TomRhere

The rear drums will rust from setting, just like the front rotors. If the rears are in need of adjustment, it may be the hissing you hear. Brake shoes are lightly contacting the drum, rubbing against the rust, making the noise.

Swapped the PS knuckle out again with one that I "pressed" some new bearings in. Installed another new outer tie-rod end, as I didn't want to attempt removing the one that was on the "old" knuckle. Seems for the most part the oscillations of the steering wheel have gone away. It's still there on some roads, but it's not always present. Seems to make a difference as to where I have the BRAT in the lane, centered, close to the center line, close to the edge of the road. I did have the tire/wheels rebalanced, and the tire guru said he saw nothing wrong with tires or rims. I have an appointment to have the front alignment checked. I did do a quick run up to 65 for a bit. Didn't shake the crap out of the steering wheel like it did before.

Can't help with the fake step piece.. But the trim panel on the side of the B pillar has 2 screws on the outside, and one screw from the inside. It's roughly half way between the 2 outside screws, and on the rib that's between the 2 open slots in the trim. You have to pull the interior trim piece to access that one. I belive there was a hole thru the interior sheet metal to get to that one, but it has been awhile... edit; I can get a pic of the backside of that trim piece in a little while. I honestly can't say for sure how I removed them from the BRAT I parted out about 5 years ago, just don't recall the method used. edit for pics; http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/album.php?albumid=147

If the rotor is a used one, it'll have a ridge on the outer edge. Pads will hang on that area, and could cause a bind elsewhere. If the rotor is new, and you're getting a bind, I'm not sure without going out to the garage and looking at things. Just can't get a mental picture going at the moment.

A drive down a dusty dirt road would be in order then. It would help locate the leak atleast.

I know for sure that if I were to make a BRAT permanently 2WD, it would be FWD for sure. 6 + inches of wet white stuff on a hilly curvy road running with RWD only on a BRAT ups the pucker factor greatly. Just not enough weight on the rear tires vs the front tires. Back end tends to step out alot. BTDT, weren't fun.... And I've owned many a 2WD truck during the winter months. A RWD BRAT doesn't even come close to driving like they did. Not sure if I would swap the rear trailing arms out. But I would definetly loose the axles, rear diff, mustache bar, driveshaft.

Didn't all of the EA-81 bumpers wrap around the front fenders, where as the EA-82 bumpers didn't?

I copied this pic from another post.. On the Hitachi disty, you can see the "C" shaped piece that's held in with 2 screws. There's a magnet under there. I had that magnet shatter for some reason, and it killed the BRAT, no spark.

Fairlane, Torino, Cyclone, Montego were all the same basic body during that time. Info gleened from doing a google search.... Cougar, Mustang shared the same basic body. I know that from helping a friend restore his '68 Cougar XR7. Nice ride....

The Mustang shared parts with the Mercury Cougar. Been a while,,, but I think you could use the Ford Galaxy line of parts. I'm thinking they were the same basic body style. These guys could answer your question, or so I think. http://www.10w30.com/autorepair/index.php

Thanks for that insight GD. My knowledge of R&P steering issues is limited, and was mostly from just swapping leaky power assisted ones out for the owner(s) of those vehicles. The rack in it now has new inner/outer tie-rods on both sides. Mount bushings are in great shape, as is the rag joint. I have rotated the tires around, but have not been able to get to the tire shop for rebalance yet. Work schedule is culprit there, but they just put me back to an 8 hour day as of yesterday, been working 9+, so maybe I can get there this week. Still, swapping the tires around hasn't changed anything. I don't know... Maybe I buggered a bearing when I swapped them out, I drifted them in via punch and hammer. I have another knuckle and more bearings/seals here. Thinking I'll take it all to work and use the press to install the bearings, then swap knuckle out. See what that gets me.

Did you swap engine temp sensors between the two engines? They're not compatable systems, different resistance parameters.

Well,,,,, maybe not after all. Or,,,,,,,,, I have 4 worn out EA-81 manual steering racks here. Rack in '82; has vertical movement on PS end of the rack/housing area. Ditto both '86 racks, Ditto rack in '85. Been digging around for info, haven't found anything to say good/bad/indifferent. Yet.

I edited the 1st post yesterday, telling of what I found wrong. Really don't know the cause/effect relation here, but with the bad tires, bent rims that was on it before the new tires/rims, then the bad wheel bearing and worn ball-joint, having a worn inner tie-rod, bolt shearing off on the rag-joint connection (changed rack then). It seems I had been fixing possible causes for the vibration, but didn't know that both of the steering racks were worn out. Looks like the one under the '82 is in good shape, so I'll be dropping that one out tonight and swapping it into the '86.

Yeah, those are stock 17" rims. Has Firestone tires on them, but I can't tell you exactly what ones right now. Test drove a couple of them in the last week or so, all autos, and she really liked this one. So, I called our neighbor Jeff at the dealership he works for and told him to make it ours. 3 hours later it was sitting in the driveway. Been looking for something to replace the '93 Sunbird. Looked at a lot of different SUV type vehicles, mini vans, and the BAJAs. We both decided to get a HHR, but I was leaning towards a Red or Blue colored one, she liked the color of this one.

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/album.php?albumid=144&pictureid=1258 Picked this up for the wife yesterday

Dayum.... That sucks. Hot oil sprayed onto a hot turbo probally what started it. Engine debris could've broke a fuel line also.

