HRBrat

Thank you for those links! I'm always a little hesitant to jump into electrical projects, and having guidance from those who've been before is super helpful. It'd also be really nice to have a bit more light output from them.

Lamps are stock. It's an Alaska vehicle though, and it's got a built in battery charger, block heater, and battery heater that were all aftermarket.

I haven't traced the wiring from the column switch to the actual headlights. May be a problem in there somewhere. The dial switch was still working properly until i swapped in the junkyard switch. No headlights in any position with that one. I started smelling things before i checked on the parking light position though. Haven't had any ignition switch issues that i'm aware of.

Update! So the junkyard column switch arrived. I removed the steering wheel. Disconnected the battery. Cleaned the rather nasty junkyard switch. Removed the sparkling clean but maybe malfunctioning switch. And swapped in the junkyard one. I put the steering wheel back on just enough to release the ignition lock, reconnected the battery, and put the ignition in the on position. The dashboard lit up, but I didn't have any headlights in the high beam or low beam positions. I was just about to test the directional signals when i smelled something and saw a faint whiff of smoke coming from the column switch. I hurriedly turned off the ignition and removed the key. Oddly the right turn indicator then started flashing despite the key being out. I'm kinda confused about that. It stopped when a moved the indicator lever on the column switch. I then disconnected the battery and retreated! So, i'm kinda confused. Maybe the junkyard switch was junk. I had less functionality than i did with my original column switch. Maybe the problem is something else? I'm also not sure how the directional signals could come on with the key out of the ignition. I thought all of those circuits were dependent on the ignition circuit... Maybe something is shorting from the ignition cylinder to the column switch? I'd appreciate any thoughts or ideas. Thanks!

I ordered a junkyard column switch that should be here in a couple of days. I'll update to let you know if it worked!

Interesting. Yeah, mine is completely stock headlights with no modifications. Luckily my low beams come back on immediately when i switch back from the high beam selection on the column switch. Junkyard switches look easy to come by, but it looks like the wiring involved to switch them out would be a pain.

Hi All, I've got an 87 BRAT with about 200k miles on it that i've been daily driving for the past 5 years. Great truck! Recently i drove off during an evening, hit the high beam switch, and the lights just went out. Dash lights still on, but both high and low beams on both sides go dark. Pop it back to low position and the low beams come back on. Fuses in the box by my left knee are good. I popped the plastic off the column and cleaned out the areas around the column switch. Sprayed some contact cleaner into the visible contacts that the selector uses, and still no dice. The wiring of the column switch looks like a pain in the rump roast, so before i try unhooking it and either taking it apart to fix something or get a junkyard one to replace it, i figure i should see if anyone knows of any alternative spot the problem could be. Maybe an inline fuse somewhere? If anyone has any thoughts on possible causes or experience with swapping out the column switch i'd be grateful for any advice. Thanks!

Oooh, truck tires sound like they might be useful. I think that part of my problem is using the Toyos for offroading when that's not really what they're designed for. I'd definitely be interested in something that would be more durable and puncture resistant. Thanks!

Hi All, I have an 87 Brat that i use as my daily driver year round. In the summer i spend plenty of time going out into the mountains on rough dirt roads to go hiking. Got a flat tire doing that yesterday and fixing it today i notice that i'm on my third patch for this worn out tire. Does anyone know of a way to get 185/70-13 tires in the US that might hold up a bit better than the super crappy Toyo Eclipses that i run? I have a nice set of 14" rims that i got from Australia that i swap on in the winter, but i'd like to just keep my snow tires and summer tires mounted on separate rims so that they're easier to swap. It seems that the options for 13" tires in the US these days are really limited. Anyone know of a good supplier or a way to get good ones from another country?

Thanks again! Sadly the RockAuto listing is one of those phantom ones that looks available in the list but as soon as you put it in your cart it says the part isn't available. I was able to find a rebuild kit for sale from SummitRacing. Not much out of pocket to give it a try at least.

Thanks all, I did the criss cross pattern as described in the Muir book. I did a full 32oz bottle. Not sure how much the shop put through it, but they said it was a ton. I feel like a leak it should initially feel firm when i push but then slowly go to the floor. This is the opposite. Initial push or two go almost to the floor, but after a couple of quick pumps its totally firm and feels like normal. This also came on very suddenly. Didn't have any of this issue before the caliper change and the brakes have always been solid. I'm lucky enough to live in the Northwest where salt hasn't been a thing until last year. The Brat is actually an Alaska vehicle that spent most of it's existence in Fairbanks before coming down this way about five years ago. It's got basically no rust. I'll poke around for bad lines, but it doesn't seem likely to me. In the event that it could be the master cylinder, does anyone know where to get one or a rebuild kit?

