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VERY eventful day in a EA81 hatchie 4wd.


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Friday night I took amtrak out to Denver to pick up BigAls' hatchie he had forsale.

 

Amtrak broke down 2 times, we were without a conductor for a half hour while a rested one showed up.

 

Saw the Lunar eclipse this morning on the way into Denver, 4 hours late...

 

Picked up the hatchie from Alex. Looked things over good, got gas, aired the tires, checked oil etc. I brought like 3 of the most common failing items with me: Dizzy, alternator, and a alt/water pump pulley belt....

 

Took it pretty easy the first 60 miles, getting used to the car, watching guages good, etc, seeing how it was going to do. About 100 miles in, felt pretty comfortable, til I was keeping up with the other traffic.

 

 

Then around 130 miles, ut oh,...

 

Problem: I ease up on the gas after passing a car, cause a truck is up ahead, mind you i am now going along at 70-75mpg. But, when i let up the gas, no throttle cut, I try pulling up gas pedal with foot, it is up. I glance over and there is a off ramp, so i look for any cars clear, quick shoot over to the ramp, turn ignition off, clutch in, coast to the stop sign. I decided i would try one restart, and full throttle, so immediately off it goes. I pop the hood, look at throttle looks good.

 

Take off air cleaner top, see black plastic shreds, shards of black plastic. Look over to what was the air suction reed valve.

 

proceed to clean what i could see of the top of the air cleaner. one more start, full throttle still. There is a sidewalk there at the exit and a station downhill about 1/4 mile, this turns out one of the sterling exits. So, I push it up the sidewalk, and proceed to roll it with me in it down the sidewalk, to the right turn, to the station, and into a parking spot, it rolls downhill well.

 

So, what do i do?

 

 

 

 

Well, I get the flashlight out. I have spot in daylight to work at the station.

Pull off the air cleaner housing, associated hoses. It hardly works without jarring it. I can see more bits of plastic holding the throttle plates almost full open, well yeah i knew it would start and free to about 4200rpm so not 100% full.

 

So i get my axle roll pin punch out, and some pliers, and push, down into the carb whatever makes the throttle close again. start it to give it a try, yay it has idle speed back again.

 

Look over at what is left of the air suction valve. it is melted goo off the side. Pull it off. Give dad a call, ask him what he knows about the air suction reed valve. He doesn't know, but all I know is there is exhaust gases that shoot out, hot, not good, so what do I do?

 

Yep, the QUARTER trick. block it off. I had the tools to do it with me

 

Anyhow, That took like 1.5 hours to fix. Drove it home the remaining 620 miles, watching guages, checking stuff quite often. I just pulled home about 1:30 AM.

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Ben I am going to go to my bed and die for like a day now.

It is not rust free, it is missing some of the front side rail, and some on the back passenger quarter in front of the tire.

 

The repair job got me all good and greasy, and no good handsoap, and the restrooms at truck stops never got me all good and clean. I looked like amess whenever going in to pay for gas.

 

Next trip, I will take orange hand cleaner....

k, off to go die for some sleep,

 

 

oh, and I have a good air suction valve from my BRAT when i webered the BRAT, but one is NOT going back on the hatchie, or any car i have. The full throttle while going 75mph and needing to slow down could have been much worse, and i am not gonna have one fail again.

Edited by bheinen74
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So arte you going to fix the rust?

 

I am going to plan to fix the rust once spring thaw is here.

rockers have some rot already starting to come on good. Main thing is to get some new seats in the front for now, and address the interior cosmetics, and replace whatever is bad, broken or missing.

 

It has a junky new, but reman axle is front that is wobbly, so that has to go ASAP.

And, it has a bearing going out on the passenger rear. It got somewhat worse on the drive back, and I can move the wheel hub with the car on ground slightly, and it is more noisy at first goes away some when driving.

 

Even though it would not pass CO emissions, it runs rally strong and healthy down the road, so the carb will not be touched, unless the particles from the ASV cause issues later.

Edited by bheinen74
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Congrats on the new hatch. :clap:

Instead of replacing that stuff, you could just delete it all and cap off the spacers on the exaust manifold. BUT, idk if its the same rules for emissions where you are at. Here in WA my '85 no longer has to do emissions.

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Congrats on the new hatch. :clap:

Instead of replacing that stuff, you could just delete it all and cap off the spacers on the exaust manifold. BUT, idk if its the same rules for emissions where you are at. Here in WA my '85 no longer has to do emissions.

 

I have them capped on my '83 GL. Passes here in Oregon no problem with all that gone. Only emissions garbage left on it is the EGR, PCV, and cat.

(We have to still test all the way back to 1975)

Of course it's an "at your own risk" type of thing.

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No no emission here.

 

I have a good one off my old brat before i webered it, on the shelf.

 

I would like to not have to use one, if the cats won't get damaged without.

 

This car has new cats now.

 

I also think the reason it didn't pas emission in CO was due to this shortly failing. It sure melty on me.

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Just ordered 2 new hatch strut cartridges for the rear lid......

hope they are the right ones and work, already have 2 times now where had to prop open the back glass and don't plan to have to prop it ever again once these arrive.

 

not sure if it was on the hatch I used to have, or wagon, but when I got the new rear hatch supports, I have to transfer over the mount piece to the new support...

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^

ah gonna Sachs i say.

 

That is the brand, 12.65 each.

 

BTW, on my 94 LGTwagon, the rear struts on it now are both "Rights" I was able to make a right one work even on the left with some bracket flipping.

 

So, I suppose it will be :Flame: on the old brackets welding to the new struts...

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Awesome, I'd be putting wrx seats in my wagon if I hadn't found those recaros for practically nothing. I was also a little worried I may not have enough headroom with the added hight from those seats. I'm interested to see how they look in there!

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Nice recovery. My valves were starting to melt just after I bought the car. When I rebuilt my ea82 I capped off the ASV ports on the heads. I think it even runs better. I kept the important stuff (EGR, PCV system, Cat) both for engine health and environmental friendliness.

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