TomRhere

I've read postings on here by some of the more knowledgable members that the EA-82 steering joint is a good one to use for extending the steering shaft on lifted Ru's. Puts less stress on the flex-joint of the EA-81 rack.

Maybe that be the 1 sitting here in my driveway. Dunno for sure.... It be an '84 GL, full instrumentation dash, PB 4WD EA-81 Auto tranny, no T-tops, (darn-it), had Bed-seats but some A-----e cut them out, Grrrrr. Has Topper.

You may also want to look thru this site for a converter, many different styles and sizes. http://discountconverter.com/

Count one more vote for #1. Never understood the reasoning behind moving the dimmer switch off the floor. Some of those switches on "newer" cars are a real PITA to get to for replacement. Don't have a 4EAT vehicle, as of yet, but I'll cast a vote for #2 anyways.

I've drove cars thru Winter months with plain water in them, without any freeze-up problems, temps dipping into the teens. Wouldn't try it with temps going any colder though. If it's to get down right cold, I would drain the water out, and re-fill it in the AM. Best to put her tail to the wind though, keeps the chance of a freeze-up to a lesser one.

Nice pencil work there!

I hate to say this, but you're doing damage to your engine by driving it like this. Especially if you are using Anti-Freeze/water mixture to replace lost coolant. A-F will remove the coating on your Main and Rod bearings, when that happens they're toast, or atleast not long for this world. If you really need to drive the car, flush your cooling system out, and use plain water in there. Also, drain oil, flush out pan with some kerosene. Install drain plug, replace oil filter, (cheap one will do here), fill crankcase with 1 quart 30W oil - 3 quarts kerosene, run (cold) engine until it's warmed up, drain oil pan, flush with more kerosene. Refill with proper oil, and change filter. Really don't reccomend you drive car like this, but understand that you may not have a choice.

Use the Chevron stuff myself, it's great. I've even dumped 2 bottles in the same tank of gas on a couple of vehicles. It does get the grud out.

The filter for the '86 era V-6 engines fit also. While doing the re-seal of the EA-82 engine that was in the '82, I found a box of parts from M-I-L's old '86 T-bird. Oil filter was 1/2 again as long as one on my engine.

Pull the gas supply line off of carb, and place in pop bottle, or simular container. Turn key to "on" position to check for gas flow. The fuel pump should run for a second or two. Do this a couple times just to be sure of fuel flow. If you have fuel flow, chances are pump and related items are good. This would point towards the float in the carb being stuck shut. It happens.. 'specially on one that's sat for a while. Lightly tap the side of the carb where the fuel bowl is, this may free-up the float. I say this cause it ran for a bit, then died. Will start, but not run using starting fluid. Just makes me think of stuck float....

He has the system I built for the '82 BRAT when the EA-82 engine was in it. Seeing as how you'll need to shorten the pipes down to fit under the Hatch, cut the pipes ahead of the mufflers, (instead of behind them like we talked about). Now, you'll be able to bolt the pipes to either exhaust port to match the engine flange bolt pattern, won't need to remove the cast-iron blocks that way, (unless you want to), then re-attach mufflers. Leaving the blocks in, may give you enough clearence for the sway-bar to remain on the Hatch, but I can't say for sure on that. You'll be good to go.............................

You are lucky Dude! And a big AMEN goes out to the Man upstairs for your "walking away" from that. Been awhile ago, but I rolled a car, doing abit faster than 20-25 mind you. They had to cut me out of the hulk of twisted metal. Roof line closely matched what is left of yours. Was told that "if I had been wearing a seatbelt, or had a passenger, chances are, we wouldn't of made it". I wound up in the rear seat area of the car, got 4 stiches "inside" of my left ear from the DS top corner of the A-pillar slamming into the right-side of the back of the DS seat. That was as close to DEAD as you can get... Was the only injury I got out of it, besides being sore all over for a few days. Truely is amazing as to the low speed required to roll a car over, or atleast get it in the condition of approaching the point of a roll-over. Drop-offs, embankments, don't help any, none what so ever. You are truely lucky... Glad you're okay..........................

Hoping you made the last leg of this journey safely, Pat...... PM me with your email addy, so I can send some moola your way to help with the financial recovery.

My turn to say Welcome. The Fox and I have gotten together a few times, and I've made it to Jim's a couple of times. Need to get back down to Jim's and soon. Need to get the BRAT home. Just need to get it done between snow storms. When you get to the point of wanting to put the 4WD conversion into your Hatch let me know. I have a complete rear suspension unit with diff, sitting here. Came out of the '86 BRAT I had to scrap. It'll need some mount point repair, due to rust, but is good otherwise. Have the driveshaft here too. I have a D/R 4 speed here if your interested, but you'd be happier with the D/R 5 speed. Got a few other items laying around that you may be in need of further down the road. Don't have alot of "extra" parts, but I do have some.

