Geluso

I replaced the washers and nuts on the alternator and literally everything reads properly now. What an easy fix. Scrub scrub scrub those connections.

Yes, I mean the same thing with "eye terminal" and "ring connector." OK, let me scrub these up and hopefully it is a very easy fix.

Maybe my eye terminal just isn't actually contacting the positive output post? I really don't understand how I get two different readings from touching the post or the eye terminal. Here's a photo of the not-burnt connection.

I'm confused by my interior volt meter reading. It shows 10V. Where is the interior volt meter measuring that voltage? When I use my own volt meter I don't get any reading near 10V, but I don't see any reading around 14V like I expect to see. * I read 12.6V across the battery terminals. * I read ~12.6V from the eye terminal to ground on the engine case * I read 18V (a lot!!) from the alternator positive output post to ground on the engine case * And, hey, why do I get a different reading between literally the post or the eye terminal? They're touching the same thing!! I thought I was dealing with a bad wire somewhere but I've replaced a noticeably bad wire and I can't find what looks like any voltage drops between the alternator and the battery. The eye terminal and the wire on the positive alternator post have gotten physically hot to the point where they melt plastic on the wire. Check out pictures to see the melted wire. My best guess is there's still a bad wire somewhere. Or maybe the alternator is bad? Shouldn't it read 14 or 16 volts and not 18 volts? Any insight is appreciated! And again, my original question is where exactly is that interior volt meter measuring that voltage? I really don't understand why it alone shows 10V.

Coming in to this thread ten years late, but here's a reminder to any n00bs like myself that find this. High oil pressure is normal if your car has sat for a long time or, in my case, you've done something like an engine swap and you've got cold oil. Let the oil warm up and see the oil pressure go down. Thanks to Justin my faithful mechanic always ready to answer a dumb question.

Wow. I just tapped it and it was the EASIEST thing to remove. Kicking myself for not trying yesterday but it was getting late anyways. Ya'll are the best. Thanks for clueing me in.

Awesome info. Thanks. I'll knock some stuff around this evening. el_freddo, the wagon is running GREAT!! It needs some brake work so I have something to learn there. Real squishy. They've been bled. Must be something else going on. My friend sold me a 97 Impreza so my plan is to take the EJ out of the impreza and put it in the wagon. I'll buy the adapter plate off https://www.sjrlift.com/collections/engine-swap/products/ea-to-ej-swap-kit there. I'm a bit intimidated by the wiring harness work. Should have a fun wagon at the end of it though

Unfortunately I'm an idiot and wasn't watching oil and seized the engine on my '83 BRAT. Good thing I picked up this well-running '84 wagon real cheap ($700!!, 130k miles, can you believe it?) as a donor car. I'm taking the engine out of the Wagon and putting it into the BRAT, albeit way sooner than I expected. I went to drop the 84 Wagon engine into the 83 BRAT today and was surprised to find a fitting pin on the lower right facing the transmission smashes straight into a fitting pin on the engine. What's up with these fitting pins? Can I hammer them out and put them in another position? Or, is the pin position clueing me in that this engine and this transmission is not in fact compatible? Pictures attached. 1. I horizontally flipped the image facing the engine to make it easier to reason about this pin mismatch. 2. a super zoomed in image of the pins clashing. 3. the overall setup just to show off my annoying slightly inclined driveway. Anyone have a clue what's up with this pin? cheers!

Oh man el_freddo you just reminded me I've got an old iPod. I'll have to dig that up and keep it in the car now. I spliced 12v power off the light for the ash tray, which I really don't use. The inputs and outputs off the box after connecting power are super plug and play. The box has RCA left and right stereo inputs (which I attached a RCA to 1/8" aux cord to). It has a cord to plug your antennae into, and it has an output antennae cord that goes into the factory stereo. The box came with its own on/off switch as a wire on the 12v power line. I cut off the box's power switch and attached it to this toggle switch that already existed by my steering wheel. Shopping for wireless coils now and it looks very promising.

