TajMan

I'm trying to do the front brake pads on my '83 Subaru Brat. I feel like I recently did front brakes on either my other Brat or my friend's '89 Loyale I helped him find, but I guess not and I can't seem to compress the piston back in to allow room for fresh brake pads. This is the weirdest design, with front-parking-brake that cable-squeezes the front caliper. How to compress piston? I can't seem to turn to the left or the right, and I can't seem to compress with a C-clamp. The pads on my drivers side were worn exactly like |\ one edge of each pad was starting to rub metal, and the other edge still had 1/4" of pad left. I was getting a bad front-wheel shake as soon as I let off heavy throttle or braked lightly.

How can I tell if its the dual range or single range 4WD trans? code stamped on side of trans somewhere? Old girl still did sweet up wheelin' tonight for a sec on the side of the mountain, '81 1st gear 4WD. made me happy

So its been evening itself out a little as I drive it some.. Transmission lo-range?? This transmission came out of an '81 GL Wagon. The car had a Jeep push bar on the front bumper and was lookin all mad max and like a lo-range crawler. Trans in my car now, It goes between 2WD and 4-hi no problem- but thats it. No lo-range gear selection, no matter how much force on lever, in neutral or rolling slowly, etc. I thougt all the 4-speed manuals were low-range boxes? Did they make a 4WD gearbox with no lo-range?

Life goes on, bad weather and another car we were supposed to sell but haven't yet means I haven't been driving the Brat on the street YET. lots of work, that bed hook is secured higher than the others now and supported with steel square bar behind it. Fibral fiberglass-reinforced bondo is awesome stuff hole in the floor getting there The upper trans mount that's secured below the spare tire, I had to re-weld the bracket to the body. (crappy weld in pic isn't doing anything) I like how these cars are built, but recognize that huge improvements in structural rigidity can probably be made just by stripping a car and welding up a lot of body seams. The rust repair never ends, I keep cutting and welding. Wherever I can, I coat in-side body cavaties that usually can't be accessed without steel cut away, just trying to minimize future rust that will grow from the inside out. The wiring has been a nightmare, I'd call things mostly temporarily fixed for now. So many of these subaru's old wiring systems are corroded and crap. One of my headlights is dim, I'll have to wait and see, probably try replacing the old light first.

Well whatever the combination switch or combination box is, we seemed to have not found it but have bypassed all the problems. -both taillights work -both brake lights work -blinkers work -reverse lights work There's still an issue with the 4WD light on the dash, if we hook up the wire that makes it work, the wire just gets HOT real fast, so that's still to be figured out but.... Have NOT really driven the car on the road yet at all, but will today, I'll report back and show you some cool pics.

It's been used a bit since cabin years, he got it for $800 and all it needed was a CV-axle and a muffler. I've noticed the wire on the idle solenoid of the hitachi carb tends to be kinked and want to break off, I've seen the same thing on a few cars now. I mentioned that to him to check. We'll figure it out I'm sure. however, I'm just turned on today about the weber 32/36 or holley 5200 carb swaps on the EA81 engine, or even a SPFI conversion from junk-yard car parts! I see one of these as very possible in my future... Or even something more custom and wild with a megasquirt 4-injector system, because I want to learn megasquirt for builds on other types of engines, and it allows for great possibilities with boost and all that..

We've searched for hours on google, no combination box info yet.. We think that is the source of all our problems, probably a short somewhere around there messing with the left rear blinker, and ALSO messed up some other systems, but different source of positive was found to fix some of the other problems.. The blinker thing, and the 4WD light on the dash, are the last 2 issues to sort.

Hey guys, the 1 thing we need help with, where is the COMBINATION BOX? And, is the combination switch just the headlight/running light switch on the dash? Pics, or whatever instruction would help.

I helped my buddy buy his (like 87-89) Loyale, it is carb'd with 5-speed manual low range gearbox. Just sat up at a cabin unused mostly for like 25 years originally, low miles, sweet cheap find he picked up. I still need to help him with 1 issue, I haven't had a chance to look at it again yet. It idles high, like 2,000 rpm, once the engine is warmed up. any troubleshooting tips for that problem? I just got my '83 Brat running with a '81 GL wagon carb I pulled from the same junk-yard car my manual trans swap came from, with 138K miles. There were minor differences, but I think I got it all hooked up and working right now.

Still an emotional struggle, so much time invested in to the car (and other cars of mine), without any working product yet and still unknowns. I think the motor will run alright, the wiring is still messed up so we'll see where we can get with it tomorrow. Knowledgeable people with these Brat's wiring, if I post pics and you can answer questions that would be great help. I'll host pics on another computer, my internet isn't uploading pictures...

