TomRhere

The plug you're trying to remove on the PS is the wrong one. You want the 14mm hex head plug under the head, same spot on the head as the DS, but on the front. I believe your turbo coolant line is in that drain hole now. Non-turbo engine, it would just be a plug there. edit; ps. A Gates 28466 hose will work for the 90* one off the waterpump to heater line. You just need to trim it to fit.

Definetly nice!!!!!! Makes my '85 look like,, Poo........

One known issue with the EA-81 vehicles is the connector for the ignition switch. The main battery feed wire can burn the terminal ends in the connector. Pull the trim panel under the steering column, look for a Pink colored connector on the wires coming from the steering column, (6 place connector with 5 wires on each side). Look closly at the White wire, (main battery feed), and where it is in the connector. If it's faulty or atleast going bad, the connector will be discolored. One other problem I've had myself. Corroded terminal(s) under the fusable link box. You'll have to unbolt the box to see the bottom of it. Also, check you battery terminals and the cables, check both ends of the cables.

MilesFox has done this. Do believe he said you cut the formed piece out from the inner area of the X-member, then reweld it to the outside on the rear of the x-member.

When installing the intake pipe to the waterpump, coat the o-ring and the bore of the housing with pure anti-freeze. It'll act as a lubricant and help to keep the o-ring in place.

Thanks for the info. Was thinking I had read that only a couple years had them, guess the grey matter is failing a bit.

One possible cause on this one is, the PS caliper decided to hangup on me a couple months ago. Probally degraded the grease a bit, and cooked the seals allowing junk to get in there.

I've read on here that certain years of the EA-82's had self adjusting rear brakes. Question is, what year(s) and model(s) had them? Would really like to go with discs on the rears, but they're hard to come by, so something better than the ones under the rear of the '86 BRAT would be nice. Had to argue with the adjusters again today. Felt the rears needed some tweakage while I had it up on the hoist doing the front bearings. Be damned if they weren't siezed up again, and it hasn't been that long ago I had them all nice and pretty. Anti-siezed and what have you. So it's "time" for something better. I swapped the Wife's '85 BRAT to rear discs, I'm really liking that upgrade. I can settle for self adjusters for mine though.

Yeah, it's just a service reminder light. Once you switch the connectors, it'll be another 60K miles before it comes on again. edit; Oh, when you switch connectors, leave them that way until the next time the light comes on, then switch them again.

Got the DS done today. In my haste lastnight, hunting for another knuckle, seems I grabbed a PS one. D'OH!!! Anyways, I removed the knuckle from the BRAT and argued the bolt out. Swapped bearings and seals, installed good ball-joint. We be good to go now........... Edit; Just for kicks and giggles, I cleaned all the old bearings. The ones from the PS were both bad. One was loose, the other had bad spots in it when I rolled it around. DS ones felt okay, but who knows how many miles are on them........

I understand your feelings about the mice and what they left behind. But all of that can be cleaned up. However, getting a decent car for $100 is a good deal, even if you have to swap motors. As for the smoker smell part of it, use Murphy's Oil Soap to clean the interior. Works great.... I bought a Dodge fullsize truck, the PO's were chain smokers, I smoke myself, but still... The cab of the truck was nasty with residue. Had to change the bucket of water/MOS a few times but it cleaned all the residue nicely. Can do cloth with it too, but use a damp rag. Don't want to soak the cloth, just clean it. May have to do a cleaning, let it dry, then repeat to get it all.

Briefly owned an '84 BRAT Gl. Auto, no rear seats (ever), no fun roofs.

And probally for less than that $1200.00 you stated ealier too. Ifin it were me,,,, ain't no-way,,, I'd get into a car loan right now with the knoweledge that a lay-off was looming in my future. I'd be fixing the one I have before getting a newer one.

Went out to Jerry's place today to do work. He has a 4 car "heated" garage, with lift..... With some argument, I got the PS done. Mostly was rusty bolts, but things wanted to be stubborn. Went to the DS. Dammitttt!!!!!!!!!! Had to argue with the hub bolts, then the E-brake cable. THEN,,,,,,,,, The Pinchbolt for the balljoint rounded off. AaaaaaaUuuuuuuuuGH!!!!! Okay, I can work around this. NOT!!!! Seems the ball-joint is also bad. So so much for doing the DS bearings. Put stuff removed back where it belongs and drove home. Hunting through "parts stash" I found another knuckle assembly, good tie-rod end. Best of all,,, I was able to remove a "new at that time" ball-joint I had installed in the '82 BRAT, "without" damaging the boot... Be heading back out to Jerry's in the AM..

