TomRhere

Glad to see that you made it back here. Good luck on the car search.....

I like it!!! Looks quite handy.. I've "engineered" a few engine hoist myself over the years, nothing like that though. Nice....

'85 BRAT, so far this month. Swapped radiator and T-stat. No help in getting temp reading below the 1/2 mark, everything else is less than 2 years old as far as cooling system stuff. Still digging... Current 2-row radiator is 7 years old, and in great condition. New front/rear fuel filters helped the drivability issues I was having. Chasing a vibration now. Swapped driveshaft already, no help. Starts around 40 mph, just makes the whole BRAT "hum", so can't pin-point it by ear. Has good axles all around, new front wheel bearings. Have new motor and tranny mounts to install, so maybe that will help?!? Due for oil/filter change, needs new cap/rotor, plugs and wires.

No need for outlets every stud cavity, that's going way overboard. A twin duplex set of outlets every 8' along the walls will be plenty of them. Depending on what amp service you run, and size of breaker panel, you can split them up on a few different circuits, and be good to go. I would place outlets for things like welders, plasma cutters and other 220V Single phase items along each wall. These can be wired into a couple seperate breakers, as you won't be using everything at once. Lots of good lighting, wired into a couple seperately switched and breakered circuits. I have 6-4 place-4' tube flourecent fixtures in the same size garage. Not enough... Have one or two lighting fixtures on a seperate switch so you don't have alot of lights burning just to do a quick "run in and grab" something out of the garage at night. That'll save on your electric bill. When you run the piping for the air, do a complete loop around the garage, and place the drops 8 to 10 foot apart along the non door areas. Run that loop about two foot down from the top of the side walls, higher where it crosses the door of course.. Have the Tee's in the main line pointing up to feed the drops. This will help with condensation issues in the main line getting into the drops. Try to slope the main line back towards the compressor also to help condesate drainage. A good filtering system is called for in the main line also, especially if you plan on doing any painting. Better check local codes on the floor drain. They don't allow them around here in private garages. Possible contamination from oil, antifreeze, fuel is why. Doesn't matter if you have a sepitic tank, or are on the sewer system, it's a no-no....

You didn't say what year engine you have, but it sounds like it's an early EA-81 with solid lifters. I have one of those, and the lifters are some what noisy until the engine warms up, then she's quiet. For flushing the engine out; -for the oil system, I use Dextron Automatic Tranny Fluid (ATF). It works very good, and one can flush the manual trans with it also. -for the cooling system, I use a flush marketed by one of the makers of anti-freeze. I also leave it in the system longer than they say to on the bottle. Don't know if you have any NAPA Parts stores there. But if you do, they sell Mac's Radiator Cleanser. That is some good stuff right there. Cleans out some nasty systems with ease. I use that on vehicles with cast iron engines that the owners have neglected to properly maintain the cooling systems. Those get down right nasty....

That RHD BRAT would be great to own, but it's in way to bad of shape for what the owner is asking for it. Lots of cutting and welding to be done to get the body back into shape. If the price was way lower, I'd buy it just for the parts to convert a LHD over to RHD. But that's just me..... And having the backwall cut out has seriously weaked the structural integrity of the roof area. I wouldn't want to be in it in a roll-over... Maybe installing a rollbar, properly,,, would be in order there.

Check the "HELP" racks at various parts stores for that radiator plug. Need to check different stores, as they carry different items on those racks. Believe I have one if you can't find one. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=99047 Check with him about the turnsignal lens.

Nice.... Thinking you bought it just cause it's Black...

Nice abode!!!!

Welcome to the Board. Nice BRAT!!!! And you're right, they are far and few between around here. I know of only 6 (counting yours now) South of Lansing. Where are you located?

I agree.. Black is the hardest car color to repaint. It shows any imperfection in the surface. Got a friend that used to do body work until he developed allergies to the chemicals. Anyways, he hated doing Black vehicles, they took way to long to get right.

Awesome job!!!!!!!!!!

There's this also, http://mshoup.us/docs/fsm/EA81/83/

Truly sad pics and news, for sure. Have to agree on the amount of damage, and pulling it back out. Be one tough job to do, and it would never be right. Costly for sure.... And speaking from experience. Do get your self checked out good. I have a high tollerance for pain, didn't realize I "was" injured in an accident, simular to yours. Came back to bite me many years later.

