If the carburetor is bad on the '79 Brat, what am I getting myself into fixing it. How much do they generally cost to buy? I've seen repair kits and also Weber carbs on the 'net. I have never worked on a carburetor in my life. It looks fairly simple, but I don't know. Thanks

The factory carb on gen one brats are trash. If its not working you should get a weber. Here's one link

I don't believe that the Hitachi carbs are trash. Actually, they are pretty robust, easy to rebuild and reliable. The Webers will give you some additional power, but at a cost in fuel consumption and reliability. I have seen many, many people try the Webers on Gen1s and then go back to the Hitachis.

I use them on all my vintage Subys. But the choice is yours.

 

 

They run between $150 and $200 rebuilt, but you can find them cheaper sometimes on eBay.

 

 

http://www.nationalcarburetors.com/

Hi Todd,

I have been fighting the hitachi curse for a week, 2 rebuilds, new fuel pump,cleaning tank & fuel lines,Still have eractic ,rough idle,& stalling!

My 78 bratt is low miles, no apparent ,visual,problems with the carb,

What causes this idle problem?

I did order the Webber retrofit kit,But i saw your post about the rebuilders that guarantee there rebuilds,An going to order from them, As you know i want to keep my brat as original as possible,

I doubt that they will take the Webber Kit back ,So I'll try to sell it here ,

 

I knew I should of called you! Thanks Again,Hogan.

I have a Weber in my 81. Keep in mind that I started out with a rejetted Hitachi that turned my sweet little Brat into a gas guzzler. The Weber has given me a bit more power, but it runs much smoother, and instead of low teens, I'm getting high 20 mpg now. I think it'll do much better if I can keep my foot outta the pedal. But did I mention the Weber gives me a very cool sound?

 

Anyway, I started out with the Redline kit. I installed it as shipped and it was a thirsty beast. A little research turned me onto Aircooled.net. The owner John is a Weber genius and he's got the master jet kit of death. He showed me how to properly set the float and replace all the jets. Now my throttle response is crisp, the engine doesn't hickup when I alternate between throttle and coasting, fuel economy is way up, and in spite of throwing out half my emissions stuff, the car passes emissions easily.

 

If you do hit up John for new jets, tell him you heard from the guy with the DGEV in a Brat and while mine runs wonderfully, my CO level is still 2%. So you might wanna go a size down with your primary.

Leonidas, that's awesome! This joker and I go waaaaay back!