TomRhere

That RHD BRAT would be great to own, but it's in way to bad of shape for what the owner is asking for it. Lots of cutting and welding to be done to get the body back into shape. If the price was way lower, I'd buy it just for the parts to convert a LHD over to RHD. But that's just me..... And having the backwall cut out has seriously weaked the structural integrity of the roof area. I wouldn't want to be in it in a roll-over... Maybe installing a rollbar, properly,,, would be in order there.

Check the "HELP" racks at various parts stores for that radiator plug. Need to check different stores, as they carry different items on those racks. Believe I have one if you can't find one. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=99047 Check with him about the turnsignal lens.

Nice.... Thinking you bought it just cause it's Black...

Nice abode!!!!

Welcome to the Board. Nice BRAT!!!! And you're right, they are far and few between around here. I know of only 6 (counting yours now) South of Lansing. Where are you located?

I agree.. Black is the hardest car color to repaint. It shows any imperfection in the surface. Got a friend that used to do body work until he developed allergies to the chemicals. Anyways, he hated doing Black vehicles, they took way to long to get right.

Awesome job!!!!!!!!!!

There's this also, http://mshoup.us/docs/fsm/EA81/83/

Truly sad pics and news, for sure. Have to agree on the amount of damage, and pulling it back out. Be one tough job to do, and it would never be right. Costly for sure.... And speaking from experience. Do get your self checked out good. I have a high tollerance for pain, didn't realize I "was" injured in an accident, simular to yours. Came back to bite me many years later.

Nothing wrong with liking a clean looking stock BRAT!!! I like that pic too.... But Mick had the desire and method to do what he did to it. I'm liking what it morphed into. Nice job, start to finish, Mick.....

http://mshoup.us/docs/fsm/EA81/83/Chapter04-Fuel_System.pdf http://mshoup.us/docs/fsm/EA81/83/Chapter05-Emission_Control_System.pdf Those 2 links should give you some insite to things.

Tap the driveshaft with a wrench, screwdriver, what have you. See if the sound is like the "ting" you hear. Ifso, it is DS related, most likely U-joint. Grab hold of it on each side of a joint, try to rotate each hand in opposite directions, and at different joint angles. You are feeling for any play, or a tight spot. I found most carrier bearings to cause a "rumble" when they start to go. If the rubber in the support goes bad, it can throw the DS off center, so to speak. That causes more of a "vibration".

Thinkiing there's a piece you need to remove 1st. Been awhile, don't really remember. You could run inlet to one side, return to other side if you can't get a plug.

You need to put a couple washers behind the plate that the cable hooks into. Just undo the nut on the throttleshaft, slide plate off, install washers, install plate. The little barrel thing on the end of the cable can catch on the choke stuff is the cause of the binding. As for the fuel inlet. My Weber had one side plugged already.

Haven't pulled one from a Wagon, so I can't say what to do on the rear wiring, except it runs down the PS under the sill trim. Everything that heads for the back, plugs-in behind the PS kick panel. For the front wiring, everything will feed back into the interior. Gets a little tricky when you get to the point of a few connectors going back thru the hole at the same time, but you just need to feed them thru one at a time as you work the harness thru. Some of the harnes is held with releasable zip-ties, most of it is not. Getting to the backside to release some of the latter ones is a bit of a pain in places. Can't say how long it should take, as I didn't pull the harness all at once. And it's been something like 6 years ago now.

http://mshoup.us/docs/fsm/EA81/83/Chapter15-Electrical_System.pdf It's for the '83 models, but it'll do for yours as they're basically the same. I'm thinking you may have lost the contacts in the ignition switch. They are old and worn after all, and the added amp draw of the lights may have took them out.

Check your battery cable ends, pay close attention to the battery ends themselves if they are of the 'molded on" type of ends. I've had a few get loose where the cable goes into the clamp. Looks ok, but the wire is actually loose inside. Check the negative cable end where it attaches to the engine. I've had a few of those go bad from corrosion. Check the smaller positive feed wire that goes from battery to link box. Make sure it fits the tab on the link box nice and snug. I had one BRAT many years ago that had serious corrosion under the link box itself. Nasty green yucky stuff. Caused me all kinds of electrical issues.

