to rear, and to make a frame for the rear window of the cab. Then skin it with some sheet metal. Hardest part will be making the top of the bed look right, (think the trim area of a BRAT's bed).

I'll have to check the strut top on the PS to see if maybe it was put in wrong. I've found other things done on this BRAT that wasn't right, mostly on the PS, so maybe... I have new control arm bushings, and one set of radius rod bushings, so I'll swap those in, and get another set on the way for the DS. (Why they sell the radius rod bushing seperately instead of as a pair like one needs is beyond me. I ordered 2 thinking a set each side instead of 2 being just for one side. Grrrrrr...) Those parts were bought for the rebuild of the '82 BRAT and have been laying around for awhile. Need to get this fixed so I can get new tires all around before the white stuff starts falling. Sloppy steering and slippery roads don't mix to well. Thanks for the input.

'86 BRAT bone stock as far as suspension and tires, (185/70-13 M&S). Back in late June, early July I put newish tires on the fronts. I aslo replaced ball-joints and outer tie-rod ends, (old ones were worn and showed some sloppiness), on both sides.. Did not notice any slop or uncalled for movement in the lower control arm or radius rod bushings or in the strut caps, so I didn't swap any of those parts.... I drive roughly 370 miles a week to/from work, so I've put a couple thousand miles on the tires since mounting them. Now, I'm seeing the outer edge of the PS tire is worn down, almost to the belt... Not good.... Looking at the front of the BRAT, both tires appear to be standing the same and both pointing straight ahead. Very slight pull to the left when driving straight on some roads, none on other roads, (thinking crown of the road has something to do there). I do get an oscillating shimmy in the steering wheel if I drive anything above 65mph, more of an annoyance than anything else. I have noticed that it gets real skittish if there's any ponding of water in the road from a heavy rain. That gets scary at times, and tells me something is amiss in the front end. Thought I knew steering/suspension stuff pretty good. I can usually locate issues and do the repair needed. I also do a pretty darn good job of eyeball aligning the steering stuff before it goes on the rack. I'm stumped here... Got any ideas???

I've had pin-hole leaks in the 90* hose under the altenator, and in one of the heater hoses on the backside of the engine. Both were kinda hard to locate. I've also had pin-hole leaks in the radiator, can be real "fun" to find those, 'specially when it's between the cores of a 2 row one. If any of your coolant system hoses are 4 years or older, I would reccomend changing them, just because they're at the limit of worthyness. Another thing to check, would be to make sure all clamps are tight.

I removed the H-H from my '82 BRAT, using the "T" fitting found on the H-H bracket, and another "T" from a scrapped car. So yeah, it can be done. If you want to keep the H-H on yours, I have a good one here I can send your way.

Also, one should "Never" use an impact on bearings, they don't like it.

If one does not care about ever using the tubes again, they can be removed without pulling manifold. You have to bend the crap out of them, and I think I had to cut one or two, but they can be removed with manifold on.

Best thing I've found for cleaning the "smell" out of a car is Murphy's Oil Soap. It's actually for cleaning wood paneling, furniture, mill-work, but works great on other things. Leaves a pleasant fragrance in the vehicle. Pine Sol will work, but it's rather strong and lingers way to long afterwards, atleast for me....

As soon as it gets light enough out, I can get you the dimensions. Got a junk tank out behind the garage. edit; Here's actual measurements; Front to rear = 29-1/2" overall including 2" lip at front, 1-1/2" lip at rear. Side to side = 24-1/2" overall including 1" lip on DS, 1-1/2" lip on PS. There's 3" above the lip of the tank all around, 5-1/2" below lip behind the rear diff, and roughly 3-1/2" at the front, with less where diff and axles are located

+1

'86 BRAT GL D/R 4spd, 32/36 Weber on an EA-82 carb manifold, timing @ 10* BTDC. Stock Y-pipe with custom rigged piping afterwards, (needs replaced bigtime). I've been tracking the mileage for some time now, since around 2-06. Most of the driving is done on back roads, very little in town driving. I do a 64 mile round trip to work every day. For the past 6 weeks, I carry a passenger, a co-worker. For the most part, top speed is 60, but usually 50-55 MPH is the norm. I've seen anything from 22-23 MPG at the begining, to 32 MPG, varies from tank to tank. I've been playing around with timing settings, and tweaking on the carb, but haven't tried different jets, yet. I've also changed driving habits some. Not sure I'm getting the same "topping off of the tank" though, as the gauge needle will stay above the full mark longer on some fill-ups then others. All ignition components are new, oil changes done at roughly 2500 miles and using 10/40 oil. I've replaced the tie-rod ends along with ball-joints, still need to have alignment checked though. Got a few issues still with the front-end, so I'm waiting to get that taken care of before alignment. Need to replace the axles all around also. Don't have one good boot on any axle, front ones are clicking now. Thinking I can achive 35+ MPG once I get suspension/steering cleaned up, and get a better exhaust system under it. New tires may help also, I know it sure needs them before winter gets here.

Thinking it should be a "plug-n-play" swap, but can't say for sure. Seems that all the optional wiring is in these vehicles from the factory, just need the components for what ever mod you want to install. No clue as to how the steering column control switch is mounted, but I'll be finding that out myself. My '86 BRAT has cruise, (although it doesn't work), and I need to swap steering columns. Got a fubared key switch, upper bearing in the housing squeaks, (very annoying), for starters.

http://www.rockforddriveline.com/replacem.htm

And only one end of the "shield" is grounded. If you ground both ends, you might just as well of used plain wire.

Kinda recall a thread from a year or two ago about this subject. IIRC, there's a jumper wire that tells the ECU if the car is Turbo or not. If that is true, and if the connectors are the same, it should work. Swapping ECU's isn't a big job. Disconnect battery..... Couple screws to drop the panel below steering column, 3 nuts to loosen that hold ECU, slide it out, un-plug connectors, reverse to install. I would give the wiring harness a good looking over to check for damaged wires or components first. You could fry the replacement ECU if something is FUBAR..

Here you be.... http://www.suberdave.com/subaru/HTKYSA/