So we got a 2nd carb installed and got the thing started again. Its pushing a ton of air through the breather hose from the left valve cover to the air intake, so I guess that's massive blowby. :-\ 177K miles, and the smoke it wants to make when you let it warm up.. I bet the rings are pretty far gone. I can get a full engine gasket set for like $60, and piston rings only are cheap. I'm considering opening this motor up and replacing the rings-only for a fix. If I don't do that, then I'll prob. also swap in the junk-yard motor from the '81, it only had 139K miles on it, and its trans I used has a shifter that feels tight not loose.

well I found some wiring diagrams here.. http://arrc.epnet.com/autoasp/index.asp?sid=171626406&uid=deldivli.main.autorefctr

.. turns out I'm having more electrical woes now. Can anyone post complete vehicle wiring diagrams for my '83 car, or where I might locate them?? That's what I really need asap. It had some issues and would barely run, I think stuff in the old carb broke loose and gunked things up. I have the carb from the '81 in the junk yard I just picked up and will try now. Sorry, no Starion wheels anymore. and I ended up using my '91 Talon bucket seats in my Brat

Yeah the rust repair is epic here! I'll keep you guys up on new pics. Plus this morning I blew the headgasket on my Eagle Talon Tsi :-\ so I've got to drive this brat for awhile anyway.. I've got an awesome Jeep kina push-bar with KC running lights to install on the front bumper, it was on the old '81 GL wagon in the junk yard I stole the transmission swap components from. And I've got a big steel beam I'm building a custom rear bumper out of. I'm welding on now a 2" exhaust muffler that came off my old '89 Chrysler Conquest (Mitsubishi Starion) car. I'm installing 95-99 Mitsubishi Eclipse bucket seats into the brat (passengers for now, I'll get a drivers seat). Later on I'll probably try bigger wheels, eventually 6" lift hopefully

here are a bunch of old pics I can share, now that I can finally upload them Serious work done, to completely cut-out bad rusted areas and weld in custom new pieces, recoat everywhere.

We got the Brat driving last night! Its sweet, I'm happy. Thanks a lot for that wiring diagram even though we figured it out without it. My friend from Uruguay was more skilled with the volt meter than I had thought. I should have trusted all the Fiero work he did lately, you know he converted his Pontiac Fiero V6 from automatic to manual trans a few weeks ago! That one was a harder swap than Brat. He got my Brat reverse lights and everything working though. There were negative and positive leads going to the auto trans connectors in the engine bay that were not used (I'm sure trans needed power for the push-button 4WD thing). Something buzzing in my engine bay is an emissions thing on the intake manifold with hoses going to it, maybe will sort itself and maybe just bad from age and will get replaced.. One difference between the cars, the old auto brat(83) only has 1 4WD light on the dash, where as the original manual brat(84) has a 4-hi and 4-lo light on the dash. We still haven't got this new trans into 4-lo, but it goes into 2WD and 4-hi, we will mess with it some more. The 4WD shifter bracket actually just got welded solid with a piece of angle iron right to the side of my interior trans tunnel, lol. BIG props to Subaru for the engineering of these cars clear back in the 70's and 80's. Its something special when a car company designs the automatic and manual cars to share the same driveshaft, AND axles, AND starter motor.

Hey guys! Let me introduce myself, I am Taj, located in Utah. I'm a big car guy, and love building custom mechanical stuff. I've been into a bunch of AWD turbo cars in the past.. Long story short, I'm in possession of an '83 and an '84 Subaru Brat. The '83 was just a parts car for the '84, and truth be told the '83 might have been too far lost to rust when I started, or at least close. BUT THAT DIDN'T STOP ME! I have been cutting out steel and welding in new like crazy. The entire pillar below the drivers side door was completely missing rusted through, big holes in both the passenger and drivers floors, etc etc. Now that I've rebuilt most of the car, I decided I want to keep it instead of sell it for a measly profit. A friend of mine is buying the '84 Brat from me, and he plans to drive it to Uruguay in like 5 months! That's a 6,000 mile trip! So my '83 Brat had a bad automatic transmission. (FWD with push-button AWD on the auto shifter). My buddy and I have been converting to a 4-speed manual out of an '81 Subaru wagon we found in the junk yard. (I know 80-82 had lower 1st and 2nd gear ratios) New Sachs clutch kit. I google-searched this thread, and it has been helpful to the swap: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=69534 I could use further assistance though. Everything is all swapped in to my '83. The last thing not figured out is the wiring (not seeming as simple as that 2007 link I posted mentions). Most those wires unhooked still, something in the engine bay is making a buzzing sound with battery connected. -Manual trans just has on it sensor for the reverse lights, and the sensor to tell the gauges that t-case is in 4WD. -auto trans had multiple sensors/connectors, and the auto-shifter also has wires for that push-button FWD/4WD thing. I'd really appreciate if anyone can find me stock wiring diagrams for my '83 automatic Subaru GL Brat with push-button 4WD! I will be able to post up pictures like all my rust repair also, later! I'm proud of what I've done, and you guys are some of the few that will appreciate.