I bought an '82 Brat a few months ago; pretty cheap (but I think I may have paid too much, but that's besides the point) but re-storable. I replaced the water pump, radiator, and one front axle for starters. When I put in a battery and tried to start it, it turned over okay but wouldn't fire. Easy solution, in amongst all the vacuum lines and junk the ignition wire from the coil and from #3 cylinder were missing! Went to PAP today and got a set of nice NGK wires for under $3 (gotta love that PAP) and installed them and turned over the key. It started right up!! This is a car that's been sitting for close to 5 years and other than badly needing an exhaust, looks like it could run down the road tomorrow! At least something went okay for me today.

Gotta love those "easy fixes".

 

Simular stuff occurred when I picked up my '82. No crank by key, Hmmm. Jump it at the solenoid, crank but no fire, HRmmmmm! Hot-wire to the coil, fired that muther up, drove it onto trailer. Get it home and start checking things out. Find the feed wire to the Fuseable Links was not making connection, was there, just not "on" the tab. Push it on, everything is as it should be.

Makes you wonder why these cars got "stored" in the first place. I had more trouble getting my other son's Brat to run right after it had only been sitting for 6 months. Now I've got to find where the exhaust leak is; I couldn't let it run last night at 11pm....waaaaay too much noise.

yeah,gotta love easy ones....

 

I helped another Brat owner (not on board) out a couple months ago. His brat had been sitting for a year 'cause it wouldn't start. cranked fine. he thought the IGN switch was the problem, so I brought down a spare for him, and it did the same thing. I immediately went and opened up the fusable link box. bingo bad link. switched out, and fired right up...

Yea, it lives.....but. I had a chance to run it a bit more this morning (late morning....I like my neighbors) and check it out in the daylight (anyone else work on their cars in the dark?). Anyway, the good news is it runs; surprisingly well considering. The bad news is that the head gasket is blown; I suspected as much since I knew the water pump was shot; just needed to prove itself. This looks like a project car that will go to someone more ambitious and talented than myself. It'll be up for sale cheap shortly (likely early August).

Don't tempt me Ed, I already work 7 days a week and still need to finish my green brat, I dont need another one

 

But yet, its so hard to resist a cheap brat

Learn to resist; this one will take up lots of your spare time (and not so spare time). Check out my listing in the Marketplace forum.

Don't tempt me Ed, I already work 7 days a week and still need to finish my green brat, I dont need another one

 

But yet, its so hard to resist a cheap brat