Hi there, I just acquired an '81 Brat GL from Colorado. It was not running when I picked it up (no spark), but I have since gotten it to go. Idle sounds ok; unfortunately, the going is very slow. I mean VERY slow. Second gear up a gentle slope is a no-go. I also get some serious backfire (afterfire?) going up hill. I'm at 6100 ft, and I thought that if it came from CO, it would be tuned for high-altitude, but maybe this is not the case. What do you think, are these symptoms of running extremely rich? If so, how do I compensate on my hitachi?

 

Thanks,

 

Lachlan

Ive never driven a stock EA81... Only an EA71 with a Hitachi carb... When I swapped to an EA81 and put a Weber 32/36 DGEV on it... I was shocked at how much get up and go it had.. I think youll mostly find that getting a Weber will be your best bet as tuning those Hitachis is a lot of work for little results.

Thanks. I've been reading up on webers and considering getting one, but I didn't want to get one if there's another problem entirely.

Itd be a great decision, Ive loved both my scoobs with Webers on them

 

but I agree in finding a problem before upgrading

Does this one have the fuel filter underneath back by the tank? Mine was plugged and doing something quite similar years ago.

Does this one have the fuel filter underneath back by the tank? Mine was plugged and doing something quite similar years ago.

 

It's got the pump back there. I'm thinking the filter is too.

+1 on the rear filter. well, both filters. although i think the one in the engine compartment is more of a separator than a filter. but they are cheap.

 

I would do both filters and a full tune-up before dropping the money on a webber. (however if everything else is a-ok a webber is money well spent)

You should check all vaccume lines having any leak will definetly cause issues. And the webber is a nice upgrade did it to my 80 wagon running an 86 ea81 motor I liked not hving the numorous vac lines that the hitachi had. You probably can get one off the forum here but most likley you will have to rejet it for your alltitude. I had vac leaks mess with me before and it was very annoying. Im sure you will get her purring before to long!

I believe I have a feedback carb, so there are about 5,000 vacuum lines. Admittedly when I got her, the lines were not all connected, and some connections were blocked off, but I've been trying to get everything connected up as best I can. Unfortunately there's only so much I can definitely do with the Haynes manual; the rest is just guessing.

Update: I can go up hills! Thanks, Weber!

Update: I can go up hills! Thanks, Weber!

 

Glad you like it