The Beast I Drive

well, looks like I *might* be able to acquire a totalled out '97 Isuzu Rodeo 2wd as well... My buddy's sister just got T-boned by a semi.... Luckily she is OK, but the car I here is toast, but it was pretty nice. It has the 6 lug wheels and a solid axle with DISC BRAKES (i know they are good, I changed the pads on Saturday :-\) and if I get it I will be using that axle instead of the Mazda axle. Also the Rodeo has 16" wheels, if they are all good *and* IF i acquire them they will be for sale.... -Bill

Robbie and I thought about this a bit, but decided against it becasue the XT has a lot more structure behind the seat and in the roof than say a 3 door, and because Robbie had a perfectly good 3 door already.... It would be cool to see this finished though, it will prolly look funky, but thats because XT's are funky looking to begin with.... -Bill

Bad guys are cooler, what can I say? Im a fan of villains..... -Bill

If it wasnt so far out of your way I would say swing by my place on your way back, but it appears you would be better off going to Canada than coming all the way down here..... -Bill

Right, so I got this '82 Mazda Pick up for free not running. Its a hulk of junk, to me anyway, but I am thinking of whether or not it would be wise to try to use some of the parts for an Off road Subaru... It has a rather narrow solid rear axle. Does anyone have any idea how strong one of those might be, or what gear ratios it might have? It also is all 6 lug (yay) and came with rusty chrome 14" wheels (also yay), so i plan on putting either some TSL's or my Mud Monsters on them as a set of Off-road only wheels. Would any of you know if the bellhousing can be separated from the tranny like an old Chevy or Ford 4 speed? If it can be taken off, is there even a remote chance this tranny could be married to a Nissan transfer case? The motor has no carb on it, but it has an adapter for a Weber 32/36 on it, so Im trying to get the Weber from the guy as well to put on my dad's Toyota, is there any chance that the adapter for the Mazda 4 cylinder will also fit the Toyota 22R as well? Are there any real parts of interest for anyone on this board? If you need/want a part, let me know, Ill give away anything I dont want to experiment with... The cab is shot, but the bed is in rather decent shape, no rust that I noticed, but no tailgate. There is a clear title if you want the frame/body after I pull my parts. The front bumper and turn signals are toast, as a strap broke and the truck slid off the trailer at a stop sign But the grill seems OK. Mostly I just wanted some input on my thoughts of using parts from a Mazda on a Subaru..... Any thoughts/ideas are welcome -Bill

Damn that sucks! I hope no other complications come up, glad they are relatively ok.... I know some Rathbuns that run a steel/Farm Fab shop here in Toppenish, Jim and Cindy, any relation? -Bill

thats pretty sweet, I like that! The dual carb setup is awesome! Slick lookin bug too, Id like to see more pics of that! -Bill

I would imagine a buffing wheel or Flitz wheel or something, along with the right compound would get that textured surface cleaned right up... But this is all speculation on my part... -Bill

Now that I like. I was going to do something exactly like that on my RX too, it just looks mean. -Bill

Yeah I just need the low gears, Im not actually going to use the shaft itself, but if I felt so inclined I could fix it and use it.... But I just want the 1.59 low gears to swap into a different tranny.... -Bill

Right on man, I am really interested in seeing that thing run with the motorcycle engine/trans in it -Bill

Really it should not be that hard... But there will be few parts you will need to make it work. -Bill

If you would be willing to part it out, I could make it worth your while to send me the input shaft with the low range gears on it.... -Bill

You have to have a special tool to get the locking nut off and a press to do the rear wheel bearings... Removing the trailing arm is as easy as losening 2 bolts and removing the shock and axle... -Bill

Paint it Flat Black and let me do flames on it! I can do some bad rump roast flames with rattlecan, Like that, I did that all with spray paint. -Bill

My dad's been doing hydraulics for the better part of 40 years.... -Bill

If it really only has 38,000 (not 138,000 or 238,000, cuz the odometer could have rolled over...) then it should be a great parts car. The second ignition switch was prolly hooked up to a electric cooler (hence the lable) or cooling fan or AC or something, but its not stock. Those are Jackman wheels turned inside out as well. 77 was the first year the Brats were made, but they were usually 78 MY, just built in Late 77. Sweet find nonetheless... -Bill

Put the engine and tranny in the trunk, and run the whole drivetrain backward... -Bill

Should work out better than that tent trailer..... -Bill

If you would be interested in the correct carb for your car, I have more than a couple layin around, they ran fine when I pulled them, id let one go for $5 plus shipping... -Bill

Not gonna be able to make this one either, middle of Hop harvest and the towing rig is in the shop getting the tranny rebuilt.... So Im staying local for a while... -Bill

I just mounted a cheapo Harbor Freight 3,000 lb wireless remote winch on the bumper of my Red Brat Its a little bigger than the stock winches were, so I had to make an adapter plate, but it works great! Oh and I added one of these to each fender on the last day of WCSS -Bill

How recent is recent? a few weeks ago I swapped a new engine into the Beast Then I made a new custom exhaust that never goes below any crossmembers... Swapped an LSD and new rear axles into the Beast Then I replaced the front struts after I broke one of the tops wheelin and replaced both front axles while I was in there I welded the bumper mounts back onto my rusty Brat, then patched some of the larger holes in the bed... Did a lot of welding on Robbie's car before the Subaru show... -Bill

Looks like an EA81 carb that had the holes on the baseplate slotted out to fit an EA82 Carb'ed manifold. I would swap a Weber on there if you arent going back to SPFI, I would not run that carb... the slots on the baseplate are just too much for me to like it. -Bill

That does sound like a blown headgasket, the exhaust is pressurizing the system which is why the coolant is blowing out past the cap. With the cap off you sometimes wont notice this, other than some bubbles, but with the cap on it will do what you described. -Bill