tdodge41

@the sucker king: Neither kit had a correct throw out bearing. When it was all taken apart though, the old throw out bearing still seemed fine. Not loose or anything. We used the parts from the advance kit. @bratman2 & @TomRhere: Thanks for the advice on the parts ordering! I will make sure to dial down my years when ordering parts in the future. @jono: The first kit where it appeared nothing fit was from rockauto. It was a LUK 15-013. The second kit came from Advance Auto Parts and was MU2087-1.

So... after 4 days of work, having the trans out and in twice, I still dont have a working clutch for my 85 EA81 Brat. Both Rock Auto and Advance Auto Parts I think sent the wrong clutch kit parts. The issue is this: whenever it is back together and the car is running, transitioning the clutch pedal from pressed in to not pressed in or the other way around, it makes a loud screaming noise like something is not working right. The only thing I can think might be that something was not right. So what I am wondering, is if there is any advice out there, and if someone knows a correct parts number for a clutch kit from somewhere for an 85 brat manual dual range. In the mean time, I am going to pull all the tiny hairs from my bald head. Thanks.

TomRhere you guessed it. Went thru the how to keep your subaru alive manual and did the anti-diesel valve test. No clicking when unplugging the wires and plugging back in. Tom, you said you can gut those things? And then the car still works? Wires dont look frayed at all, but it does look pretty filthy. I called the local Oreilly and they didnt really know what I was talking about.

Thanks very much for the replies! TomRHere: I went through and thought I checked all the vacuum hoses. Im sure there could be something im missing. All the hoses seem pretty old and potentially cracked, its something I would love to replace this summer. And thanks for the info on the anti-diesel valve. I will have to find a carb diagram to figure out where that is. skishop69: Thanks for the tip. I recently took the air cleaner top off and didnt see much looking wrong, but I might grab some carb cleaner and shoot it in there. And I will have to check my haynes manual to figure out where the idle circuit is and how to get to all that. seventythree: I hope its not the fuel filters, although I dont know how long they are supposed to last. I did both a year ago when I first bought the car, along with alternator belt and plugs and wires.

So... I have been having this constant battle with my 1985 second gen brat. It wont idle. It idles rough for about 30 seconds and then slowly goes down till it dies. Increasing the idle screw doesnt help much till its idling at 2000 which is way too high. I know i am in need of a clutch and plan on doing it in the next few weeks. Could the clutch be affecting my idling? I have the standard hitachi carb on there.

Thanks a lot Bantum! Looks like I see one of the bolts there at the top, I believe another is in the back toward the floor matt. Finding that third will be a pain for sure. It's going to be a happy day to have it out though.

Can you give me any tips or let me know what you did for removing the whole blower housing? I'm sure there is a rats nest in mine as well, it sat for a minute, and I see constantly pieces of grass and other stuff caught up in my blower. And I have taken the shelf down and cannot for the life of me see a way to get to the motor you have in the picture without taking the housing out.

Right, I have taken the shelf down as well as taken the glovebox out too. There are two plastic black containers under the dash it seems. I do not just see the brat blower motor anywhere, feel like its behind one of the plastic shields or guards. The ones that are held together with metal clips.

Hey all. Recently when I run the heat in the winter time the blower motor on my 85 Brat is making quite a bit of noise, like the white blower cage (dont know the right name for it) is loose on the motor. Miles Fox hooked me up with a new blower motor with a cage. I am looking in my haynes manual and it looks like you just pop a plastic piece off under the passenger side dash and swap the fans out, but for the life of me I cannot figure out how everything down there comes apart. If anyone could give me some tips or steps on installing a new fan down there that would be awesome. I started popping the clips off holding the one piece of plastic, but it just isnt coming off and I am starting to feel pretty clueless to the whole process.

Sounds like it's going to be a pretty easy drive. I think we are coming the first weekend in January, there on Friday and back home on a Saturday. And yea, did the choke, pumped it a few times, put it down let it up and tried to start: no dice. No high idle. I guess this means the high idle could be broke as well? Either way, looks like I still have investigation to do.

Thats one of the reasons I feel like my hitachi is not working properly. I push the pedal down and release it, but I get no fast idle. Makes me think the choke on the carb is broken or something is wrong with it. Funny enough, the car wont start in the cold unless I give the gas pedal a few taps to get it moving. But the fast idle has not worked for some time now.

The topper is in Sheboygan. And I think my buddy James will be with me on the trip. And we are driving my brat (pending it doesnt rust out this winter) so it should be a good time. I think we are going to try and do the trip in 2 days. And its my hope that by that time I have a Webber running in the Brat from TomRhere.

One mud flap already gone. Should just take the second off till I can make a bracket that will hold them again. And the fenders may come off. Good idea. Tom you will probably be getting an email from me soon, depending on how the season goes. Would be nice to have a webber for my trip to wisconsin to get a topper. Although finding a garage in the winter to have half a day to do the webber swap is another thing. Things have been driving pretty good this winter actually. The tires I have now are pretty good. And yea, we have been hitting that car wash on the regular.

Yea I am running a hitachi but contemplating moving to a webber soon, although the most intensive fix I have done is a tie rod at this point, I am a bit unexperienced. What does it take to put a maual choke on it?