Nothing wrong with liking a clean looking stock BRAT!!! I like that pic too.... But Mick had the desire and method to do what he did to it. I'm liking what it morphed into. Nice job, start to finish, Mick.....

http://mshoup.us/docs/fsm/EA81/83/Chapter04-Fuel_System.pdf http://mshoup.us/docs/fsm/EA81/83/Chapter05-Emission_Control_System.pdf Those 2 links should give you some insite to things.

Tap the driveshaft with a wrench, screwdriver, what have you. See if the sound is like the "ting" you hear. Ifso, it is DS related, most likely U-joint. Grab hold of it on each side of a joint, try to rotate each hand in opposite directions, and at different joint angles. You are feeling for any play, or a tight spot. I found most carrier bearings to cause a "rumble" when they start to go. If the rubber in the support goes bad, it can throw the DS off center, so to speak. That causes more of a "vibration".

Thinkiing there's a piece you need to remove 1st. Been awhile, don't really remember. You could run inlet to one side, return to other side if you can't get a plug.

You need to put a couple washers behind the plate that the cable hooks into. Just undo the nut on the throttleshaft, slide plate off, install washers, install plate. The little barrel thing on the end of the cable can catch on the choke stuff is the cause of the binding. As for the fuel inlet. My Weber had one side plugged already.

Haven't pulled one from a Wagon, so I can't say what to do on the rear wiring, except it runs down the PS under the sill trim. Everything that heads for the back, plugs-in behind the PS kick panel. For the front wiring, everything will feed back into the interior. Gets a little tricky when you get to the point of a few connectors going back thru the hole at the same time, but you just need to feed them thru one at a time as you work the harness thru. Some of the harnes is held with releasable zip-ties, most of it is not. Getting to the backside to release some of the latter ones is a bit of a pain in places. Can't say how long it should take, as I didn't pull the harness all at once. And it's been something like 6 years ago now.

http://mshoup.us/docs/fsm/EA81/83/Chapter15-Electrical_System.pdf It's for the '83 models, but it'll do for yours as they're basically the same. I'm thinking you may have lost the contacts in the ignition switch. They are old and worn after all, and the added amp draw of the lights may have took them out.

Check your battery cable ends, pay close attention to the battery ends themselves if they are of the 'molded on" type of ends. I've had a few get loose where the cable goes into the clamp. Looks ok, but the wire is actually loose inside. Check the negative cable end where it attaches to the engine. I've had a few of those go bad from corrosion. Check the smaller positive feed wire that goes from battery to link box. Make sure it fits the tab on the link box nice and snug. I had one BRAT many years ago that had serious corrosion under the link box itself. Nasty green yucky stuff. Caused me all kinds of electrical issues.

Same here. But I did manage to get a few out of my '86 without breaking them. Now the '85 has it's tailgate trim on. Can't help but wonder if the El Camino, Ranchero, Rampage, or Scamp trim fasteners would be usable. Quite a few years running of the 1st 2, so many different trim styles were used. Just thoughts running rampant thru the brain.

Tweeked the toe setting at lunch yesterday. Didn't seem to affect the light pull towards the left any on the trip home. Going to see if I can pull it in the shop and use some lenghts of steel to get a better idea of how the fronts are compared to the rears. Be atleast 2 weeks before I can get it in to the frontend guru. She does run better. Got a couple of hills on the way to work that are steep, like pushing the limit on grade angle. Not real long hills, just a few hundred feet, but you know you're climbing a hill. She'd drop any where from 8 to 10 mph before, now she just runs right up them. Amazing what a free flowing exhaust can do..

Pulled the entire strut assemblies w/axles of it for use on the '85. Put the stuff off the '85 back on this one. In my haste to get things done, I apparently forgot to put in the pinch bolt for the DS ball-joint. Went to move it to get the '85 out of the garage, and felt a sharp jerk of the steering wheel and the frontend dropped a bit. Got out to look and the DS tire is not where it should be. Going to be fun getting that back where it belongs later. Did have enough room to "squeeze" the '85 past her to get it out of the garage.