iluvdrt

It was, it was horrible. Even though I won the best "Old School" award, I probably wont go back. Get there at 7:00am to not even be judged until 4:00 PM and awards at 6:00PM after everyone left, literally. There were like 18 people there. Plus myself and my family all had to pay for "parking" each even though I also paid a $35 entry fee. $100, 5 hours of driving (in a BRAT with no AC), 11 hours of sitting in a parking lot (without a shelter for shade) dehydration and a nasty sunburn later I got a plaque in front of 18 people. I wont be back.

FWIW I just did a 5 speed DR conversion on my Brat (82). I used a 82 flywheel, disc, and pressure plate with the 82 clutch fork and TO bearing. My pedal box and clutch cable are stock 81. I have no issues at all and my starter fit just fine. I made very small bolt shims for the flywheel using some pipe that pressed into the flywheel and allowed the bolts to be a little more snug and just chopped off the bottom corners of the engine block to clear the flywheel. I used an etcher to re etch my timing marks onto the 82 flywheel. Also a big factor in the install was the "jerry's kit". It made everything a bolt up and go affair other than having my driveshaft lengthened. I have about 5,000 miles on it so far with no issues.

I'll mess with it this weekend and report back. I have other axles in various states of serviceability I could use. I think I am also going to change out the cone washers with new ones.

The dash in my 82 was swapped for a GL dash. Its pretty straight forward (although time consuming). Make sure you have the GL harness, as well as a few of the sensors that are required for the gauges (like the oil pressure sensor for the pressure gauge and not the dummy light). Mine was changed out because the DL dash was cracked and the GL one wasn't.

Interesting. Would that cause the wheel hub to have play in it though?

there is no play in the rack, but it not just shakes the steering wheel but the whole truck. It also makes it pull hard to the right. The knuckle seems OK. When it was being shaken jacked up nothing moved except the wheel/ hub. I used a pry bar to check the ball joint and it didn't have any movement either. I am not getting clicking or anything when I accelerate. When being shaken, it looks like only the inside of the hub is moving, but all of the bearings are new and they were certainly tight when pressing in.

They are almost identical to EA82 hubs. So yes, they have the washers. The nut has not been getting loose.

Don't confuse static timing with total timing, that was my issue for awhile. The 20 degrees is the total timing when the vacuum advances it. The 8 is the static timing with no vacuum advance. Here is how I did mine and I have no issues now. Keep the vacuum line installed on the distributor and loosen the distributor lock nut. Using an adjustable timing light, set the total timing to 20-24 degrees on the timing light. Rev the engine to apx 2500 RPMS and move the distributor until the 0 on the flywheel is aligned with the timing mark on the bell housing. Tighten down the distributor lock nut. Who cares what the timing is at during idle, its when you're driving that timing becomes important. I think at idle mine is around 4 degrees, but 21 degrees at advance. Hope that helps.

Gentlemen, I think a hub on my Brat may have gone bad. I have had a pretty good intermittent vibration for some time now. Sometimes it is so bad I have to slow down to about 40 MPH IOT make it stop. I have changed the axle shafts, wheel bearings, had the tires balanced, ball joints, struts and mounts, and tie rod ends, and I am still getting this death wobble. It is mostly accelerating up steep hills at highway speeds. The axles I used are EMPI, which have had good reviews. Yester day I jacked up the tire by the control arm and could feel a slight wobble in the tire. I tightened the axle nut as tight as I could and checked the pinch bolt for the strut. The wobble persisted. I am thinking the hub or the retaining washers might be bad. What do you guys think?

Just wondering if anyone is going to Subiefest this year? 19 September is the date. Ill be there. I'm going to put my BRAT into the car show and work a booth in the afternoon. This will be the first major Suby event I have ever gone too.

I wish I could see a side by side comparison or a 2" and 4". I guess I could always install it without doing anything else and if I don't like it, remove it. Just bolting everything on isn't too hard of a job. Honestly, with the 4" I really just don't want to deal with the shifter issues. I don't like paying fabricators money to do something I could do IF I had a welder. I also don't like doing things half assed either. I like things to look and feel as if it came that way. Im a bit of a perfectionist if you will.

I'm probably not going to do the 4" I bought and sell the lift in place of a 2". I have been thinking the idea over, and think something more modest would be better and easier to install. Plus, with only 78 hp, turning big tires would be hard to do for it. Its funny, on this thread everyone says do it, it will never gain value, but on others people say to leave them stock lol. In the end I know it is mine. Maybe one day ill be able to post pictures, but in the mean time if any of you are on the Facebook Brat page you can see it there. My real name is Jason Osborne. I think once people see it, the tone will change to keeping it modest. DL or not, not too many people know the difference, and as stated could really care less.

Possibly the rear main seal under the flywheel. If that seal goes bad it will fling oil everywhere.

