TomRhere

Looking good... You can come over here and do the BRATs for me. As for an oil to use in the rear cross tube, I recommend using ATF. It will "stay" on the metal better than any other oil. I don't think you'd need to fill it either. Just pour a quart in and roll the tube around to insure coverage, drain out excess.

The ATF flush works great for improving syncro operation. Also, if you add 1 pint of ATF to the lube during cold months, it will help ease shifting. I know GM used to recommend doing that back years ago for the 4-speed truck trans. Greatly helped the '67 and '68 I used to own.

Just replaced the PS front bearings/seals. Started hearing a noise last Wednesday, but couldn't pinpoint it. Found the bad bearing(s) today by wiggling each wheel. Nice day outside for doing repairs in the driveway. 46* and mostly sunny. Bit breezy though.

Thanks for that link Naru!

Wish you good luck in finding source. I chased a simular leak in the '95 Grand Am the Wife had a while back, never did locate the source.

Only thing I can think of in that area is the shut-off for the heater supply. But you should be smelling Anti-Freeze if it is leaking from the valve. Fresh air intake for the Vent system is on the Driver's side, I believe. It has been awhile since I had a look under the cowl of an EA81, or an EA82 for that matter. But I'm fairly sure both air intakes are off to the sides, and not directly in the center.

Air intake for the heater is above the blower. Possible buildup of debris in that area would lead to water coming in. You have to remove the cowl grille to access that area for cleaning.

Looks very simular to what I saw under the BRATs hood this morning. Moisture got into the disty, $60.00 tow bill back to the house.

Bent it! Got to close to the build up of stuff in the center and it caught the front DS tire. Road is angled to the rightside in this particular area, so that helped to get the back end around. Tried my best, but couldn't save it. Nailed a mailbox with the PS fender just ahead of the tire. Not bad, but still.. :-\

Drive to/from work today was uneventfull. Actually think it was running slightly better. And the headlights seemed to be a touch brighter this morning. No real great improvement on either of those, but it was noticable to me. We shall see. Issue probally won't reoccur until I'm in the midst of the upcoming Winter Storm, out in the middle of nowhere....

Thanks for those numbers. I have them saved for future use. Never thought of gluing that magnet back together. Would've been fun with that one as it was in numerous pieces. Really thinking now that this issue was caused by the ignition switch going bad on me. I've had to play with the key a few times to get the heater blower to run after I've started the engine. Not every time, but it has been nessecary. This morning, I braved a trip over to the local gas station to get some fuel for my garage heater. When I got back here and turned off the key, I had to play with it to get things to turn off. That was a 1st... Had relays clicking, seltbelt chime dinging, amongst other things happening, even things I don't recall ever hearing before. Don't have a spare switch here... I did drop the trim panel under the steering column and looked at the connectors for the switch. Main battery feed was cooked fairly good. So that got repaired. I also made up an emergency set of switches to do a roadside swap if needed. One pushbutton, one On/Off, all nice and neat with color coded wires even. We shall see.

True on the not having to drop the tank. But it wouldn't be the 1st "full tank" I've had to drop to swap pumps. Really hate that..... Wouldn't surprize me any if it was an electrical issue though. I've had many of those gremlins on this one. Thinking I'll dig out a spare FPCU, and get another EA82 disty converted for this one. Only reason for thinking disty is it's happened before on this BRAT. Started it leaving work, drove maybe 500 yards and it died, no restart. Co-worker towed me back into the parking lot where I used the starter to walk it into a parking spot and it started. Didn't want to attempt drive home so I left it. Checked things over the next day, found disty shaft had lots of play. Had brought EA82 disty with me, so I did the conversion. When taking the EA81 disty apart, I found that the magnet in there had shattered. Why it did, I don't know. I have since swapped it back to another EA81 disty, so who knows, could be it's dying too.

Fuel pump. YEA! I gets to lay in the snow under a drippy vehicle......

Driving home from work today, I stopped at an ATM. Shut off the engine and went inside. Came out, started it up, and continued the drive home. Got about 4 miles down the road and it dies, like I shut the key off. Driven maybe 8 miles total sofar. Tried a restart, cranks but no fire up and run. Pop the hood and do a quick visual of things. Vapor seperator has fuel in it, Fusable links appeared ok, and felt ok when pulled on, Couldn't detect any moisture in the disty cap, All wiring and connectors appeared ok. Called Rich, and he came to tow me down to the End Zone Bar. I tried a couple more times to start it. No go. Rich brought me home to get tools and such, and we head back. I pull the breather cover off and work the throttle, NO Gas... WTH?? Check the anti-deisel solenoid for continuity and voltage, it's good. Check coil for voltage on both + and - terminals, it's good. Even pulses during cranking. Grabbed hold of the fuelpump to see if it was pumping while Rich cranked it, and the darn thing started up. Cool,,,, but WTH!!!!?? Drove the remaining 20-22 miles home with no issue. I had bought gas this morning, before leaving for work and had no issue on trip into work. Drive from shop to the ATM is 4 miles, so engine was nice and warm when I got there. Kinda at a loss as to what to check, but going to do some reading and see if I can find anything on here what may help. Really hate trying to chase problems like these. edit; BRAT is factory stock as far as engine/drivetrain goes. Only mods are rear disc brakes, cherrybomb muffler.