As much as I dislike Fords,,,, I think I'd rather be driving one now rather than drive the '85 BRAT and be getting salt spray all over it. It's in to nice of body condition for that...... I won't be working on it until Saturday, just don't have the time after I get home from work during the week. Bossman won't like it, but I'm taking Saturday off, just to have an extra day to get things done. There's a few other items I need to work on while I have it in the garage. Yeah, BRATs are a rarity around these parts. Besides the 3 I own, I know of only 3 others here in the lower part of Michigan. Haven't seen them myself, but have spoke with 2 of the owners via the web. The owners have been on this site in the past. Was told about the 3rd one by a co-worker. Out of the 5 BRATs I've owned, only 1 was from here originally. The others all came from out-state. I bought the '85 up in the Traverse Bay area, but it's out of the Arizona/Nevada area originally according to papers I found in it.

Seals arrived yesterday, (along with new accelerator cable). So work can begin now.

PM me your email addy and I can send you info on how I did mine.

Timken 207's from rockauto.com

Wheel bearings arrived yesterday. Ordered all 4. Seals won't be here until Tuesday though. I hates snail mail..........

Yesterday was the 1st time the BRAT has been driven in snow, since I bought it 2 years ago. Really don't want it covered in road salt is main reason for not driving it during the Winter. Anyways, she did pretty good on the 3" of greasy white stuff. Different tire tread would've helped, but she did good. I did need to put it in 4WD though, as she'd spin the fronts going up hills. Caught up to a slower vehicle and thought of passing it, but deciced to wait until the next passing area to do so. Good thing I did, about a 1/2 mile down the road, about 15 Deer ran accross the road in front of the car ahead of me. He almost didn't stop in time, don't think I would've been able to either if I had passed him. That,,,, wouldn't have been pretty.... Had a wee bit of fun in the lower parking area when I got to work. http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c264/TomRhere/85%20BRAT/Homenow.jpg (pic of when I bought it)

As for your question on what manifold to use; EA-81 Hatachi carb one is a direct swap. An EA-82 Hatachi carb intake can be swapped on with a bit of work. I'm running one of those on my '86 BRAT

Grabbed old disty, (worn bushings, be parts stash in garage, "was" in the '86), before leaving for work this AM. This disty had worn bushings in it, but engine ran. At lunch break, I pull disty from '85 and proceed to swap parts. Ran out of time to complete the job. Take a point and punch-out early, (HA,, punch out at 2:45PM and still had 9 hours on the clock, but I left "EARLY"), finish job of redoing disty. Get things all in order, try starting it, and she runs....... No issues on the 32 mile trip home.... Seems the magnet in there under the bracket that surrounds the trigger on the shaft had broken. Many, many pieces of it in there. Swapped all "believed good" parts from the worn disty into the '85's housing and she seems to be doing great. Actually,, feels peppier now, compared to how it was before this issue. Time will tell......... I'll be posting up soon for a disty or 2 in the Parts Wanted forum.

Thanks for the info... I'll check things out at lunch today.

Been driving the '85 since the '86 lost a wheel bearing. Been running good for the most part, (hasn't been driven in awhile). I'm nearing the end of the 2nd tank of gas since I started driving it everyday for work. Totally stock as far as things go under the hood. Fresh plugs, wires, cap & rotor, filters all around, what have you. Today, leaving from work, it dies...... Just like I turned the key off. Had went out and started it before the "go home" buzzer sounded to let it warm up some, ran some 5 minutes. Take off out of the parking lot, shift to 2nd, and it dies. Tried re-starting it,,, no go. Wait a couple minutes, still no go. Cranks over just fine, acts like no spark. Call oldest Son for rescue ride home. Few minutes later, co-worker stops to see what's up. He tows me back into parking lot of shop, just to get me off the road. BRAT wouldn't roll down the hill in the lot after un-hooking, so I tried the "in gear-starter cranking" trick to get it rolling. It started!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But died about 5 seconds later, just like you turned it "off"... No spit, no sputter, just died............. Like you shut it off. Didn't do much troubleshooting. Cold, windy, rainy, and I'm POed for the most part. I'll look into at lunch break tomorrow, but if anyone has some pointers, I'm listening.............

The rubber gasket is Throttlebody-intake gasket.