Didn't someone on here actually get one of these motors at one time? I thought I remembered a thread from around 2005 where someone got one. I wonder how well it held up. I have thought about getting their pistons and heads when its time for me to do a rebuild.

I'm only in Oceanside because of work. Eventually Ill relocate. Personally, I'm not a fan of SoCal. The car really serves no purpose other than to make me happy. Like I said, I have 2 other vehicles that are new. Its a Sunday driver, and a conversation piece at car shows and such. Occasionally Ill use the bed of it to help me move a few things I don't want to put into my Crosstrek, or if I am junk yarding. Ill take it to the beach or into the mountains sometimes, but it doesn't see mud and rain if I can help it. OK, cool. Yeah, its a pretty basic car that's for sure. No PS, no power windows, no T tops, no AC, etc. Its about as simple of a car as one could build. BUT it is pretty complete and in great shape. Given how rare these things are becoming, maybe in 10-15 more years it "might" be a little more valuable considering the novelty of it. I think most of the people that want one of these aren't just Subaru people, and the majority of them don't know or remember the differences between the trim levels. They just know it's a BRAT and it has seats in the back, and that alone is enough to spark memories of when they were younger. The market for these is increasing. It is one of the most searched cars on autotrader, and I have already some pretty good offers thrown at me. So far all of the mods I have done are unnoticeable and either look stock, or are generally accepted mods either to aid in performance, or to frankly just keep it going. I'm going to finish the install of the lift, I already bought it, it as stated it will help with the ride quality. I more or less was just curious about what to possibly expect before I installed it, should I decide to resell it. Thanks for the replies!

Well I want to lift it for several reasons. 1. It opens up options for nicer wheels and better tires once the hubs are done. 2. I got the lift for the same reason a lot of people do, to make it look cooler and having larger tires will improve the ride quality. Had this one been a beater that would be a different story, but I don't want to tear it up. Plus I already have a lifted 2005 OBS that sees off road regularly and a 2015 Crosstrek that does occasionally when camping. 3. The permanent changes are both things that are hard to replace. The shifters and the steering shaft. 4. No car is ever an investment, but that doesn't mean something shouldn't be done to decrease its value either. Well it doesn't sound as if it's a terrible thing to do, so maybe I'll just go ahead and do it. My title above my avatar doesn't say "to lift or not to lift" for a reason LOL. Thanks for the replies!

I have an 82 Brat DL that is almost mint. Original shiny paint, a few small dings, perfect dash (with a few dealer stickers still), and not 1 spec of rust with a reupholstered interior. The mileage is unknown since it has outlasted 2 odometers, but estimates are in the high 300's to low 400's. I have done a weber conversion to it and the dual range 5 speed conversion (with a Jerry's kit), and am in the process of doing rear disc brakes. Everything on it that has a replaceable part that can be purchased new has been replaced. It also has a spray in bed liner, the front "loop" style brush guard, and a GL gauge cluster with fully functional gauges. The engine has been compression tested (almost perfect) and completely It lives in my garage and is only driven on sunny SoCal weekends. I purchased a 4" lift kit from ADF, but have become a little timid about installing it since some of the changes are permanent. I never take it off road and probably never will. With that being said, what's everyone's opinion on whether or not I should install the lift? If you were in the market for an almost perfect Brat would you prefer it to be lifted with supporting tires and wheels or stock? I don't plan on selling it ever since it took me so long to find one like this, but you never know when in 20 years Barrett Jackson is looking for Brats lol. Thanks for the opinions.

I just got a lengthened 1 piece done. I don't have a welder so making the carrier bearing mount was out of the question. Since everything is dropping the same amount, I am curious as to why the geometry changed.

Im an ambassador. Its pretty cool. You get a lot of cool stuff. I hand a lot of it out to people at work and at car shows and stuff.

Interesting. I am fairly certain my shifters will be an issue. I may also look at using EJ shifters, they appear to be very similar to ours, and they are longer. I have a Jerry's kit installed into my Brat. Retaining the stock 4WD lever is important to me. I will more than likely never off road my Brat. Suspension parts are hard to acquire and the ones I do find do not seem to be of very good quality. Basically I am resto-modding my Brat to be a weekend cruiser, cars and coffee conversation piece.

Mine was doing this and it ended up being the little spring brackets that hold the pads were rubbing the rotor.

Sweet, thanks man

Well I found a place that did it for $30. Didn't eliminate it totally, but it did make it very manageable.

I know one of the new axles I got was bad. The spindle threads were jacked up and in stalled you could see where the shaft was bent in the middle. Ill sacrifice that one to build a new one. In the mean time, Ill just the tires rebalanced and from there. That's the easiest to do.

Yeah, Ill give it another shot. there is a small vibrating cruising between those speeds, something I have just attributed to a 13" tire spinning that fast. It's barely noticeable, except when I accelerate or try to maintain speed uphill.