I have an 1984 ea81 with a Hitachi carb, I cannot see the fuel spray out of the shooter when I work the throttle lever. (holding the choke plate open of course) I couldn't even identify the shooter, should I be able to see it?

 

If this is the problem, should I rebuild the carb. or replace it with a Weber. As with any ea81, any increase in low end torque would be useful, but is the Weber's improvement worth the cost and effort? :-\

 

The Weber kit at "Weber Carb. Direct" lists a kit for $309 to fit ea71 & ea81 1976 to 1982, will this kit work on my '84 Brat?

Yep that kit will work on an EA81-so also your brat. Whether or not the weber is worth it brings up a bit of a debate. I think its a great carb if tuned right. I had tons of running problems with my one barrel carter-weber, and then the two barrel hitachi. So i gave up on both and bought a new weber. It needed some extra tuning out of the box (upped the idle jet), and i also replaced the plastic throttle shaft bushings with roller bearings. Other than that i did a bit of tuning, and upped my timing to around 11 or 12 degrees and all is well. It starts up easier than it did before and i dont have to wait around for 3 or 4 minutes to drive it anymore.

 

Basically the only drawback to the weber is the price and the fact u have to tune it. If not tuned right they run aweful.

Locally, we have a guy (with a chassis dyno) who is rumored to be pretty good with this style of Webers, he tuned my buddy's Triumph with dual downdraft progressive Webers. (5200series?) He's also done some "magic" on early Bosch fuel injection systems as well. Maybe I should invest a little more and have him look at it.

 

I've tuned my share of Holley four barrels and spent some time on Carters (AFBs) too, but this Hitachi doesn't even look like a carburetor! Since you have run your Subie with one of these carbs, let me ask you just how much performance difference is there from stock? Is there more bottom end, that's where this little engine is really weak!

If you want more low end, then the Weber is the way to go. At least that is what people say. I am still running a Hitachi because I plan on doing the SPFI or EJ swap in the future, but if not I would have a Weber.

 

You can get the Hitachi to run fine, but it takes some dedicated patience. They don't seem to tune in according to the traditional methods of carb. tuning and many of them are just kind of worn out. I have finally got mine running spot on. The Weber on the other hand should respond to the standard methods of carb tuning.

 

It's worth the money if you are sticking with a carbureted ea81.

You didnt mention if you have run the car. If the carb is empty it wont squirt any fuel. There is a sight glass on the side of the carb, but not in an easy to see spot. If the accel. pump isnt working you should have difficulty with cold starting and hesitation off idle. If the accel pump is bad then you might as well rebuild the carb. But they are a pita for the beginner. The weber is a step up but it just depends on what you want to spend. If you are going to buy a rebuilt hitachi, dont. Its a waiste of time and money.

Yes, IHscout54, I have been running the Brat (I never know what to call this "vehicle", car or truck) for about a month. BUT! Now I have a third question. I find there are two different adapters listed to "Weberize" ea81s: '82 and older use 99004.110 and '84 and up use 99004.300. The pictures show them as very different. One is a "single plane" style adapter, the other seperates the primary and the secondary, sort of like a "dual plan ". Does anyone know if the manifolds are really different and which one is better?

size wise for intakes, use a EA82 intake. You have to modify the side of the intake and or distrbutor housing to make it fit but the intake is slightly bigger and doesnt have as many vacumn doodads on it.

 

After rebuilding a failed hitachi, I say stick with the hitachi for the cost. I posted up about running 36/32 and the 38DGAS, and if I was to run one it would be the 38DGAS because it uses the geared linkage for the secondary instead of a vacumn diaphram. 38 uses bigger jets but problem solved by jetting down a bit.