TomRhere

About the only thing that will crud-up the strainer (sock) on the pick-up tube in the tank is rust, atleast that's all I've ever ran across on one. A shot of compressed air will clean off anything that might be on it. Please remove gas cap before you do the air thing....... Nice looking XT-6 you have there.........

Be sure to not touch the bulb with bare-hand either. Any oil on it will kill it in a short order 'specially if it's a halogen bulb. A folded paper towel works good for installing new one.

Water pipe is plain steel that's been rolled and seam-welded, not cast, although some of the fittings are cast. And yeah, it's fairly thick walled stuff, = heavy, may not be good for the flange threads at the heads. Easy to bend, weld what not, but you have to use low-heat when welding it, as it will crystalize and be brittle at the weld if you get it to hot. As for using the pipe bender to do curves and stuff, it'll give you a 12" radius of arc. That'll work good for the bend at the exhaust ports themselves, not sure on any other bends that you may be needing. I used 2" EMT (electrical conduit) to make the dual system that was under my "82 BRAT. It's thin-walled like exhaust pipe, welds/braizes easily, and you can get pre-bent curves in 90*, 60*, and 45*, maybe even a 30*. The 90* bends are 12" radius, don't recall what the other bends are actually, but thinking they're 12" also. On mine, I used one 90* bend each at the exhaust ports, length of straight, muffler and another 90* to exit right in-front of the rear tires, didn't use any cross-connection between the pipes side-to-side. Hardest part of building it was the fit-it-up, mark it, run to the shop to weld it, come back and test fit it, do it again and again, and again for each side. I "need" to get me a welder for the garage!!!

http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~camncath/retrofitting_the_weber_dgav_32.htm There's the link. Yep, just gotta love the sound of that Weber!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can't make a promise right now, but I'll see if I can make it over for atleast one of the days. Got alot of things here to work on, have to see what I could do about arrainging a "free-day".

I know way to well what you went thru. Had to do same thing on the XT-6 when I did the 1st oil change on it. Some people just don't understand the meaning of, "Hand tighten only".. Just be glad it wasn't like the '85 S-10 4X4 2.8L I had a few years back. Same thing with oil filter, on way to tight. Only way to get to filter is thru DS wheel well, really makes for a lovely day to get one off that's been put on to tight.

Is it a 2-row radiator? One of those would help greatly. Running the AC is putting heated air across the radiator, that don't help in the cooling of the coolant, hence the higher engine temp. A tranny cooler mounted in-front of the AC coil will help with the tranny temp issue, but won't really affect the over-all engine temp that much. Still, it's a good idea to install one, makes the tranny happier with cooler fluid. Another thing you could do is to get one of those oil cooler adapters and mount the cooler itself in-front of the AC coil. That will have an effect on the engine temp to an extent, as the cooler oil will help cool the engine down some.

To remove the spinning nut on the T-belt cover, slip a putty knife in the split then turn the bolt head with your socket, this will spin the nut out of the back cover. After the bolt and nut come out of the back cover, you should be able to hold the nut with pliers and remove the bolt. Once you have bolt and nut separated from cover, put nut back on bolt, hold bolt head with pliers, heat the nut and put it back where it belongs. It may or may not hold, but I've done a few of them this way, and most of them held. Be sure to use Anti-Sieze on the bolt when you put it back together. The 6 has the marks on the crank pulley as well as the flywheel. The center of the 3 lines should be aligned with the pointer, then as stated, one side up, other side down. Sounds like you need new wires and such for the spark issue.

Check the wiring connectors at the sending unit on the tank. I've had 2 of them quit working due to corrosion in the connectors.

I plead quilty to forgetting to do the lock-nut/tabs myself. Did so on the '84 when I swapped heads out on it. OooPS!!!!!!!!!!!

The choke heating element is key "on" powered at all times. Really shouldn't be way hot to the touch though, don't remember mine ever getting that hot. Choke plate should be fully closed when set, but should open slightly after engine is running. There is a vacuum diaphram that pulls it open slightly after the engine starts. Maybe diaphram has a hole in it, or the hose to it has split. Remove top of air filter, set choke and verify it is closed, start engine and see if choke plate opens abit. If it don't, there's your problem. Getting to much gas with plate closed, funky idle/run stuff until choke opens full from heating element. just my .02

I take it you pulled the coil and wires off the '84 Auto BRAT. Yep, you could've crossed-up a couple of the plug wires. That will definetly cause it to backfire. #1 is the rearmost on the disty cap, turns CCW going from memory only here, as the books are out in the garage. 3-4 1-2 That be the cylinder layout of the engine. --1-- 3-C-4 --2-- That be the disty cap layout.

Congrats!! You'll love it once you get it up & running right. I had almost called my Stepson to have him find that there yard and buy it for me. Micheal lives out there in Tucson and works for the Unniversity. Glad you beat me to it though. My 1st guess would be the T-belts also, probally not timed right if one's not broke. The DS T-belt tensioner is different than ones found on the EA-82s. Was somewhat challanging my 1st time, but I muddled thru it. That was all that was wrong with the one I bought for parts a year ago. Engine ran real good for having bad/bent valves in it, (as stated by the garage owner I bought it from). As for any body/interior parts you need, check the Market Places on xt6.net there's afew being parted out on there.

