MDW

I am driving 5 hours to pick up a 78 Brat tomorrow. All I know is that is constantly blows fuses, which cuts power to the car. The person who owns it says he removed/broke the hazard switch and it has been blowing fuses ever since. I'm renting a car, so If I can not get this car running, I will be stranded. Sounds like fun right? Anyone have an issue like this? Anyone know what's going on? Are there workarounds? Anyone willing to be on call when I work on this thing tomorrow? Anyone who helps me fix it, I will buy a six pack beers!! Thanks Everyone.

SORRY WRONG THREAD

I did some digging, and have found a few, as of right now I am not going to worry about it until I buy my house and have a garage I can heat. haha. plus it would be difficult to tear apart while at the campsite. I camp all year round so this will be a walk in the park, really excited for all the color. Discovered a powerstearing fluid leak today but that's no too serious for me, I will just fill it until I have time to tear into it again. I drove it for about an 1.5 hours today to the city to drop off my Rat at a friends house. The car rode so well, I am so happy with it, grinning ear to ear. The engine runs great Tom! thanks again!

First, Fievel wanted to say hi, and bye, he is living with a friend for a month while I am temporarily homeless. Second, I was able to score a Thermo Switch from @mechanical_misfit, and also scored a sweet set of white wagon wheels, picture to come. The Radiator fan is now operational!! The car is running so damn good I could not be happier. Still little things to tinker with, as always. But right now it's packed up and ready for my next adventure. I will be camping for the month of october while I wait for issues to be worked out with the house I am purchasing. Here is Rupert all Packed up for the adventure: Here is how well he blends with it's natural environment: Does anyone know what this fuse is to? The 20Amp fuse inside of this white enclosure? It is blown and I can't figure out what it goes to? ALSO the speedo, temp, RPM's and oil pressure are not showing up on my digital dash cluster, I need to do some research, anyone heard of this issue?

I drove it a little longer tonight to fill up the tires and gas it up. Running really really well! I could not be happier with the way it runs, currently. idling very well at a lower RPM, simplifying the Hitachi works so well. I pulled this carb from my brat, and it ran like spoob when it was on the brat. The re-build and de-smog worked wonders. Having all sorts of electrical issues right now. there is no thermo switch installed so the fan should be running, but it's not. I don't see a wire to connect the radiator to the radiator support, my brat doesn't have one either. Maybe this is the issue, but I am not missing a cable, at least I don't think I am. Where does the cable go? My blinkers are not working either. Was not able to check brake lights, because I could not see them while diving. Maybe I am missing a crucial ground somewhere. any ideas?

Never-mind found the answer to my question! haha

I will be working on them tonight I will have to do just that! good idea. My fan is not coming on, I do not have the sensor in the radiator yet, is this the sensor that triggers the fan? or is one of the sensors in the manifold the ones that triggers it? Thanks!

Thank You! I was pleased with the orange. I was hoping to work on it last night, but I am packing up my house. I did not close on the house I was supposed to by because Real Estate is a complicated mess of bureaucracy . I am homeless in 7 days so I have been furiously packing up my house, and moving everything into storage. I will leave the brakes as is for now, and focus on wiring up a temp heat gauge. Jimbo has a sensor I am going to steal from his parts car, thanks for the offer though! As far as the Ignition timing is concerned. I actually brought the flywheel to 8* and set the distributor so the rotor was pointing directly at it. The car wouldn't start and just shot a plum of smoke out of the carb. When I adjusted to about 30* it runs really well and and when I inch towards the 20* it stalls and dies. weird right? Could the flywheel be on wrong, because I did not pay attention to he markings when I put it on. (wasn't even thinking about it) I was going to drive it a little last night on the backroads to let her open up a little bit, but in the moving fury I have lost the key.... this might get interesting.

IT's ALIVE!! After tinkering for a while, discovering some loose ends and installing a new fuel pump, it finally came to life. Was able to drive around the block last night. It felt great to leave the driveway on Ruperts own 4 legs. Ran very rough, but tuning is in process. Current Issues: 1. Timing is no were near 8, currently off the charts at probably 30, I think this may be due to the current high RPM's it want's to sit at. I have tuned ignition timing by ear so far. If I bring it anywhere near 20 it stalls. 2. Runs okay, idle is pretty darn high, need to tinker more. Hitachi has been simplified and works great so far. 3. Missing sensor from Radiator, may hardwire fan to a switch for now so I can drive and not worry about traffic jams. 4. Dash cluster is fried, needs to be replaced but don't have time to rip it out. Will be researching wiring up an after market heat gauge, which is about all i need for now. 5. Pistons in front brake calipers will not turn at all, so I can't complete a break job, which it badly needs form sitting for 7 months. 6. The shifter want's to fall through the floor PRO's It runs. it look sexy, here are some pictures: SO MUCH FUN!!!