7point62fmj posted this link back in October, http://www.fedhillusa.com/ Stuff sounds interesting.... One would have to buy their flaring tool, but what the heck. I've replaced a few miles of brake line over the years, and if this stuff is that easy to work with, it'd be worth the extra cost involved.

Cooking spray also keeps the seals from freezing to the door(s).

Glad to hear you got it fixed. Good to know that the EA82 motor can be swapped in, with a tad bit of work.

Could be either the wiper switch, wiring harness, or the motor. With the key "ON", and wiper switch "OFF", you should have battery voltage on one of the wires at the connector for the wiper motor. Sorry, I can't say what color that wire is. That wire connects to a cam switch inside the motor, which turns off the power at the park position. If either, the contacts in the wiper switch, wiring to the motor connector, or the cam switch in the motor are bad, the wipers will stop at whatever position they are at when you turn off the switch.

20* is spec.

Didn't get alot done, but did a bit of things. The BRAT needed some TLC today 1st. Swapped in the new softlines for the front brakes. Hooked up the heater hoses. Hooked up and adjusted the throttle and clutch cables. Decided to remove the Hill-Holder completely, so pulled it, and removed all brake lines under the hood. They'll be replaced anyways. Ran new ground wires for the body, trans, and any others I could find. Finalized the wiring for the XT6 alt swap. Mounted the coil and attached all it's wiring. Checked over the wiring under the hood, just to see what all Bob had deleted or changed. Can't seen to find the wiring for the fan(s) or the thermoswitch. But I may have just not recconized them at the time, as some connectors have been cut off. Played around with the power steering pump mount some more to get a better belt alignment. Then worked on a tensioner for the drive belt some more. Thinking I have it all sortted out now. Wrote up a punch-list of things yet to do, and things needed checked over. Lot of stuff un-hooked or removed, what needs checked over. Ran out of kerosene for the heater, and the lights started to complain about the cold, so I called it a day.

In answer to the latter. Ummm No. Sorry...

I have a small 120VAC/12VDC power supply from some electronic unit that I use for trickle-charging batteries. I have used it to charge motorcycle type batteries that you have to put the acid in when you buy them. Maybe a simular unit would work on one of these.

More work done. Apparently, it depends on Manufacturer of the clutch disc for just installing an EA82 clutch disc with the EA81 pressure plate/flywheel when doing a 5-speed swap. Clutch disc would not fit any of the pressure plates I have here. Center section was to large. So, it was on to swapping the XT6 flywheel/clutch pack onto the EA81. Of course, I forgot to do the needed clearencing of the lower area of the bellhousing. Pull the stuff back off and do so. D'OH! Spent some time playing with various bracketry and what not I have here, trying to make a tensioner for the EA82 powersteering pump belt. Close, but no cigar yet. Got to bend a piece to fit, then I'll be good. Stuffed the engine in where it belongs. But, forgot to insure that I didn't have 2 locating pins in the same area. Corrected that little issue, and finished bolting up the engine/trans. Had a bit of a time getting the motor mounts to fit the crossmember, but over came that issue. Started connecting the wires and hoses. Need to get under the dash and hook-up the speedometer cable. Yippee! Bifocals don't work so well upside down. Probally should've waited on bolting the driver's seat back in.. Christopher installed all of the rear brake components. Had a good chuckle or two, watching his attempts at torquing the axle nuts down. 1st time he's done so, and was a bit surprized by the amount of oomph required. Plus, he was having issue with keeping the prybar properly wedged against the lugs. During the rumaging for brackets, I found a box with all of the soft lines for the brakes, new ones... Didn't know I had that stuff, or atleast I don't recall buying them. Probally came in one of the "box o' parts" I've bought over the years. Pleasant surprize there. So, a couple short steel lines to purchase, await the arrivail of the MasterCylinder/Booster, and I can finish the brake system and check it off the list. Be back out there in a few to do more wrenching.

I found the issue with mine to be in the connector for the headlight switch itself. One of the terminal ends in it had gotten hot and lost contact with the other side. It had even melted the connector some. Cut the wires from it and butt-spliced them together. All is good.

They put us on 10 hour days at work yesterday, so nothing done out in the garage last night. Was late by the time I got home to do much of anything. Interesting trip home on some ice covered roads. Had some Lake-Effect snow squals during the day, covered the roads in a nice sheet of ice. Saw lots of places where people had slid off the road(s). The BRAT handled it all real nicely, but did have to kick it into 4WD in a few places, just to climb the hill(s).