Count me out also!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.xt6.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1819&highlight=ecu+codes I think you will find what your looking for in that link.

I dunno now guys, if I'll be down. The oil pump on the XT-6 is scarring the hell out of me. All has to do with the HLA tick thing. I've done a couple oil changes and used some MMO in her. Got to where only one or two would tick for a bit, even got to where there was no tick after initial start-up. Now, as of Sunday, she just plain rattles. Every single one of the HLAs are ticking. Also, the oil pressure is usually up around the 45# mark, but Sunday it dropped to the bottom a couple of times, all while maintaining the same engine speed. Way scarry!!!!!!! Oil level is where it should be on the stick. Going to check with the local parts supplier and see if they can get me either a new pump, or a re-seal kit, in before Friday. If they can't, I don't think I want to chance the drive down. Would really hate to hurt this engine........

Congrats on the BRAT, Pat!! And yes, there are Black '82 BRAT's. I own one, and there's another one around these parts. I haven't seen it myself, but many a person has told me of it, including my oldest Son.

Ummm, Humidity itself does not have an effect on brake linings, be they pads or shoes, other than if the said vehicle hasn't been driven in awhile, rust may take effect and bond them to the rotor/drum, no real biggy there - just drive it. Moisture will have an effect on the brake fluid itself, so it's always a good idea to flush the system with fresh. No need to change the distributor itself, just cap/rotor/wires/plugs. Also change all other fluids in said vehicle, oil - tranny lube/fluid - differential lube - coolant. Change the gas filter(s), along with the air filter including the one for the PCV system along with the PCV valave itself. Would recommend new accessory drive belt(s), along with new radiator and heater hoses, as well as replacing the vacuum hoses. Don't need to do this all at once, just soon after you get the car, that way you know when things were done last. And after sitting for that long, it will need most of this done to it.

I would take a good look at the vent for the tranny. If it's plugged, it could cause the seal to come out from to much internal pressure in the tranny.

Also, check your fusable links, you may have blown one.

Still planning on being there, but not sure if I'll be down Saturday or Sunday. I'll narrow that down here shortly. I'll be driving the XT-6 down, as it's the only running 'Ru I have at the moment.

Really getting hard to find good help these days. Guess it's a good thing this Board is here!

Yeah, Ball-joints are very easy to do on these 'Ru's. Don't really need to do anything special to replace them. Have parts on hand, to begin with. D'oh, hates when that happens. Remove tire from whatever/both sides of vehicle, placing said vehicle on jack-stands afterwards. Gotta be safe here. You need to remove cotter-key that locks the nut onto the ball-joint stud, then loosen the nut. Difficulty here depends on where you live, as road-salt makes things more aggravating. There's a 14mm wrench size pinch-bolt that locks the ball-joint to the knuckle, you need to remove that. It's right above the ball-joint/control-arm connection, below where the axle goes thru. Now, insert a fairsized screwdreiver into the slot there in the knuckle, (talking area of where pinch-bolt is here), and tap it in a few times, but not to far, you ain't trying to chisel thru anything here. You are now ready to apply some down-force to the lower control arm, old shovel handle works real good here, but something around 5 foot long is proper length. Put one end of pry-bar over lower control-arm, coming in from the rearward side, and hook it under the engine crosssmember around where the E-brake cable mount is. Once you have good purchase of pry area, put your weight into it. Lower A-arm should come free of knuckle, may need to apply some well-aimed (light) hammer blows, but usually not. Should easily come free most times. Now, you are ready to seperate ball-joint and lower control-arm. You can rent a picklefork from your local parts place to do this, usually. Insert prongs of forks between B-joint and L-arm with it spanning the stud of the B-joint. Wail on it with hammer, should pop out in a couple hits. Put new B-joint stud in L-arm and install nut, do not tighten yet. Re-apply downforce to L-arm to place B-joint in knuckle. Can be a bit tricky to align everything, but it is fairly easy to do this really. Once pinch-bolt is back where it should be in the knuckle, re-install tire, and lower vehicle back onto Terra Firma. Tighten pinch-bolt to specs along with B-joint stud nut and insert cotter-pin, bending it properly. Really do want to tighten lug nuts here also. Make sure everything is tightened back-up as the book says it should be, after re-installing every removed bolt/nut, and you're good to go. Have read on here that some Members like to lift the boot on the new joint and smear somemore grease in there. Maybe/maybe-not, your call there... Can't hurt, but I haven't as of yet.

I would try to adjust the cable 1st before I tackled a clutch job, just to be sure.

Pretty much sums it up there. But the '82's are somewhat of an exception here. The antenna is on the opposite side, the GL's have single headlights along with the Center Passing Lamp, turnsignals are up by the headlights instead of in the bumper, bumpers are chromed instead of covered. Hatch doors will fit the BRATs, but you need to swap the window glass. Other than those items, parts is parts. Turbo models have 25 count axle splines, ( or is that just for the EA-82 models). '84 and later have vented rotors on the front. Most all of the drivetrain components will fit any other model, with noted exceptions and/or over-all vehicle length for the rear driveshaft. Gas tanks are different between 2WD and 4WD models. Love my BRATs!!!!!!