Demon Brat

Wondering about the brake master cylinder. I just need one of the plastic brake reservoirs on the top. My son's has a crack and is leaking. I would take just the brake fluid tank, but whatever works for you. Thanks, Demon Brat Shawn

I bought the three items, cleaner, rust converter and paint. We are on our second Iowa Winter and everything looks pretty good still.

It can take some time but we had good luck with KBS Rust Coatings. Used it on a lot of my son's brat parts. So far, so good.

My son got an Xbox One for Christmas. He got the Brat in Forza and has it painted like his. The roll bar is black on the game and his is white but other than that, almost exactly the same. It is way cool. He upgraded the motor from the stock 69hp to 220hp. With all the upgrades it will run about 120mph, handles like a dream and stops on a dime. Even the interior is spot on. At least now he can tear up the Xbox Brat instead of his own.

I just did the same thing. Replaced the alternator, distributor and voltage regulator. Started it up and it ran like a champ....then smoke started coming out of the back side of the VR. I shut the truck off, cussed a little and checked everything again. Everything seemed fine. Started it up again and thought to myself, screw it, if it is smoking it is probably toast anyway. After a short time it quit smoking, none of the wires from the battery, alternator, VR or distributor were hot and everything seemed to be operating correctly. The back off the VR where it screws to the fender is a little warm but that is all. Inside the VR is an insulated resistor of some type that may just smoke the first time it is energized...I don't know. All I can say is it has been a week and everything is running perfect...knock on wood. I will let you know if it starts on fire or blows up, but as of now, all is good and no more smoke.

Replace the primary Idle jet with a 60 and the secondary with a 55. I had 50s in both. Idle mixture screw is now screwed out 1.75 turns. The idle speed screw is in about a turn, idle so much better, cleaner exhaust, no hesitation during quick acceleration, idles like a dream. Never thought different jets could make that much different.

Got the new one and it was identical to the one I removed. That was a nice surprise. Put it in, set the timing and it never ran so smooth. Fixed the jumpy tachometer, smoothed out the idle. All is good for now. I found it by searching (Cardone 31-633) on Amazon. Was $97 with no core charge. So now I have the old one if anyone knows where a go distributor rebuild shop is.

It is simple. You unplug all four connectors from the back of the headlights. I left them and taped them all off EXCEPT the one next to the battery. This connector is plugged into the passenger side outside headlight. It has three wires going into it. One hot for DIM, one hot for Bright and a ground. The new kit has a connector that plugs right into that headlight connector. Then you plug the other four connectors into the appropriate headlights. Find a good ground for each headlight. Connect the kit's hot wire to the battery and your done. A few zippy ties and you a sporting super bright headlights. Here is how it works. Before, when you turned your lights on the power had to run through all the factory wiring, switches and fuses to power up the headlights. With age, the wiring gets bad and you lose voltage. I had about 9 volts with the car off and barely 11 with it running. All this resistance made the bottom fuse very hot and it even melted the fuse block prior to us owning it. Now, when you turn your lights on, the power coming from the factory wiring (remember that one headlight connector you hooked up to the kit), turns on the relay that connects new wiring straight from the battery to your headlights. Thus, you get 13+ volts with the car running. it deceases the load on the factory wiring so the bottom fuse stays cool. The kits gives you easy instructions like below.

Typical problem. 1979 Brat with weak and dim headlights. Also experienced the super hot lights fuse. The fuse block was melted and we would blow fuses. Converted that to a newer spade type fuse and it quit blowing but still got hot. I measured the voltage at the headlights before doing anything. I had 9.4 to dims and 10.4 to brights with car off. With car running the voltage would jump to 11.2 and 12. At the battery I would have 12.4 off and around 14 running. My son and I bought the plug and play rewire kit with relays and wired everything up today. Now I have 13-14 volts at the dim and brights when running. This was really easy and we did not have to damage, cut, splice or remove any of the original wiring. Plus, my light fuse is now fine. It does not even get warm anymore. This is just an FYI post if anyone else is having problems like this, it was easy and seems to have cured my hot fuse and dim light problem. We bought this from eBay and it works great. http://pages.ebay.com/motors/link/?nav=item.view&id=331214602226&alt=web Have a great day.

I was able to order a Re-built Cardone. (Cardone 31-633) The whole California thing sounds about right. It came from California and I have the original California license plate. I'll let everyone know when it gets here and maybe my old one will be available as long as the new works fine. Thanks, Shawn

I have about 1/2 turn past contact on the Idle speed screw and about 3.5 turns on the idle mixture screw.

If I knew of a place in Iowa I might. Hoping to pull this one and install new one so the truck is not out of commission for too long. Maybe I'll have the old one rebuilt and then sell it or keep it as a spare?

Just completely rebuilt my son's BRAT motor. It is a 1979 Subaru BRAT EA71. It has the top starter. I think someone has upgraded the distributor because it is electronic ignition. The car was running smooth and then the tach started jumping around. I couldn't get it to idle smooth and it started dying. My USMB research indicated the distributor might be going bad. So I opened up the distributor and wiggled the rotor. Lots of side to side play. Pulled the distributor out today and found out there is a plastic washer/spacer/thing in the distributor that has(had) three ball bearing in it to allow the inside plates to rotate when the vacuum advance was activated. It was busted up and part of it was lying in the bottom of the distributor. I pulled the rest the pieces out, cleaned everything up, removed the cam gear (it was pinned in, not pressed on) greased everything and put it back together. I re-installed it with out that piece and it runs fine, no more jumpy tach, but I know it is not a permanent fix. I want to get a new distributor and below is what the motor currently is using. Part# 420852000 D4H6-01 It also has the number 812 stamped on it but not sure what it refers too. Rockauto has the part number D4H601 but it is for a 1980 Brat. Could someone just put a newer distributor in it? Think the one will work? A-1 CARDONE Part # 31633 More Info {#420857302, D4H601, D4H901, D4H902} Reman. Distributor (Electronic) $93.79 Someone who can shed some light, it would be greatly appreciated. I just want to make sure I order the right one. What distributor do I have and where do i get a new (without dropping big bucks!!) Thanks, Shawn

So my primary and secondary idle jets are 50. I have the timing set perfect at 8 degrees BTDC. I have to back out the idle mixture screw 3.5 turns to get a smooth idle. Do I go with a 55 or 60 jet to get my idle mixture turns down to 1 or 2 turns?

Hoping to pull the jets this weekend and see what size. Can't get the kid to leave it at home long enough to check. I will post after I look at it.