I drove my 86 Brat today for the first time in the rain, not a hard rain just very humid, cold and damp.

It ran fine but just seemed to have no stones or get up and go, at one point I was on the breezway and got up to 55, but then it took about 5 miles to hit 65. It never hesitated or missed, NOTHING seemed to be wrong other than it had no stones.

Normally it runs fine, infact normally its allot faster than I thought it would be when I first got it. The engine compartment was completly dry and I didnt go through any puddles.

 

So is there a bug with these on wet days?

I always had issues with mine in the rain if it was misty or I was in traffic. The distributor is on the front of the motor just off center. That makes it very prone to get moisture into it. If that happens it will misfire and run like crap. There is supposed to be a little plastic sheild in front of the distributor that helps keep moisture off of it. If that's not there it will be worse than normal so you may want to find a u-pull-it junk yard and search one out. Also, you may want to take off the distributor cap and clean it out really good, and then re-install it with a little bit of silicon grease on the bottom to help keep mousture out. Also, using silicon grease on all the connections is a good idea.

 

Keith

Mine is just the opposite. It runs like a raped ape in cool, damp weather. It's rainy and 35 degrees here and my Brat is running like a cat with turpentine on its butt.

It's like natures cold air intake hear in Seattle last couple of days......cold temps with realativity dry air (for here in January at least).

 

It's funny how sometimes your car is running so good and sometimes sluggish, all depending on the weather.....

If it is missing the carb "pre-heater" hose it could be suffering from carb icing. I had a VW bug that always suffered from carb icing anytime it was wet and cold. It was pretty easy to tell on the bug because of the way the intake is set up. All I had to do was look at the intake manifold and see the frost just below the carb.

Condensation in the distributor cap... or a weak coil.

 

For some reason, rain or humidity seems to bring out the crap in weak coils. Ive had a couple coils puke, and they've all happend after a heavy rainfall.

 

-Brian