Lachlan

I want to install a pair of electric oil gauges in ye olde brat. I know the dummy-light sender is right beside the oil pump, and I could put the temp sender there, but there would definitely be no clearance for a pressure sender. Are there any other good spots on the block to plug in an oil pressure sender?

Hmmm, I found out mine is a ca brat when I went in for emissions, but i t doesn't have connections for the second fan. I might just rig it up from the other fan connector.

Hmmm, I was hoping for a drop-in solution, but I suppose the second-best choice is is anything that will fit in the diameter of the tower. I'm going to have to put the search on hold for the time, so anyone more adventurous should feel free to post!

Thanks for the pics. It gives me hope.

Really? 155? I didn't realize the oem tire was that skinny.

Thanks for the responses, guys. Ima hafta think about the harness bar. I was thinking about connecting an outside roll/light bar to an inside cage, but there's really no room to get by the rear window (which I do want to keep intact).

Thanks. Yeah, I could fit something together. I was just hoping someone might have seen the miracle piece already assembled.

Thanks! I figured out that separating the strut from the tophat first was a bad idea, but after separating the steering rack, control arm, and cv joint (from the tranny), and using spring compressors upside down on the spring, I managed to get it to slip it out of the fender. On the other side, I kept the assembly intact, but still had to separate steering and the control arm.

Did the gen-2s lose the height adjustment?

Hmmm...well, these are clearly the wrong struts, but is there a way to remove the cartridge from the KYB and replace it in the OEM? Barring that, are other gen 1 Brat folks getting gas cartridges somewhere?

I got some KYB front struts, p/n 234028, listed as compatible with the 81 Brat. Below is a pic comparing the subaru strut with the KYB. As you can see, the KYB doesn't extend nearly as much as the OEM. Is anyone runnign these on a Brat, and will this extension difference cause bad juju? edit: also noticed that the spring perch is wider than stock, so the stock spring won't even fit.

The problem with that is that it greatly increases the length of the hardware out the back. I'd rather have all-in-one.

I'm trying to fit a hose barb to an autometer mechanical vacuum gauge (I want to use silicone vacuum hose vice that crappy hard nylon hose w/ compression nut). As far as I can tell, the autometer sensor is 3/8" MPT, with 28 (possibly 27) threads per inch, and I need a 1/8" ID hose barb. Searching on line for brass fittings, it seems impossible to find a 1/8" id hose to 3/8" FPT connector. just about any 1/8" ID hose barb connector I find only goes to a 1/8" FPT. Does anyone have super secret information on a brass fitting site that has what I'm looking for?

I've been fiddling under the car for a while now, but I can't seem to get the springs to fully extend/release without spring compressors. What's the best way to get them down? So far I've decoupled the steering rack, and I'm wondering if I'm going to have to pop the ball joint or pull the hub off the cv shaft. Trying to unbolt the ball joint from the suspension arm (no idea of the name), is a no-go. Who has some experience in this business?

I was thinking about pulling one of the many, many 2nd gen A/C systems laying around the pick n pull for my 81 brat. A couple of things were weighing on my mind, though: 1. What tells the compressor clutch to engage? I assume there is some electrical connection that I wouldn't have. 2. Will the evaporator fit in my dash hole? 3. Is it hard to convert to R134a? Thanks to you A/C pioneers!

What size is your tire? I can't close the hood on mine.

Have any gen 1 brat owners had success fitting either camber plates from another car or a custom application?

I was going to try and fit a full-size spare under the hood, but between the 185 70 13 tire and the Weber carb/air cleaner, it's not going to happen. Plan B, put in the mini spare. I see them all over the local pick n pull, but you can't guarantee the body they sit in is the body they came from. Can someone read off the size of their mini-spare for me to match? Thanks, Lachlan

Did some adjusting on the idle circuit, and it seems to be running well at lean best idle. I did notice there's a lot of black liquid sputtering out of the exhaust. I did recently add sea foam to the gas tank and crank case, but the gas tank has been completely emptied since then. Any thoughts on what could cause this?

Thanks for the encouragement! Any favorite "tuning webers for dummies" website suggestions are welcome. Exhaust definitly smells of gas. Also, I think the cats are shot, as the temperature is reading about 300* before the cat and 160* after.

Thanks for the tips. I'd like to try tuning it right before I go another route, as I need to do that for emissions or not. I do still have the EGR valve hooked up, and I just cleaned it out too. Canister is in place. I'm new to carbs, so I have to learn all about tuning them. The carb came stock with 140 main jets, so I thought I was leaning it out with 130s. Should I go smaller? I'm at 6100 feet. How do I tell if I'm on the idle circuit or main circuit? Last time I filled up, I'm pretty sure the pump said it had ethanol, but I don't remember the percentage. I'm guessing around 10. NM has a vintage plate, but it's not available until 35 yrs, so I have to figure out something in the mean time As far as the stock carb goes, I could probably put it on in a couple of hours. When I got the brat a month ago, it wasn't running at all. I managed to get it running on the hitachi, but it was putting out about 5 hp. Couldn't go up hill in second. I got the weber mainly because I didn't want to fool with the hitachi, and that goes double now that I know its a california carb. I guess bottom line is first step I need to learn to tune it.

Thanks for the advice. I think I figured out where the problem is... I hope this helps future manual choke folks. I found that this little brass pice was introducing too many degrees of freedom: So I removed it and just hooked the wire to the next part of the linkage: And like magic, it's operating smoothly!

So it's time to register my 81 Brat in Albuquerque, and I went in for an emissions test. Failed miserably at high rpm (2410). HCs were at 834, limit is 220. CO is at 11.26, limit is 1.2. Didn't even test at low rpm. Apparently my car was originally a California car, but I've replaced the Carb with a weber 32/36 DGV. PO had an aftermarket exhaust installed (dual, but with a cross-over pipe) including an aftermarket cat on each side. Advance is 10*. My jets are: Primary/Secondary Main: 130 Primary/Secondary idle: 50 Primary air corrector: 170 secondary air corrector: 160 Iv'e never had to fix a car for emissions before, so this is a new part of the ea-81 adventure for me. Any tips are appreciated!

So I got a universal choke cable from pep boys. It looked to be of a little higher quality than the one at autozone. Or beefier anyway. Well, the cable itself pushes and pulls on its own smoothly, and the chocke opens and closes on its own, but when I marry them up, not all goes according to plan. I can get it to pull closed fairly easily, but it just doesn't want to push open. I can push the choke handle all the way in, lock it in place, but then I have to go to the engine and manually jiggle the cable to get it to actually push all the way open. Is there a higher quality cable I should be looking for, or is there a trick to getting them to work well together?

Thanks for the data point. I'm beginning to think it only came with one, which is kinda wierd.