Looking good man!

Did a very little bit of work on the engine tonight, mostly replacing vacuum hoses and properly capping off nozzles that had previously been covered with electrical tape, which doesn't seal especially well in the heat of the engine bay.

 

 

Also tried and failed yet again to replace the distributor cap... I've bought five now, none of which have been correct. Details in this thread.

 

I checked fuses for the first time tonight, and all of them by the driver's knee seem to be intact. But... is there another fuse box somewhere in the car? I seem to remember reading that there is a fuse specifically for the choke, but I didn't see anything labeled as such in that box.

 

After replacing the vacuum pieces I decided I'd try to start it up and see if it ran any better, and it wouldn't start at all tonight. But I think that's material for a separate thread.

On my dad's 78 brat it has a manual choke on the dash board not sure if yours has that. Pics of the dash and carb might help.

I don't have a picture of the carb taken with that in mind and it's too dark now for a fresh one, but here's a shot from above. It's definitely the electronic choke:

 

This morning I decided that my time and mental energy was worth more than my money, and ordered a new Weber carb and adapter plate. I don't know enough about carbs to feel confident that I can diagnose and tune the Hitachi properly. I'm going to start fresh with something new and simpler, and put my attention to other parts. 

A shiny new Weber is a beautiful thing.

 

 

Not quite done yet, because I ran out of time before finishing all the vacuum and throttle connections, but it looks pretty damn good in there!

Finally finished all the connections to the Weber and did an extremely basic adjustment on the new carb today, and it starts instantly and idles (mostly) smoothly and I drove around the neighborhood a bit. Generally feeling very good... still definitely needs a good detailed tuning and I still need to check all the other basics of timing and such, but I feel fairly confident that it's just tuning from here on out.

 

Side note: 

 

 

Huh, here's an odd question. I was browsing through old threads and came across this: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/103301-1979-4x4-crossmember-brushguard-hardware-please-help/

 

 

If these are critical to the safety of the car I want to make sure I know what I'm dealing with before moving it without them, or replacing them with lesser hardware.

 

I discovered the easy way (i.e. while testing in the driveway rather than driving at speed) that I had in fact removed the bolts that held the crossmember in when I took the brushguard off. I tried starting the car to test the new carb tuning and there was a LOT of nasty shaking and rattling. Killed it immediately to see what was going on and realized my mistake quickly. Replaced the bolt and it's nice and smooth now.

 

Edited August 4, 201510 yr by jnorion

Added some minor engine bay upgrades this weekend. When I got the car it had a basically brand-new battery, but the terminals were in pretty terrible shape and it had no tie-down or insulation on the positive terminal. Replaced both terminals, added a rubber cover and a tie-down (I had to do some custom fab on the outer post for that, because a standard aftermarket one was about twice the proper length).

 

 

That should eliminate the danger of things flopping around and shorting to the hood.

 

I also discovered a couple of weeks ago that there was no coolant overflow tank—apparently the weren't built with these in 1978? In any case, it had only the vent hose coming off the radiator cap, and when I was idling it for a while and messing with the carb it decided to spill a bunch of antifreeze onto the street. Not cool. So I added an overflow tank. I ended up cannibalizing the space where the jack normally mounts, because I figured I can come up with a dozen other places to put that, while the tank needs to be close to the radiator.

 

 

 

And then, after all that, I discovered that something's now wrong again and the engine's not starting correctly. Granted I never did finish properly tuning the carb (really I barely started before I ran out of time), but it's pretty frustrating that last time I worked on it, barely two weeks ago, it was starting instantly and idling consistently, even if it was too rich and too fast. I don't like backsliding. Haven't had a chance to actually dig in and figure out why it's not working.

New voltage regulator and now she starts and idles again.

 

 

Finally finished all the connections to the Weber and did an extremely basic adjustment on the new carb today, and it starts instantly and idles (mostly) smoothly and I drove around the neighborhood a bit. Generally feeling very good... still definitely needs a good detailed tuning and I still need to check all the other basics of timing and such, but I feel fairly confident that it's just tuning from here on out.