I just installed this fantastic Radio Shack FM modulator on my BRAT. This box hardwires in to the stereo's antennae input and gives you an aux cord to plug in phones, and I use a little aux bluetooth receiver too. I love that my devices are actually jacked in and not using a FM broadcast device where you constantly have to reprogram what frequency you're on to fight with different local radio stations. The audio quality is fantastic! Now I'm noticing my phone fits nicely into the cubby underneath the factory stereo. I really want to build in a wireless charging pad so I can throw my phone there and keep it charged super easily. Anyone have experience integrating a wireless charge pad? The easiest thing for me to do would be setting a normal USB wireless charger in the cubby and plugging the charge pad in to the cigarette lighter. I wonder if there are better charging pads built to plug in to the car's power system and live in this cubby more permanently. I'm half curious to hear if anyone else has done this and half super stoked to figure out something myself. Thought I'd share the idea. Here's the FM modulator I was able to install. The box really did fit in to empty space in the console quite nicely. I've even got a toggle switch to activate the FM modulator to switch between the aux input or the normal radio. It all came together absolutely clean so far. https://www.amazon.com/Radio-Shack-FM-Stereo-Modulator/dp/B0711P3KTK/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=fm+modulator&qid=1619076767&sr=8-4

No issue with the oil at all. I realized last night why my initial reading was so bone dry and completely inaccurate: I was parking facing steeply downhill after I had tried to compression the car when it first failed. Yes, serious facepalms all around here. But, hey, I'm not a guy that ever learns stuff the easy way. Just a funny scene from a funny show called Medical Police: Doctor: We need guns. Guns Dealer Friend: Sorry, I'm out of that game. I didn't realize how much guns hurt people. Doctor: You didn't realize guns hurt people? Guns Dealer Friend: Not until I got shot. I'm an experiential learner.

Thanks for the responses! I waited a bit to get another pair of eyes on what was going on and good news: STUPID MISTAKE. It as my Weber carb that was seized. The choke plates were stuck. I had pressed on them back when the car first went wrong but I didn't remember or know how they were supposed to move. They were certainly jammed. My mechanic friend came over, saw what I wasn't able to describe via phone and we got everything back up and running, replaced the distributor cap, added new spark plug wires and did a proper timing too. This isn't the first time this Weber carb has caused me trouble. It still has a "sticky throttle" issue where a piece closer to the manifold still has some resistance. The throttle cable doesn't always naturally return to neutral. I found this YouTube video of a guy showing pretty much the same problem. I still need to get my hands on Teflon dry lube to try his fix. The last time I took the carb off to investigate the sticky throttle it wasn't jamming as much as it had before. Anyway, I'm rambling now. See videos of my stuck carb here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/GB1yLBaKoRFvmoGj6 See the other dudes video of a sticky weber carb fix here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7Ol6iQCH94

Well. God damn. I messed up. After putting a ton of work in I thought I was done and back to enjoying my car. Nope! I messed up and drove it on a 1 hour test drive around the city only to find out later it didn't have oil. I think something was wrong with my oil indicator. I was doing the test drive because it died on me twice before earlier in the day, but I thought I just hadn't let the engine warm up at first. It drove well for my test drive after I let it warm up but now the next day the engine wouldn't start and there was zero oil when I got around to checking the engine. I fear I made a very dumb mistake and seized my engine! So. Anyone have an engine laying around? I would love to replace mine. Here's a picture of my beautiful 1983 BRAT hanging out down by the old Weyerhauser headquarters by Auburn. If someone around here doesn't have one I've already talked to a guy in Philadelphia who's willing to ship one over. Someone on reddit clued me in to ask here to find someone more local.

Thanks for the info. I've been buying through O'Reilly's getting cables that come in Pioneer boxes, part number CA-891. Doesn't sound like OEM. I'll double check the routing. I'm sure I've got it under the steering column at least. The discoloration looks like the cable is being affected by heat to me. The cut looks clean enough that vandals did it, but I distinctly felt it snap pushing with my own foot. Anyone have tips where to get OEM cables? I'll start shopping around.

Anyone else have trouble with your clutch cables? I think my engine is overheating and causing this to snap right off the fork. It has happened to me twice in the past three weeks. Symptoms: * Car has a high idle. the throttle cable is gummed up on the carb so it doesn't always return to neutral position immdiately. * A friend has suggested their might be a vacuum leak * The cable snapped when I'm starting the car. I press the clutch just a bit harder to get it going and the last strand snaps. Sound familiar to anyone?