TomRhere

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.

No, a Weber 32/36 won't turn your 4-banger into a 6-banger. But it will wake it up a bit. I'm running one on a stock solid lifter EA-81 in my '86 BRAT, carb is mounted on an EA-82 carb intake. Carb was originally bought and installed on an EA-82, jetted however they do for one of those. Stock Y-pipe dumping into an XT6 mid-pipe with no muffler. She runs down the road pretty good, and gets 28 MPG in warmer weather. Have hit 30-31 a couple times. I would imagine that if you swapped in a beefier cam, SPFI pistons, P&P the heads, maybe even mill them a tad. You could gain some decent power over stock.

Lost the PS front wheel bearing, not completely, but it's toast. Heard some noise Tuesday morning heading to work when I went around a long righthand curve. Thought it was just tire rubbing on the ice in the wheel well. Knocked it out at lunch. Yesterday, same curve, same noise, only some shaking of the steering wheel also. Same this morning, but trip home going opposite way thru curve I got noise and shaking of steering wheel. Rest of trip home, steering felt loose. So, once again the '86 BRAT is parked. I hate to do it, but I'll be driving the '85 until I manage repairs on the '86. Supposed to be some decent weather next few days, so I may manage to not get the '85 covered in road salt.....

Got the same treatment a couple years ago on a forum for the Wife's Sunbird. Flamed big time for owning BRATs. I don't sign-in anymore, but still use the data base there.

quote: Any best methods of flushing the heater core work better than others? end quote: Best method I've found for any heater core is; garden hose thru heater hoses, swap back and forth between the hoses a few times. Make sure any shut-off valves are open.... Along with using; NAPA's, MAC's Radiator Cleanser, it's some good stuff for boiling out "any" closed-loop water system(s). I've used it many times on vehicles and in "other" systems where crud can/will build up. Directions say to leave it in for 20 minutes, but I've ran it for a few days with no ill effects. It will foam if Anti-Freeze is present, but you can get around that by mixing it in a bucket of water, pour it into empty system, fill with straight Anti-Freeze, put cap on quickly, start and run engine, (pumps). I'm not saying it will cure all heater core clog issues, but it has worked 90% of the time I've used it. It won't "eat" the core, just the crud that is clogging it. May take some time in doing so, but it won't harm anything to leave it in there, as long as you take steps to insure it won't freeze if outside temps are in that range. One vehicle I can recall at the moment, I left it in there for 3 weeks before flushing system. Lot's o'crud came out of that one.

I remember; a posting of this BRAT being for sale on E-Bay, buyer posting of his purchase of said BRAT, buyer saying he "donated" it to the Regan Museum. Don't remeber; who it was, it being "that" long ago....... Not sure I go along with the "full restoration" of it either. It's no longer the BRAT he owned, just a "copy" of it. Yes,,, it may very well be "THE BRAT", BUT,,,,, it_is_not_the_same_one!!