TomRhere

Well, taking the so called "lift" out really made the axles complain during the short drive I took yesterday morning. Axles were clicking some before, they "really clicked" yesterday. Not good. So I proceeded to swap the axles and strut assemblies over from the '86. Did it as a complete assembly too. Popped the ball-joint out of the knuckle, un-screwed the tie-rod ends off the inners, pulled the pin for the axles, removed E-brake cable, and brake hose at the body side connection. Had to have Christopher help me get them into the '85. Kinda difficult to hold all that up where it belongs and get the washers/nuts started on the strut tops by ones self. He then got a good leg workout helping bleed the brakes. Took her out for another drive, much better. Has a pull towards the center on some roads, goes straight on others. Best part is no shimmy, shaking, ossilating or what have you from the frontend, nice and smooth. Even had her up to 78 MPH for a short bit. Replacing the exhaust has sure made a difference on how this engine runs. Was thinking before that the Hitachi carb was going south on me, but I don't think so now. She runs much better, with good throttle response. Did notice that whoever did the "lift", also spun the strut tops around 180*. Probally cause the "lift" made it sit more level like the Hatch and Sedan bodied Subbies. Don't know.. Struts that were in it are not the original OEM style, built slightly different especially in the height adjustment area. I'll keep them around here for spares. We'll see how she does on the trip into work this morning. Got tools to play with toe setting if need be. And a screwdriver to adjust the headlights, as I know they're going to be off a bit. Sure am feeling the 3 days of wrenching this morning. Must be getting old.

Sadly, there is just to much rust damage all over this one. She's suffered a couple accidents in the past also, got a few deep dents in the body. Worst one is right behind the drivers door. I had to space out the catch in order to have the door latch when I 1st brought her home. http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c264/TomRhere/White%2086%20BRAT/JimsSubaru-Side-Dooropen.jpg I still have the '85 and '82. And even though I would love to own a few more, Wife has put a whopping "NO" on me getting any more BRATs. There's a lot of usable parts on her though, so she will donate to the continuation of the other two.

Always good to see other BRATs on here.

Real good job on restoring that BRAT!!!!! Got an '82 here you can start on as soon as you finish yours.

Got the broken exhaust stud out by rapping on the ASV adapter to loosen the rust. Then getting a good bite on it with a small pipe wrench. So now the exhaust has all been replaced. Looked at the rear brakes. Thinking the noise is just the pads rubbing on the discs. Can't feel any play in the bearings so I think they're ok. Still need to set the toe on the front and straighten up the steeringwheel. May opt to swap the sound system over today, we'll see. I'm liking the way it sits now more than the way it was. I need to get a pic taken of it now so I can post a before/after look.

Went to jack the '86 BRAT up today to rotate tires around. Heard a bad crunching sound from the rear, and the PS tire was sitting on the ground again. The whole PS attachment for the rear diff tore out. Both the torque tube mount and the mustache bar areas. She's a goner. All the new I've put in this will go to either the '85 or the '82 BRATs.

Had the day off work as Holiday for the 4th, so I decided to spend some quailty time with the '85 BRAT. Started out to install the new inner/outer tie-rod ends, so I had to drop the Y-pipe. Of course, one bolt decided it wanted to break off. It's still broke, letting it soak in a mixture of BP Blaster and Seafoam Deep Creep. Anyways, dropped the rack and changed the ends out, and decided to remove the home-made front only 2" lift installed by a PO. No strut lift blocks, just engine and trans x-member blocks. Front tires were starting to show extreme wear on the outter edges. Hahahaha, talk about totally redneck ghetto DIY stuff. Engine x-member blocks were made by stacking hockey pucks together. The trans x-member blocks were short lengths of pipe with washers welded to them. Installed a new rag-joint along with the correct length steering shaft and coupler joint. Steering wheel was of by 1/4 turn, but I'll wait on correcting that until I get the toe set correctly. Got more to do tomorrow. Swapping the tires from the '86 onto this one. Swap the exhaust over due to bad Y-pipe (rustout). See what is the cause of the noise from the rear, thinking bearing, but not sure. Could be something with the rear discs as the noise started after the swap. Few other odds n ends.

New belt length will be much longer than 4", even without adding the new idler pulley. Best way to measure for new belt length is to take an old belt, cut it, wrap it around all pulleys, measure the gap between ends, then add 1". Make sure your tension adjustment is fully slackened when measuring. Adding the extra 1" is to allow for getting belt over pulleys, you may have to add more though. Depends on depth of pulley groove(s).