It definitely acts like there's air in it. I actually got a new caliper and tried that on it as well, but the pedal feels totally the same. I only do the two person bleeding method, and i've put way more fluid through it than i ever have before or on any other car. It comes out clean and clear, and other than the first few pumps after changing the caliper there haven't been any bubbles. After all of that I gave up and had the local subaru-focused mechanic look at it. They thought it was air too and pumped a ton of fluid through it without any change. They think it's the master cylinder, but they don't have access to parts for it. It kinda feels like just an assumption that it must be the MC on their part, but i don't have any other good explanation. Could the brake booster somehow do this? I hear a small puff of air somewhere centrally around the intake manifold area when the pedal is pushed to the floor. i haven't been able to figure out exactly where it is, but possibly related to the vacuum line to the booster? It seems like even if there was a problem with the booster though it shouldn't make the pedal soft...

I'm having some braking issues with my 87 Brat and hoping for some help with diagnosis. The problems started a couple months ago with the left front caliper sticking closed. I got a rebuild kit, took apart the caliper, found some corrosion in the cylinder and buildup of crud on the piston. Cleaned both up with a wire wheel, replaced seals, and put it back on the car. I put new pads on both sides while i was at it. Bled the system but couldn't get the pedal to feel firm. After extensive bleeding of master cylinder and all four corners the pedal could still go most of the way to the floor. If i pump it two or three times it firms up and can lock the wheels in braking, but after a few seconds it seems to lose pressure and the next push will go most of the way to the floor again. I don't see any leaking fluid, and i haven't had to add any to the reservoir, but obviously i haven't done any real driving to see levels go down slowly. Pedal was totally firm without any issues before i did the caliper rebuild. I've bled a full large bottle of fluid through it, and i'm not getting any bubbles. Could this be from the seals in the master cylinder failing? If not that, what else could it be? Thanks for any input!

Thanks for the input! I just went for a drive today to check. It accelerates without pulling in either direction. At 40ish mph i can sometimes feel a vibration or low rumble through the steering wheel, but it isn't really doing the wiggle back and forth. At highway speeds it does do a small side to side wiggle that does vary with the speed of travel. At lower speeds i can kinda feel it through the shifter. I'm guessing it's not the wheel as the problem started during the fall when i was still running my 13" rims with all seasons and when i swapped over to the 14" rims with snow tires it didn't really make any difference. The right axle is almost brand new with less than a thousand miles on it. Felt good out of the box. Left axle was put on over the summer and probably has four or five thousand miles on it. They both feel smooth when i rotate the wheels off the ground and both feel solid when i pull on them from below. Of course they are both crappy after market axles that have been failing frequently. Anyone know how to get one that sucks somewhat less?

Hi All, I have another weird car symptom that i'm struggling to figure out and wanted to get some ideas. Over the past couple of months i've had an intermittent rhythmic wobbling feeling. At first it would only happen after about 45 minutes of driving at highway speed. First time i was worried that i had failed to tighten the lug nuts or strut mount bolts. Pulled over, found that everything was tight, and finished the drive. I was thinking maybe a rim spit off a balancing weight that i didn't notice. It had almost a bouncing feel similar to an out of balance wheel. Only difference was that it seemed to be related to throttle. More throttle, more wobble. Let it coast, and the wobble is gone. Sometimes i think that it feels like it's coming from a specific corner but not always. Checked things over that evening without finding anything loose in the suspension or alignment hardware and did a test drive the next morning to find that the wobble was gone. Since then it has happened off and on. Pretty much only after 45 minutes or so at highway speed. I can drive 65 to the town 20 minutes down the road and it won't happen, but if i try to drive an hour it does. I also have a part time job at a ski area and have a 45 minute drive there. It happens on the uphill leg but not the downhill leg. In the past week it's now started to happen even on slower drives around town and definitely seems throttle related. Engine is stock EA-81 except for a weber swap. It has the usual problem of going through CV axles every year or so and i recently changed the right front, but the early episodes were before swapping it. I actually thought that the bad DOJ was the problem until it started happening again. I'm running 14" rims with otherwise standard snow tires right now, so it is 1" oversized, but i've used these same rims the past two years without problem. Haven't had an alignment done in a while, but with the intermittent nature it doesn't really seem like that'd be the problem? Any ideas? I'm stumped by the way that it comes and goes.