Same here. But I did manage to get a few out of my '86 without breaking them. Now the '85 has it's tailgate trim on. Can't help but wonder if the El Camino, Ranchero, Rampage, or Scamp trim fasteners would be usable. Quite a few years running of the 1st 2, so many different trim styles were used. Just thoughts running rampant thru the brain.

Tweeked the toe setting at lunch yesterday. Didn't seem to affect the light pull towards the left any on the trip home. Going to see if I can pull it in the shop and use some lenghts of steel to get a better idea of how the fronts are compared to the rears. Be atleast 2 weeks before I can get it in to the frontend guru. She does run better. Got a couple of hills on the way to work that are steep, like pushing the limit on grade angle. Not real long hills, just a few hundred feet, but you know you're climbing a hill. She'd drop any where from 8 to 10 mph before, now she just runs right up them. Amazing what a free flowing exhaust can do..

Pulled the entire strut assemblies w/axles of it for use on the '85. Put the stuff off the '85 back on this one. In my haste to get things done, I apparently forgot to put in the pinch bolt for the DS ball-joint. Went to move it to get the '85 out of the garage, and felt a sharp jerk of the steering wheel and the frontend dropped a bit. Got out to look and the DS tire is not where it should be. Going to be fun getting that back where it belongs later. Did have enough room to "squeeze" the '85 past her to get it out of the garage.

Well, taking the so called "lift" out really made the axles complain during the short drive I took yesterday morning. Axles were clicking some before, they "really clicked" yesterday. Not good. So I proceeded to swap the axles and strut assemblies over from the '86. Did it as a complete assembly too. Popped the ball-joint out of the knuckle, un-screwed the tie-rod ends off the inners, pulled the pin for the axles, removed E-brake cable, and brake hose at the body side connection. Had to have Christopher help me get them into the '85. Kinda difficult to hold all that up where it belongs and get the washers/nuts started on the strut tops by ones self. He then got a good leg workout helping bleed the brakes. Took her out for another drive, much better. Has a pull towards the center on some roads, goes straight on others. Best part is no shimmy, shaking, ossilating or what have you from the frontend, nice and smooth. Even had her up to 78 MPH for a short bit. Replacing the exhaust has sure made a difference on how this engine runs. Was thinking before that the Hitachi carb was going south on me, but I don't think so now. She runs much better, with good throttle response. Did notice that whoever did the "lift", also spun the strut tops around 180*. Probally cause the "lift" made it sit more level like the Hatch and Sedan bodied Subbies. Don't know.. Struts that were in it are not the original OEM style, built slightly different especially in the height adjustment area. I'll keep them around here for spares. We'll see how she does on the trip into work this morning. Got tools to play with toe setting if need be. And a screwdriver to adjust the headlights, as I know they're going to be off a bit. Sure am feeling the 3 days of wrenching this morning. Must be getting old.

Sadly, there is just to much rust damage all over this one. She's suffered a couple accidents in the past also, got a few deep dents in the body. Worst one is right behind the drivers door. I had to space out the catch in order to have the door latch when I 1st brought her home. http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c264/TomRhere/White%2086%20BRAT/JimsSubaru-Side-Dooropen.jpg I still have the '85 and '82. And even though I would love to own a few more, Wife has put a whopping "NO" on me getting any more BRATs. There's a lot of usable parts on her though, so she will donate to the continuation of the other two.

Always good to see other BRATs on here.

Real good job on restoring that BRAT!!!!! Got an '82 here you can start on as soon as you finish yours.

Got the broken exhaust stud out by rapping on the ASV adapter to loosen the rust. Then getting a good bite on it with a small pipe wrench. So now the exhaust has all been replaced. Looked at the rear brakes. Thinking the noise is just the pads rubbing on the discs. Can't feel any play in the bearings so I think they're ok. Still need to set the toe on the front and straighten up the steeringwheel. May opt to swap the sound system over today, we'll see. I'm liking the way it sits now more than the way it was. I need to get a pic taken of it now so I can post a before/after look.