I know what you mean... Older Soobs are a rare sighting around here. Afew "newer" ones, but not to many of the "older" ones. Most, if not all of the "newer" ones, are just passing thru town me thinks, as I only see them once in awhile. Besides mine, I think I've only seen 4 other "older" ones over the last 2 years or so. An early '80's Hatch, a later '80's Wagon, late '80's Sedan, and a XT. I see the Wagon more often now, but most times it's going in the other direction. I'll be sure to leave a note on it, if I ever find it parked. Or talk to the owner if they're around.

Not saying it's the problem here... But a blown headgasket can/will cause high-speed overheating, but normal-ish temp at lower speeds. Have a local garage check cooling system for traces of exhaust gasses.

I've had decent luck, (most of the time, but not always), in reversing the heater hoses to back-flush the core. Depends on just how much crud is in core, and orintation of core in vehicle. But it's an easy try... T-stats can fail, regardless of Brand, or age..... Do love the heaters in these BRATs I own!! Heats up the cabin area real nice, and fast. Takes the Dodge forever to get warmed up enough to defrost the windshield. You want "heat", better wait another 15 minutes or so. Once it's warmed up, it gives pleanty of heat though.

Condensation under the oil cap is somewhat normal, for a couple of reasons. 1. Having the fill tube for oil, doesn't allow much crankcase air circulation up around the cap to help get rid of the moisture. 2. Cold weather causes more condensation to develope, especially with alot of short trip driving. As the engine doesn't get hot enough, long enough, to burn it out, dry it up, how ever you want to put it. Just about any vehicle with a fill tube for the oil will have some condensation under the cap. The longer the fill tube, the more of it you'll see. Atleast that's been my experience. Now with that said. I'd be more concerned if you were gettting that yuck on the dip-stick itself. That would not be good, as it would indicate other problems.

Well, I ordered and received the spacers that McBRAT mentioned, along with a shorter air filter. Those parts arrived a week ago. Today, I had the time to wrench on the BRAT. Got the spacers in, yes you read right, I put 2 of them under the carb. Just gives enough clearance for the disty wires, with 2 1/2" spacers. Did have a bit of a time finding the right length of bolts, but I finally found some. Thinking I need to order a stash of Metric bolts, nuts, thru the Shop, just to have around here. Maybe even a couple lengths of all-thread too. Played with the settings of carb and timing for awhile. She's a running good now. Best part is,,,, no more "I can't feather the go-pedal" problem. Got the original cable in there for the accelerator now. It be smooth... Will have to wait for it to cool off some so I can be sure of proper choke settings. But,,,, I be a much "Happier Camper" now....... Fast idle warm-up, seemed to be ok, but I just want to be sure of things before I call it , Done. Sure is a heck of an improvement over the way she ran before the swap.

Glad to hear you made it to Jim's place. Wishing I could've made the trip down to meet up with you. Besides, I'll take a steak on the grill over fried chicken any day. Incase you missed the drift there, we're have chicken for dinner tonight. Rather of had steak............ Mother-in-Law does some good fried chicken, but still........... Jim........ Stuff a $20.00 in Pat's pocket for me. I'll get it back to you.

I would think you need to get the Dash Indicator Light wired in. It is part of the Altenators wiring system. Not real familar with the Subaru wiring in itself, so I could be wrong. But I have swapped the GM Alts into many different vehicles, including farm equipment. You don't really need the Dash Light wired in on these, but you do have to apply a momentary power source to the Dash Light wire to encite the Alt to put out juice. I've done this with a push-buttom switch. Just a thought on the problem..........

I remember reading about Scott's search for a TO bearing for his BRAT. No clue here as to part number, but he did find one to fit his D/R-4spd and ER-27 combo.

Does he have the ER-27 5-speed type clutch?

The one I have was brand new when I put it on the EA-82 engine that was in my '82 BRAT, with D/R 4spd. Had issues at 1st, but it was due to getting to much fuel. A Fuel Pressure Regulator helped there. Did a bit of tweaking with idle speed and mixture screws to get it proper for the engine. Can't say much about the low-end torgue aspect, as this was the 1st EA-82 engine I owned. But, there was much improvement over the Hitachi that was on it. Top-end was real good, could cruise on the highway at 70 - 80mph, and still accelerate if needed. Last road trip in it, I got 31 mpg, not to shabby me thinks. I've swapped the EA-82 intake and Weber over to the '84 with Auto. Need to do more tweaking of carb settings yet, and ignition timing, but it's running better than with old carb. When the engine is still on the cold side, it'll backfire thru carb when I hit the go-pedal, doesn't do it when fully warmed though. I'm "Happy" with the Weber vs Hitachi............

I'd be interested in one each myself..............