What would be a solution to the distributor not running well in the cold?

Hey there vintage subaru brain trust! This is going to be my first winter running my 85 Brat in the cold weather of Michigan. Just wondering if there are any tips/tricks or whatever out there for running a good vintage subaru through the snow and coldness. Everything seems to be running fine once the car warms up. Getting it started in the morning is a pain in the butt though. Is there any reason cold weather would keep my car from starting? Takes about ten minutes of pedal pumping and key turning to get it to turn over finally. I recently checked my starter connections and they didn't seem dirty or anything like that. Next step is going to be to clean the battery contacts and make sure there is no moisture messing with that. Also, snow tires? How important do people feel they are? I have been flying through about 6 inches of snow in my 4 high right now and there isn't anything stopping me. And do people typically put weight in the back of a Brat when running in the winter time? I have heard of trucks doing this before, but it seems to me the brat runs fine without. Also... the salt battle. Ugh. I don't feel like there is ever going to be any winning, just pro-longing the disaster. Thanks in advance.

Hmmmmmm... It starts up just fine when its warmed up, like after driving it for 20 min, running in the store, when I come out its fine. Must be something with running it cold. Makes me think i need to fix the high idle. Or just turn the idle up a little.

Woohoooooo!!! Did a bunch of work on the Brat since I last posted about it. Brakes and rotors are done in the front. So are the inner and outer rods. Front end is riding SO smooth. Also finally have a full size spare. Mechanical_Misfit and I just drove to TomRHere's house about 3 hours away in the Brat and it ran great through the storm of the century. I guess there were tornados in Michigan? Who woulda thought?! Just to give a gauge of how bad it was raining, there is a pool of rain water on my full size spare tire under the hood. And there may have been some permanent bending done to my antenna. I now finally have matching floor mats, a plastic distributor guard, and new seals to take care of some oil leaks. Thanks Tom! Really the only guy in Michigan for an EA81 hook up. And the drivers side splash guard to go in next to the bash plate. Will post pictures after it is powder coated. Now before winter gets too bad I need to get the floor panels patched. Thinking pop rivets and some caulk to seal it up. I have 0 welding experience and not a lot of time, so this seems easiest. Also getting something on to fight the rust that will always come from driving in Michigan in the winter. Gonna look pretty funny for a minute there. Painting maybe in the summer. This morning when I went to start it up after driving home in a rain storm there was a little delay in the ignition. When I turn the key it takes a second for the engine to turn crank. Then it turns once and doesnt do anything. Gotta turn the key about 5 times before it turns over. Any idea what it could be? I was thinking maybe there is some moisture in there or something? And as always, if anyone knows of a push bar, topper, or gas tank in the midwest or is willing to ship any of them, let me know.

Thanks a lot for this everyone, seems like a much easier fix than I anticipated. Going to try and get them done this weekend. I was under the impression you can only seat the rod ends into the steering column a certain amount or something. I thought there was a bunch of stuff about timing and making sure things were put together in a certain way instead of just getting them in as tight as possible.

Thanks BratRod, that would be a huge help.

Where the inner tie rod goes into the engine... does it just sit in there, or is there a pin that needs to be popped in and out? Or should it just sit real tight with the outer rod? And do the boots need to come off to replace the inner rods? And do the inner rods just slide in any old way, or is it like an axle and you need to match up things like the hills and valleys on the threads?

Can I assemble the inner and outter rod, then just install them as a whole since I am doing both? or do I need to seperate the inner and outter, take them out seperately, then install them seperately. Seems like installing them together would save a ton of a pain (the rusty bolt that holds them together, for example. And thanks for the tips on the alignment, I am not doing it with OEM parts, so I will probably just go and get an alignment done. Thanks a lot for all the help.

I am looking to change the inner and outter tie rods on my 1985 Brat. I have read the section in my haynes book, but still have some questions for everyone and wondering if people have some tips they can offer that the haynes cant. One of the main things I was wondering is: do I need to have a tie rod puller, or is there another way to get those done? And is it possible to save the boot that is on the inner rod? Can I put the rods together first and then just install the inner rods? And I know there is a certain way the inner's need to be installed... something about the timing and way things need to go in there. Any tips would be very helpful. Thanks.

Thats a bummer to find out about the front end getting all jacked up hurting the tires. Looks like the best way is really to just have a lift kit then?

This past weekend was a busy one for working on the Brat. And with the nice weather, playing with the Brat too Finally put on those Monroe shocks from rock auto. Man do they make a difference. Gonna have to do the struts someday too, as those look pretty shot as well. Also I got my new candy apple red powder coated skid plate from Mechanical_Misfit, finally put that on there too. Looks real nice. And then without looking somehow THIS ended up on the tailgate. Not going to complain I guess... now people will be REAL confused. Unpictured: I rebooted an old axle, one that wasn't giving me problems, swapped it out with that 3 month old EMPI and boom, no more clicking sounds when accelerating. I still cant believe it. I am going to be going for a refund from Rock Auto today on that old axle. One more weekend worth of work, then I have almost all the front end stuff done! Next up, tie rods. Any and all advice would be super helpful. Do you actually need a tie rod puller? I am doing outer and inner rods, Which to me makes things easier? Hopefully?