GD beat me to it. But I had you doing things you didn't need to apparently. Hence the edit...

I remember reading those threads. Seems the consensis of the Board was, lots of penetrant, lots of heat, lots of wailing on it with BFH of choice. Remember someone saying that they used RTV or simular to plug one of the roll pin holes, spun axle to get open side up, then filled the hole with penetrant and let it soak in. Don't recall outcome of it though. I get to do this myself soon. The '85 BRAT has bad wheelbearing on one side, bad axle on other. YEA!!!!

That 'greasy yellow' wire makes me want to say "oil pressure unit", 'specially since you say it comes from the PS of the engine.

Vac lines in pic #5. One of those lines is for the heater controls to move the various doors for the air flow. You need that. Hook up whichever line goes thru the firewall. If they both do, hook them up, you'll need them. The other line may be for cruise control operation, (if you have it).

I'd buy it for that price, but that's just me. T-belt can be fixed. Paint mismatch can be fixed. Door panel can be fixed, and may just need new clips as they do tend to break during removal. Most of the mechanicals are the same as any other EA-82 vehicle, there are a couple that are specific though. Besides, if it was around this area, I would get it for the simple reason I have everything needed to turn it into an XT6. But again,,, that's just me....

The air intake openings are under the cowl vent, where the wiper stuff is. One on each side of the vehicle.

You probally need to space the actuator plate out a bit, it's the piece the end of the cable attaches to. Just remove the nut, slide the plate off the shaft, slip a couple of washers on there, replace the plate.

On the fasteners for the trim pieces, Try the "HELP" racks at the parts stores, lots of goodies to be found there. And try a couple different stores as they all carry different items.

That, ^, and the factory oil pressure gauge isn't the most acurate. Hook up a good mechanic gauge and check pressure with it.

Kinda had the idea of doing that when I had the steeringwheel shaking issue. Have both EA-81 X-member and EA-82 P/S rack as extras lying around. Didn't dive into it to much, cause it looked like it would take some work on the PS end of the X-member to clear the hydraulic line on the EA-82 rack. But all I did was look at it, didn't "try" fitting anything. Was pressed for time in getting the BRAT back on the road..

http://www.economysuperstar.com/milesfox/subaru/service/timingbelt.htm

Generically speaking of automotive speakers, I've seen 4, 6, and 8 ohm ones. They may have opted for one ohm rating here lately,,, don't know. I'll have to dig out the 2 T-spares I have here, one each generation. Like I said, thinking my issue was the throttle cable itself. But I had problems with both a full-size and the T-spare before I swapped cables. Thanks for the measurements on the box.... Have to dig out the saw(s) now...

I'll check into that.... Yards around here went crazy years ago. You can't pull anything. If you want a piece of door trim, you have to buy the whole door, even if what you want is something that could be grabbed from a wrecked door. You get the "we can't sell the door if you pull that off it" crap. Can't really see anyone wanting to buy a T-boned door, but that's their way of business now. I used to buy up vehicles that were sitting, "dead", around the area. Drag them home, and either fix/sell or part-out. Was able to call or stop by a yard, grab what I wanted and head out the door. Stop back in a day or two and pay for the parts after I sold what I was working on. That,, ain't happening anymore..... Sorry for the hi-jack rant....

On the T-spare,, I thought they'd be the same size, don't really know.. Haven't looked. I had issue with my T-spare in the '86 BRAT running a Weber, the carb is spun 180*. Thought it was just due to the cable being closer to the tire, but it could've been the old worn cable itself. If I tightened the spare down, the throttle would hang. Haven't tried since I replaced the throttle cable. I do have an EA-82 T-spare here though, Hmmmm..... On the new speakers,, Are they they same Ohm as the "old ones"? Makes a difference.. Did that in the XT6. Bought 2 different brand speakers, didn't notice, (pay attention to), the Ohm difference. The 180 Watt ones would totally drown out the 200 Watt ones. Seems the Ohm difference was the culprit. System works great in the BRAT, running 4 200 watt 6X9 Tri-axials now. Same brand, same Ohm. Other speakers mentioned where different brands, different Ohm. Liking the new box.. May have to try that one myself........

Good work!!!! Wish I had yards around here to do some "playing" in. They all went to the "We Pull It & Charge You More" type.

Same width as the stock steel rims.

Make sure there isn't any debris between the radiator and the condenser unit. I've seen that a few times, especially on vehicles that have sat for awhile.