Thanks all! As the noise has not returned I’m back to using it as a daily driver without issue so far. I’m definitely glad to know about the resources above in case I have more trouble though.

Thanks HeyZeus! That’s great to know about. For now it seems to be running fine, but if problems come back I’ll give him a call.

Got around to checking the lifters. They're hydraulic. I think the 86 and later EA-81s have them over here. My 89 that i had back in high school definitely did. I've been driving it all week and it appears to be running just fine. Not sure what happened, but definitely glad that the engine rebuild appears to be off the table for now!

It's an 87, and i'm pretty sure it has the hydraulic valves that you aren't supposed to adjust. I haven't taken the covers off to look at them though. The day the noise happened i first noticed it while getting off the highway and it continued whether i was driving slowly, going up a steep hill, or just idling. I restarted it later that day (maybe about 45 minutes after shutting it down) and the noise was still there. That was after topping off the oil. I also checked the timing at that point and found that it had not changed. Yesterday i started it up, did not notice the noise, and took it on a ten mile test drive encompassing easy 40mph driving, some in town driving, and a 55mph run up a moderate hill on the way home without hearing anything amiss. I'm going to drive it to work this morning and see how that goes.

I’m still a bit confused on what actually happened. I’m familiar with predetonation in the setting of pinging, but I’ve only experienced it under hard acceleration presumably while the vacuum advance is fully engaged. This sound happened at idle as well as throughout the throttle range. Any idea what might have been going on and how letting it sit for a few weeks would make it go away?

Back in town and tried a cold start after it sat for a few weeks. Started right up, and the noise is gone. Good call el_freddo! I'm very glad to find that it's not rod knock, but i still have some concerns that the noise happened. Any thoughts on next diagnostic steps or if i should be worried? I've been meaning to check the compression for a while, and it seems like that might be a good place to start.

I always just take out the bolt that holds the lower control arm on and the loosen the strut mount nuts a little bit. This lets the whole strut move a lot more and makes it easy to just wiggle the hub over the spindle.

I’m out of town at the moment and won’t be able to try a cold start until the 14th unfortunately. I checked the timing when it happened and it was still at 12btdc. I advanced it last year when putting the Weber on it. Not sure if that would have contributed. The car has never had a problem with blowing smoke but does consume and leak some oil. I’m good at keeping it topped up though. The plugs are less than a year old and are the recommended NGK. I’ve never checked the compression. The noise came out of nowhere to be very noticeable. Would a ring fail that rapidly? I had a problem with frequent backfiring in this car prior to switching from the hitachi to a Weber, but it hasn’t happened since. With the more advanced timing and the Weber it initially pinged badly under acceleration, but I’ve been running premium, and that seemed to take care of it. The current noise happens even at idle and seems very different from the prior pinging...

Hi all. Im the owner of an 87 BRAT that’s in really excellent shape. Minimal rust. Everything works. Almost all original. It had been running great, but after my most recent drive which involved some big highway climbs with a load in the back I started hearing a new noise that i suspect is rod knock. It’s louder and lower than lifter tapping, and it changes speed with the engine. Never had it before. Checked the oil and it was down about half a quart, but topping it up didn’t make a difference. I suspect that i need the engine rebuilt or replaced. I do all of my own regular maintenance and do bolt on stuff like CVs, brakes, struts, and Weber swap, but I think a full rebuild is probably beyond my skills. I’ve got an 84 rusted out field BRAT that runs well and could be a donor for a swap. Ive contacted local Subaru Specific Garages that have expertise in older models, but I haven’t found one willing to do either a rebuild or a swap. So now I’m most interested in finding out if there’s a guru or garage somewhere in the northwest who could take it on. This is definitely one of the nicest BRATs still on the road, and I don’t want it to just be a pretty lawn ornament. It’s been my daily driver and orchard vehicle for market for the last few years. I would also consider an EJ-22 swap depending on help i could get. I’m not a fan of sorting out wiring harnesses! I’d love to find a garage or mechanic in the Columbia Gorge or Portland area but could trailer it farther if need be. Anyone know now any good resources or have other good ideas for keeping this on the road? Thanks!