Brat Hood Cable, Engine Temp Questions

[samneric]

Alright! My Brat just passed inspection

 

All legal and above board

 

Love driving it already - I can see why the board has so many devoted members. Funny thing is, I've has two Brats for a while now but never had the chance to drive 'em so I have a couple of simple questions about general engine performance.

 

1) The water temp needle is sitting just above the middle of the range at idle, full running temperature. Bearing in mind its a tad hot here (90 with 97 heat index at mo), is this around the norm or expected based on ambient or should I be looking at adding some coolant/antifreeze?

 

2) When starting from cold I need to give it a few revs to keep it from stalling for about 1 minute and when I run the A/C sometimes it idles rough. I added some Shell V-Power at lunch time and a couple of blocks down the road the car kangarood a couple of times then the idle seemed to clear up a bit. The car has been sitting for at least 6 months so I plan on adding some fuel additives, squirting in some carb cleaner and cleaning the plugs/dissy cap. Is there anything else I could look at doing as routine engine tune-up?

 

3) Due to the accident, the hood cable is slack - Is there any way it can be tightened (I'm guessing from inside the car because the other end is fixed).

 

Thoughts are appreciated...

 

Steve

[Turbone]

Regarding the temp gauge the grounds might be dirty, theres half a dozen or so in the engine compartment. And theres one for the dash and is a bit of a pain to deal with. Cant actually remember where its located tho.

 

Have you changed both fuel filters? Theres one at the fuel pump, in front of the passenger side rear tire and one next to the wiper motor.

 

And the only adjustment for the hood latch is a newer cable. Any EA81 cable should work.

[samneric]

Regarding the temp gauge the grounds might be dirty, theres half a dozen or so in the engine compartment. And theres one for the dash and is a bit of a pain to deal with. Cant actually remember where its located tho.

 

Have you changed both fuel filters? Theres one at the fuel pump, in front of the passenger side rear tire and one next to the wiper motor.

 

And the only adjustment for the hood latch is a newer cable. Any EA81 cable should work.

 

Cheers!

 

I spent some time with it tonight and managed to fix the hood problem . Turns out you can undo the bolts on the hood striker so I did and moved it a tad to the right. It closes like a charm now I reckon the cable was pulling the latch before but the striker was stuck. I had to lift the hood at the same time as opening the latch before I figured I could re-align the striker.

 

I will check the ground locations tomorrow - I have alldata so I'll check that out for grounding points. While building a new headlamp mount I did notice one lose on the radiator support so I already have one down!

 

I haven't changed either fuel filter - will get to those next time I'm at NAPA.

 

Used my Dad's sandpaper on the alternator belt trick to see if it's the source of a squeaky belt.

 

Had problems with the EGR valve on another vehicle so I investigated why the Brats EGR light is illuminated. It's driven by a thermo vacuum valve but after performing the 2000-3000 revs test from the Haynes manual it doesn't appear to be getting any vacuum from the manifold. I hooked up a vacuum pump and give it a squeeze which did open the EGR valve so thats working and figure its a faulty thermo vacuum valve?!? Or maybe blocked pipe somewhere.

 

I notice that if I switch on the A/C the revs drop and don't pick up again - I guess there is some throttle actuator that isn't working and I need to research.

 

I changed some of the 3/16 rubber pipes that attach to the air cleaner box because they had gone hard.

 

I pulled one plug which looks in good shape (light brown) - didn't gap it though.

 

Also re-mounted the spare wheel which was out while I attempted bodywork.

 

All-in-all a good night's work!

 

Steve