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Showing results for tags 'gen1'.
Found 5 results
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Hello everyone! This 78 Brat came to me a few years ago and I have slowly been getting it back on the road. Here is the story behind my new car. Sometime in 2013 my grandma was willed this car from a cousin of hers. It was bought off of the showroom floor in Denver Colorado in 1977. She drove it every day until she bought her 92 Legacy and garaged the Brat. My grandma gave the Brat to my cousin and he put about $400 into it to try and get it running. He had the carb rebuilt, new water pump, new alternator, new fuel pump. He couldn't get it running right so he sold it to me for the $400 he had into it. I put a clutch in and drove it for about two weeks when the head gaskets blew. My dad called an old friend in Brook Forest near Evergreen CO who has a ton of Subarus and parts looking for a new engine. Turns out that Bob had an EA71 he was willing to part with so we drove up there and got the engine. The good news is that the engine only cost the fuel it took to drive up there and get it. The bad new is that the engine was the wrong EA71. I took the engine and called Roo's Only to see if they would do the swap and they referred me to S Wing's. The guy at S Wings is an interesting fellow. After a year or so of talking with him I decided to rebuild the original engine and go from there. I took the car to Colorado Component Rebuilder last June. It was one of the last engines they did before closing their doors. In fact they closed the doors while they still had my car. After CCR did the rebuild I took it to the family mechanic. He did the rear end, fixed the linkage, some electrical, new gas pedal, new gas cap, brakes, and quite a few other odds and ends. He could not get the carb tuned right so we decided to go with a Webber. The Webber went in, tuned it up, and it passed emissions and I got the 5 year collector plates. So after all of this I finally drove the Brat back to my place in Gig Harbor WA. I left Colorado the day before yesterday and I got home last night. Along the way I discovered that I am losing quite a bit of oil from the transmission and the carburetor started acting up. I was stopping about every 100 miles and checking fluids. It seemed that I was losing the most fluid after hill climbs or long stretches of highway speeds. City driving and slower (55-65) highway speeds seemed to have lost little to no oil. I believe this to be the input shaft seal. I planned on re jetting the carb after moving it to sea level but what is happening now is the throttle is sticking. I believe it to be the electronic choke sticking on. Once i reach a high enough RPM it backs down, so if it starts running away pressing the clutch lets it rev and then drop. Well that is the story of my Brat. I have been lurking on this site for a few years now and I have done quite a bit of research on the 78 Brat. I know that there is not much you can do to "supe" up the car/engine and I love the original look and feel of the car. My plan is to do a complete restore to stock. Stock parts that is. I want to change the paint and interior colors. I am also planning on modernizing the car as much as I can to make it as comfortable of a ride as possible, Suspension, electrical, brakes. I have all of the original parts that came with the car and I will be keeping anything that gets changed (carb for example). I will be sharing pictures as I progress but I plan on getting the work done as soon as possible as this will be my daily driver around Tacoma/Seattle. If anyone can offer some advice to the issues that I am having as well as a good shop to get in touch with that could do some of the work for me. Thanks guys!
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My How to Keep your Subaru Alive book says that the outer CV joint and Axle shaft are inseparable - but I know they're not as I have replaced one a few years ago. I couldn't find any advice on how to pull them apart so I thought I'd share how I did it. Not many photos sorry. It's kind of an afterthought. Feel free to add further advice - I might learn something about an easier way to do it next time. Also, I'm not a mechanic so my terminology might be a bit off. The CV joint is basically 3 parts: - The outer cup and axle stub which fits through wheels bearings and wheel rotor. - A star-shaped "gear" that attached to the axle-shaft (used wikipedia for this description) - A circular ball-bearing cage with fits into and pivots inside the cup. I'll work off the assumption that you know how to remove the inner CV Joint (technically a Double Oscillating Joint). The picture attached shows a split star-shaped gear (with the splines that fit around the axle shaft) and the clip that holds it in place. Note the groove on the left (inward) side of the "gear". Also note that the right (outer) side of gear opens slightly to a larger diameter. As you will see when fitting a new CV Joint; the clip is slid over the end of the axle-shaft until it slips into the groove on the axle-shaft (both ends of the axle-ahaft look the same). That slightly larger diameter mentioned above compresses the clip so that is slides inside the splines in the "gear" on the CV joint until it snaps into the groove shown on the left side of the picture. The bottom line here is that the clip which holds the CV joint on the axle-shaft is completely concealed! When the CV joint is attached to the shaft and the clip is in place, it can't be hammered off as easily as it goes on because the abrupt edges on groove inside the "gear" and on the axle-shaft are designed to hold the clip in place so the join doesn't fail! Hammering the joint off might damage the edges of the groove on the axle-shaft which might make the new CV Joint come loose? So here's how I removed it: With the boot removed and the CV joint at an angle and the circular ball-bearing cage exposed, I whacked it with a standard claw hammer until it broke. It's quite brittle and breaks fairly easily. Rotate the CV joint expose more of the ball bearing cage and repeat. Without much effort the ball-bearings will fall out and the cup can be removed. This leaves you with the star-shaped "gear" on the axle'shaft - held in place by the concealed clip described above. Not wanting to damage the axle-shaft by smashing it with a hammer I elected to use an angle-grinder to cut the star-shaped "gear" off - being careful not to cut right though and into the shaft! I finished off with a chisel just to be careful. I think last time I did it I just bashed it with a hammer until it broke though. Up to you if you want to try it. Installing the new CV joint is pretty easy. Pretty much descibed above. My new CV Joint came with a new clip but I didn't notice it was there until I'd installed it using the old one! Have a look what's in the CV joint box before it's too late!
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The attached photo is from How to Keep Your Subaru Alive. I installed my Gen1 Brat (no power steering) struts as per top picture. With the top of the shock in the rearward position. Based on the fact it's 4WD; and not a Sedan or Hatchback. Is this correct? And if it correct, has anyone experimented with fitting them the other way round. I have some ideas of what I think this would achieve but rather than describe them (because I could be wrong) I thought I would see what other peoples thoughts are on this.
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Hi folks, I know this has been covered a million times, but unfortunately I can't find a clear answer. I'm looking to swap out my old tires (165/65R13) for new shoes before attempting to drive across the country. I'd like to go as large as possible without running into any rubbing issues or requiring any sort of lift or fender cuts. It seems as though folks are recommending 165/80, 175/70, 175/80 and some 185/70. Does anyone have experience/recommendations with any of these on a Gen1 Brat? I'm leaning toward 175/70 to be safe, but I'd love to hear what people think (and see any pics that might be floating around). Thanks! -
I would like to see all the swapped gen 1 out there. Doesn't look to be very many. Prove me wrong.