 

Side note: 

 

 

I discovered the easy way (i.e. while testing in the driveway rather than driving at speed) that I had in fact removed the bolts that held the crossmember in when I took the brushguard off. I tried starting the car to test the new carb tuning and there was a LOT of nasty shaking and rattling. Killed it immediately to see what was going on and realized my mistake quickly. Replaced the bolt and it's nice and smooth now.

 

I'm considering doing the Hitachi to Weber switch.  Do you know where I can get a tutorial on it?

I'm considering doing the Hitachi to Weber switch.  Do you know where I can get a tutorial on it?

 

No specific tutorials that I know of. Lots of threads on here with information on how to do it, though, and Weber provide installation instructions with the carb anyway (also can find those online in a PDF).

A few developments in the last week or so. First, I finally got around to digging into the interior to clean it. The carpet in the cargo area is actually in really good shape, but the rest of it is absolutely trashed. Unfortunately, as part of the cleaning I pulled the back seat out, and managed to shear off the heads of all four bolts in the process:

 

 

I have to assume that it's something I did wrong since ALL of them broke, but it was weird because all of them turned freely for 5 or 6 turns and then just snapped off suddenly. Not sure what went wrong. I don't need the back seat anytime soon, so it's not critical, but I'm going to have to drill those out at some point. In the meantime I'm planning to set it up as a camping vehicle anyway.

 

 

 

Then I started to clean up the outside a bit. There are a number of rusty patches, and I wanted to at least cover those up with some paint to slow their growth. So I sanded them down and sprayed over with Rustoleum. They are by no means pretty now, but look a little less messy. The car no longer looks like it's been sitting in a field for a decade:

 

 

 

 

After the paint dried it looked closer to the original than that. 

 

Next, I decided to swap out spark plugs. The plugs were changed right before I bought the car, so they had maybe 20 miles total on them. However, that 20 miles included replacing the carb and a couple of attempts to tune it. Turns out that the plugs foul VERY quickly in those conditions. All four were entirely black and gummed up. After swapping the fresh ones in, the car started right up, blew a big cloud of black smoke out the back, and then idled smoothly, and when I turned the key off it just shut down immediately without dieseling. I noticed during this test that I'm going to need to adjust the choke, because I still needed to give it a little gas for the first minute or two before it warmed up.

 

Finally, I bought a new distributor from turbosubarubrat which has the correct housing for the year, which means I can finally replace the distributor cap. I also got a new set of points while I was at it, and am currently in the process of cleaning and rebuilding it on the bench. 

 

 

We are living parallel lives. I unbolted the back seat on Saturday and has the exact thing happen to my bolts. I was able to get one out successfully but the rest I will have to drill out.

Bolt holes go through to the underneath/outside which means the bolts rust. The first few turns are fine until the rust binds up and... You know the rest.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/how-to/a5754/how-to-free-a-rusted-bolt/

 

(but it was weird because all of them turned freely for 5 or 6 turns and then just snapped off suddenly.)   Yes this happens when the rusty threads connect w/ the bolt or fitting.   Soak everything for a good 24-48 hours before removing, and work the bolts in and out slowly.  If you can reach the exposed rusty threads with a cutting wheel, just cut them off before attempting bolt removal.

 

Good luck with your project,

Bolt holes go through to the underneath/outside which means the bolts rust. The first few turns are fine until the rust binds up and... You know the rest.

 

Ah, that makes more sense. I didn't realize they were exposed to the elements on the back side. I'll have a look under the car later, but I doubt there's going to be easy access with a cutting wheel. I think the fuel tank is underneath there. 

 

Luckily it's not a critical issue for me, because I plan to build it as a camping vehicle with only two seats anyway, but at some point I'll want to drill those out. 

Plasti-dip is a wonderful thing.

 

Great write up! Keep posting! I so want one of these in the 77-79 range. There is a 78? 79? wagon at the local You Pull Yard here in Albuquerque. I'm going to see if I can get there tomorrow, if not then next week for sure. I'm thinking of cannibalizing it... I'll let you know, and take pics of it's condition-things don't rust too much here in the Southwest...

Still having a lot of troubles getting it to start, and as part of testing discovered there's no spark from the coil (as far as I can tell, anyway), so I replaced the coil today. Asking questions in a separate thread (here) if anyone has ideas on how to test what's wrong.