1986 Subaru Brat Crippled

[Zosojojo]

Hello brothers in Subaru! I am a sad man. Today I drove my brat 60 miles, no issues. Then out of nowhere, extreme power loss. I pulled over. Fuel is getting there, distributor cap is ok. month old spark plugs. the wires are like less than a year old. the coil is an accel. It is about a year and a half old. It starts no problem. I can rev it up in neutral but when I put it in gear, It can go past like 1.5k rpm. I can only put about half a toe on it or else it acts flooded. I suspect the distributor is the problem, but that is why I'm here. Any advice would be appreciated.  

[GeneralDisorder]

Fuel delivery or plugged exhaust. 

 

GD

[d8usti5n]

Could be starved for air. Check the air filter? Carbed or fuel injected?

[DaBrizat]

There's a small secondary filter inside the air cleaner that I had to replace a while back.

[Zosojojo]

Well you got me thinking. looks like I'm going to rip apart the exhaust system. Thank you everyone!

[NV Zeno]

Sounds like what happened to my '83 wagon a few years back.  Turned out the secondary part of the carburetor wasn't opening, so it bogged at heavy demand for power (which is kinda always in an EA81).  I used most of a can of spray carb cleaner removing the gunk mostly from the outside of the carb (some inside too).  Turns out the linkages and moving parts were sticking and preventing the secondary portion of the carb to operate  correctly when the pedal was depressed. 

 

With the engine OFF, and the air cleaner removed (not just the lid, but the whole thing), spray LOTS of cleaner all around the outside of the carb.  You'll be surprised at how much gunk can be removed by doing this.  Save a little for the inside too, no need to run the engine until you're all finished and re-assembled.

 

Please let us know if any of these suggestions worked.

[Zosojojo]

Well, the exhaust is not blocked, however it was VERY dirty. Pitch black carbon build up. I flushed it out with a hose and let the cat sit for awhile with some water and soap in it. I tried running the car without the exhaust and the same problem occurred. I took the air cleaner off and ran the engine. While looking straight down the carb, It appeared that the primary was dumping way too much fuel at low rpm. I have previously rebuilt the carb and did that utility wire trick. The reason I did that was the secondary was never opening. I had the car for about a year running only one of the barrels without even knowing it. The strange thing is, the vacuum diaphragm is functional it just wouldn't get pressure for some reason. I changed all the gaskets I could with the gp sorensen kit but the secondary still wouldn't open. After the modification to make the secondary mechanical, the car produced alot more power. I've been running it like this for about 7 months. Now I just have the carb out of the car and am about to thoroughly reevaluate it. thank you for your attention and I will keep you posted!       

[Zosojojo]

the grommets (i guess) for the accelerator pump were cracked. this is the quality of gp sorensen. "matches original fir, form, and function" for like a month..... I reassembled the carb however the brat is like 60 miles away at a friends house, so it will be a few days till i get back to you guys if it worked. I live in california but I dont care ITS TIME FOR A WEBER! 

[Zosojojo]

It was indeed the accelerator pump. My weber has arrived. I am 100% done with crapatchi carbs.