I bought the car I shoulda bought awhile ago. an 87 hatchy with impressive history from a member whose history I also respect. 

 

It took two days in the rain to get it out of mothballs and drive home this last weekend. PO kept warning me about stuff I should know.....shoulda gave myself a little more time to get my poop in a group on this one. But, its gonna work. Or Ill be damned, this thing is nicer inside than it is dirty outside at the moment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On to the fun bits, and questions to be dealt with. 

 

Car sat 2 years after being purchased from origional owner and driven from tacoma to south of bonney lake......w the handbrake.

 

I show up, we do rear wheel cylinders. We have brakes now =). We get it running long enough to discover the t-stat is not only aftermarket...its stuck shut. fail safe my a$$. No problem....Sunday yields fuel filter swap and buttoning down of things tampered with during the little giant's slumber.

 

 

The big moment: I drive it home for the 30 minute drive and the bucking/crap out and die issue is subdued for the most part. plenty of power coming from a pretty shiny ea81. 

 

MK, so it ran great on last nights beer run and warm up this am. needless to say, it didnt get me to seattle. the wifes 86 gen3 stepped up. 

 

It idles all day, will rev to the moon....until its under an actual load.

 

So far we have replaced the carb top with an NOS kit. Swapped out the bottom for one that has the roll pin knocked out from my old brat (ran awesome when pulled). changed fuel filters (they still look great after the whole 30  miles on em or so). and about 30 bucks in premium techron.

 

 

clogged pickup screen? varnish in fuel lines? rusty shaz from ethanol? these are all things ive read about today when not listening to an awesome idle and rev go silent from driving. Eventually this thread wont be all boohoo and itll evolve into a full blown ride/"build" (not much to build) thread

 

RV

Sounds like fuel starvation so far, but you didn't really describe what it's doing.  Is it bucking and surging or bogging,etc?  I would suggest trying Gloyales oft repeated advice of popping the top off the carb, removing the emulsion tubes, blasting some compressed air down the passages, and clean the e-tubes themselves.  While you are at it, check your float level, and I would probably remove the idle mix screw and blast some compressed air through that part of the circuit too.  Pull the main jets as well to make sure they don't have barnacles, and check the base of the accelerator pump cylinder for gunk.

 

That said, if it were me, I would just rebuild the carb.

Thank you Ferox

 

total fuel starve. it is still buckin, surging, and dying even after installing an NOS genuine carb top kit. brand new accel pump included. isnt that a rebuild? (not if it wasnt thoroughly cleaned i guess). 

 

that said, i was at work at the time and i dont think my buddy blew out the e tubes. 

 

 

after two years of ethanol gas sitting in it whats the likelyhood im droppin gas tanks soon>

also, are all 4 speed trans mounts the same? or do they differ from single range to dual?

Sounds like distributor. Check for moisture in cap bad cap rotor and vacuums advance is working and it is in time

disty is good Brian. has new plugs wires cap and rotor.

Dump some seafoam in the gas. It might not solve your problem, but it'll be good for clearing up any varnish.

couple of questions since i was unable to do anything but move the hatch 180* today. 

 

Are all 4speed trans mounts the same? like dr vs sr?

 

And also: can you run an ea81 without carb base gaskets on either side of the phenolic spacer? the ones i had were for a ea82 so theres RTV on there at the moment. checks with ether reveal a good seal but for how long?

 RTV...for how long?

 

Not long.  Grab some gasket material at a parts store and cut your own gaskets.  The phenolic spacer makes a good stencil.

Ill try to make it out sunday to look at it and im bringing my timing light and vacum pump if u want

 

Still sounds like it could be vacuum advance or lack of vacum to said advance

 

Still, have the ea81 too

Edited February 19, 201412 yr by apintonut

sent you a pm 

checked both fuel filters by blowing through them. both are still looking great. no air leaks

Edited February 23, 201412 yr by Subruise

ill be gettin after it tonight. gonna try everything listed above and some other stuff i read and will have this puppy on the road within 36 hours of my posting this.

anybody interested in stopping by to point and laugh is more than welcome to do so. if ya dont know where im at, come with someone who does.

there was excessive debris restricting flow to the bowl. all is well now. runs better than ive heard it do yet. glad to have it on the road and happy. Tomorrow we go to longbeach.

Glad to hear you pretty much got it wrapped up!  Now onto the fun part... driving it

FAIL! crapped out again. was doin sooo good too. Ill assume the same crap happened but i dont have the will to continue tonight and a leaving for longbeach tomorrow,,,,,,updates soon

 

 

starter has also ceased to function beyond a click. cant find any good spares at home either, wierd

Edited February 23, 201412 yr by Subruise

358 miles since re-rebuilding carb yesterday morning. lost the ball bearing but salvaged one from a gen 3 wiper switch. had to change rear filter again 100 miles ago, robbed the starter from my loyale, which is still on blocks. Had a wonderful 5th anniversary with my wife before our second child arrives in april. 

posting error, still getting used to new format. Driving this thing is awesome...anybody got a gen2 butt pad, mines collapsed on the drivers side.

Edited February 25, 201412 yr by Subruise

the good side

 

Sweet!  She lives again!

Sweet!  She lives again!

yup, 392 miles since sunday morning. and another rear filter. got a speeding ticket yesterday too lol. (was trying to keep the old filter goin til i could find a dry spot).

mk, no more pics til later this week...so heres some text instead: envision the same car, only with 1900 more miles on it. Ive done another round of fuel filters after doing my best to shake all the crap out at the local offroad spot. No, im not beating on it, no im not gonna lift it. This car will have the life a good little soob needs. 

 

Next up will be getting a radio that works, the clarion (OEM?) am/fm mine came with doesnt always work. the front fenders will be replaced as I have some others that im looking forward to using. That means itll get a new coat of white paint after some bodywork that my body wizard dad assures me will be cake.

 

It was cool to see the glint in his eye as he started telling me about looking on clist at soobs recently. He doesnt get excited about cars much anymore but this one got him goin again, hes the one who started me on our flat engined friends.

The radiator finally gave me the old heave ho yesterday.  No overheat, I was close to home. I tried pinching the offending rad tube but it was too deteriorated at the tank. 

 

Solution: dual row ea82t radiator. "but those dont fit". im sure im not the first. I used a gates number 21029 and cut it down a little. swapped over the fan connectors, as the gen2 fan didnt fit, and the cts.

 

this was also a good excuse to delete the ac unit, so i did. 

 

 

word to the wise, while you might think its a good idea to put a ea82 water pump on your ea81 to utilize the pipe and therefore the ea82 rad.....dont. the snout is too long and doesnt work.....that cost me an extra 1.62 and some rtv to learn (testfit??).

 

 

yay, no more leaky radiator, i may take it down the street to a radiator shop (yes they still exist) and have it repaired. I shall post picks after use something other than bailing wire to hold it in.

 

cheers, RV

I have a new ea81 radiator

Edited March 27, 201412 yr by apintonut