Why would I do something like that, the engine goes in the car not on the ground! That was a funny joke right? no...okay ill stop I actually did not ground the engine, but peaked into my brats engine bay to see a ground wire going to the engine. My starter was turning over the engine fine so I thought it has ground, did not know it needed a separate cable, but it does make sense since the engine sits on rubber mounts. I figured my issues are small ones like this, I am going to spend some time with the electrical diagram and fuel diagram this afternoon to make sure everything is right. I'm going to do some research on the carb rebuild to see what I could have possibly done wrong, It's all new parts, I have no idea why the bowl wont fill when the check valve is installed. I have a bad feeling that it's only the start of my fuel issues, but I have another hitachi that is acting as a donor, I could make that one work for the time being if needed.

Well it's been a long 4 days, multiple trips to the parts store, hardware store...you know the usual for putting an engine in a car. I have had a lot of fun and everything is in the car. of coarse it wont start. Gave up for the night will tackle it again tomorrow. Issues. at first the bowl was not filling with gas. I re-built my hitachi and i think something may be wrong with float. I unbolted the top of the carb, removed the float and cranked the engine over to see if gas was even entering carb. It just kind of slowly poured out. I bolted the carb back together with the float removed so the bowl would fill in an attempt to get gas into the engine. I believe gas is now flowing through carb, I can see gas getting into manifold, but no spark. I even tried spraying carb cleaner directly into the top of the carb, but no spark. I will do some detective work tomorrow to try and work these kinks out. I will take some pictures too.

What are the crucial bolts to be putting lock-tight on? What's the hard and fast rule on this?

Oh cool, thanks for letting em know. I'm assuming I will need a different bolt then for mounting my exhaust. Need to make a parts run anyways, and I'm sure I will make a few more parts runs this weekend when I find out everything else I'm forgetting, haha.

I do have a disty, I think we pulled several out, i did take one. I should be putting the Engine in tonight, getting parts tomorrow to complete the job. so we will see if It all works soon enough. I have high hopes.

It's actually the manifold I took out of Rupert when I got it. The EA82 is going in the Brat! What parts did we leave behind? I'm sure we will be back at some point, haha. Most likely no, I have been taking things out of the car and trying to simplify as much as possible. I love mechanical, may even be using a manual choke carb if I can't successfully rebuild this hitachi.

I did not admit defeat, but I did make a strategic decision. Mechanical_Misfit, Tdoge (is that his name on here?) and myself payed Tom Rhere a visit on sunday. We drank a bunch of beer, enjoyed some good food and talked Old School Subaru for hours. I left with several goodies to get this car running and parts for the EA81. I also left his place with a working EA81, that will be going into Rupert hopefully this week, if I can find a cherry picker. Here she is all cleaned up. The EA81 from CCR will be going in my Brat this winter, with an EA82 manifold that I picked up from Tom. I just need to find a Cam Shaft for an EA81 to complete the build. That project is going on the back burner though. I just put in an order for $200 in parts form Rock Auto and Should have RUpert on the road soon!

Starts slow clap well done, this is beautiful, I can't wait to see this thing come together.

I have food in my belly and gas in my tank, so I'm not complaining. Buying a house is dumb, deposits and down-payments suck. I think Rock Auto has one for $107, which is a good deal, If I can't get it now I will be able to before winter and that's the important part. Still need a cam shaft too. It will all be completely worth it!

Need a radiator, any one have ideas for good matches I may be able to find at my local junkyard for cheap that could be easily retrofitted. Cheapest one I have found so far will be about $100.

SO CLEAN!!!!!!

Lifters

Right on, I most definitely will do that, I will be headed over to the warehouse in about 2 hours. Thank you for your help diagnosing this.

ooops. that does make sense for those to be rockers. Yes, those are the lifters that I have in this engine, I will double check when I am there today, but I am pretty sure mine are solid like that. This is going to be my daily driver and road tripper. I would like to start overhauling my brat, so this is going to be driving about 60 miles a day. I don't need anything fancy, but power is always fun I will probably just replace Cam and bent pushrods then and hope for the best. I have access to another ea81, but I am kind of running out of money for projects right now (in the process of buying a house)

well today felt like one one step forward two steps back. I was not able to pull the pins out of the pistons, bought a slide hammer, but the adapter did not work for the job AND I could not get the valve springs off, to inspect the valves Also I took a closer look and see that I am wrong. The valves are all the same, one cylinder, which actually isn't the cylinder with the bent rod, just had so much buildup I could not see the marking. So all valves match, none are different. Is it really important that I disassemble these heads completely, because I'm kind of running out of money and can't afford to buy more tools right now, haha. BUT I was able to still pull the cam shaft out and discovered that it is indeed rounded off from the bent pushrod. I did not manage to get a picture of the pushrods, but here are the valve springs and lifters: So I still need to pull the pistons, but I am not sure if that's going to tell us much. I really need to order parts for this ASAP Will i need a custom cam, since the heads are decked? I need pushrods head-gaskets Should I replace rings too? Any recommendations for things to replace while it's apart. Thanks!

86 Brat just rolled 88,000 yesterday, I can't wait to see it roll 388,000