Haven't had the time to work on it any this week, but plan to over the weekend. I still have a few extra parts here that I can swap out, and do some more checking of things suggested here. Axles have been swapped a couple times here in the last 3 months or so. Been driving the '85 BRAT this week. It's in need of some serious wrenching itself.... :-\

Make sure that you are not over filling the radiator. There needs to be an air pocket for expansion of the coolant. To full with coolant, and it will dump it out as the coolant gets heated. Also, that air pocket is needed for the pressurization of the system. System pressure is key to raising the boiling point of the coolant. Low or no pressure and she'll run hot, boiling over into the recovery tank. Run the engine with the radiator cap off, see if it wants to push the coolant out as it heats up. Also check for bubbles in the return tank of the radiator as it runs. Those are 2 signs of a blown headgasket.

I like it.. Have had the thought of getting one made myself.

(quote) i was reading arround and i found a few cases about an oil line going to the heads and something about a spring on the other side, is that those banjo fittings on the underside of the heads? No. The banjo fittings you mention there are for the turbo. The oil line and spring/ball check are in the cam cases under the cover. The cam case o-ring GD mentioned (pictured) is between the cam case and the head. You can't "see it" without pulling the cam case off the head. GD is correct on the amount of "crush" to properly seal an o-ring. To little, and it won't hold a seal for long. To much, and you'll over-crush it, instant failure of o-ring. I have 30 years experience working with hydraulics. I know these things.

I'll order me some strut rod bushings. I can get the tires rebalanced with no problem.

Ok, by vibration in, or shaking of, the steering wheel,, I guess oscilation would better describe it. Actually acts like a broken belt in one of the front tires, but tires are good, and I've had each one of them on different corners. Again, no help. No oscilation below say 45 nor up to roughly 53. 55 and faster, steering wheel oscilates. Driving straight, it moves maybe 1/4" back-n-forth. Get into a curve, or get up over 55, and it will increase to an inch or better of motion. If there is noise from one of the front corners, I can't hear it over the noise from the whole vehicle shaking, it's that bad.... Tranny mounts are new as of last October, and are still intact. Motor mounts have some give to them, but aren't broken. I can lay under the BRAT, push up on the motor on either side and lift the BRAT. Just so you all know, I can still benchpress a Chevy Turbo 400 tranny up into place, and recently did the same with a Ford C6 tranny. Those be a couple damned heavy transmitions. I have good arm strength, believe you me... The trans shifter does bounce around some when this happens. But, just putting my hand on it stops it from moving. No force applied in any direction, just holding it. Nothing really felt thru it either.. Can't really see a bad u-joint on the driveshaft, or a bad joint in one of the rear axles causing the oscilation in the steering wheel, but I'll check those. Really can't see it being a warpped rotor either, as I feel no pulsation in the brake pedal at all during stops. And I've had to do a few "panic" stops due to idiot drivers and 4-legged animals. I recently installed new loaded calipers and no indication of one hanging up. BRAT rolls easily, last documented tank of gas gave me 316 miles driven, 11 gallons to top of tank, roughly 28.7 mph. So I don't think it's brake related. I will borrow a dial indicator from work and check things out though. I had thoughts of bad shock or strut causing this. But I can bounce any corner of the BRAT with my 230+#'s and she recovers in excelent time, like 1-1/2 moves. Seems good to me. She sits level from the side to side aspect, has the tailup stance of the BRATs, but she sits squarely. It's definetly got me puzzled. Maybe I'm looking to hard and can't see the forest thru the trees. Don't know..... That's why I'm asking for ideas here. There's gotta be something I'm overlooking.

EDIT: 06-07 Seems I swapped a worn rack in when I swapped racks a few weeks ago. This one has up/down play in it on the PS end. Pulled the old one off the shelf, and sure enough, it has about the same amount of play. I feel like big dummy now for not really checking things out further when I swapped the racks. But when yo're in a rush to get it going again. STUFF OCCURS!!!! Now, I get to find me another rack.. Be a bit though, money tight for a bit right now. Since last November, I've had a vibration in the steering wheel of the '86 BRAT. It started out softly, but got more violent before I got the chance to actually work on it mid December. List of things done in hopes of fixing it are; New tires mounted on H-style rims. Lessened the vibration, but it was still there. Re-torque of axle nuts and wheel lugs didn't improve it any. In January, it started to make noise during righthand curves. AHA, bad wheel bearing(s). New bearings on both sides, no help with vibration, but noise during righthanders is gone. Noticed worn ball-joint during bearing job. New ball-joints both sides. No help. Had the rag joint on the steering rack go bad. Replaced rack along with new inner/outer tie-rods. Bushings for the rack are in good shape. No help. Had it up on the hoist at a friends garage, inspecting everything under the front. Found no slop in control arm bushings, nor in the strut rod bushings. In the past few weeks, the vibration has gotten way worse. I can't drive faster than 55 on any road. And now, it really shakes the steering wheel going thru lefthand curves. No noise, just severe shaking of the steering wheel. I've flipped the tires front to rear, side to side. No help. Swapped the knuckles out including fresh bearings/seals. No help. Swapped axles out with known good ones. No help. What am I not seeing here? I've done everything I can think of and I'm not gaining anything.

I'm with GD on the price...... $1,000 tops, due to the issues you posted. A cracked windshield needs to be replaced, regardless of size of crack. Sporatic power windows could be electrical, could be mechanical. Rust is rust. It involves time/money to repair it. Then you have the unknown noise in the back......