TeamCF

Went for a tour around the Clackamas River Ranger District with scoobyclimbs. (Basicly the area between Mt.Hood and Mt. Jefferson) Started out by going up Goat Mt. (I just love that climb, the reward is the view) Then headed for the Mt. Jefferson/ Olallie Lake area. Lots of pics were taken, but most are not on my camera. But I'll share what I got on mine. SC leaving a muddy/rocky play area. I think we had more fun on the trails going in and leaving than once in the gravel pit. The mud was like grease and none of the fun climbs were happening without swampers and Linclon Lockers. One hill was just a slip n slide. At the top of Goat. Leaving Goat. Had to stop and give him my camera. (batteries died) (I though we agreed not to stop once under way in that part of the trail...) Back underway. After this the trail ceased to exist so we turned around and did it again. 'bout all I got. Fun times. The wheeling went well into the night. Got to use the overhead lights alot. I got a wierd vibration from the engine when climbing hills on the highway now though. Gonna check it out, change my rear diff oil and give it some more.

Here's another.

I can supply a bigger version if needed.

That is a nice lookin wagon! Good job on finding that gem. And good luck on the race. Sounds like it's gonna be a good time.

Welcome!

hehe Yeah, I read them at first but not since getting on here. And even if they did, and even as close as I am to that yard. It would have proly been gone by the time I was able to get there.

Nice.

Nice pics. Got the Cruiser covered good. I was gonna try for this but had people from out of town that wanted to see the coast 'n' stuff.

Did Subaru maybe put LSDs on those?

That's one way to get the crank out....

Maybe try jacking up the front. (both sides) Turning the streering wheel fully to one side (may have to try both directions to get results) Make sure to have the rear wheels blocked so they can't roll and make sure your parking brake is off and spin the front wheels by hand. With the suspension fully extended and the wheels turned it may make it's noises for ya (if the CV is bad enough). Then you can tell easier which side is to blame.

Those are some nice views. Have fun on your explorations!

I had to replace all 4 boots on the front of my GL. Was able to find the right ones through Shucks. (came with the clamps, grease, all of it) If I remember right they varied between outer and inner but they were like around $15 and $20 something. I was able to tear my axles down completely without removing them from the knuckles. Unfortunately even after buying the right tools it's hard to get the clamps to stay on good on the outer boot. Switched to stainless hoseclamps. And one of my axles just started with the clicking. In a bad way. I'm thinking if the boots have started to rot off your axles. The axles are proly near the end of thier life anyway. But it was alot cheaper at the time to clean, regrease, and reboot mine. And got me a few months. But now it's time to order some new axles. Oh yeah, and replacing boots is a messy, sucky job (CV grease is great stuff!....). If you can find a deal on good axles I'd go that route.

Very nice. I'd love to to do something like that once I rebuild my engine. But trying to keep it street legal in a DEQ state means it's best if I leave all those vacuum lines alone.

I'm sure with the right choice of parts, tires, ect. and some good fabrication skills one could put together and beef up a subie that would do just fine. Anything is possible. It's just how bad do you want to do it. Hey I know if I had the cash I'd love to have a crack at it in my old GL. If nothing else just for the fun of it and to make people think I was nuts.

Ha Ha. Turns out the cat is totally gutted. I'll have to get a new one in Feb when I go for DEQ. The S shaped pipe is kinda messed up, the bracket that the hanger bolts to is cracked at the pipe, the pipe has a hole in it at one of the bends. And the bracket/hanger that bolts to the transmission was snaped in half. Looks like it has been for awhile. The whole system is just bashed all up and down from my love of driving over big rocks. I basicly have D shaped pipes now. :-p I made a crossbrace that is attached to the old swaybar mounts and goes across under the pipe, and mounted the pipe to it.... The more I think of it thought that won't work very well as now the exhaust is solid mounted to the body....not gonna be good when the engine rocks around. And its noisy just transfering vibration right to the body. But it did put the exhaust up above the unibody rails that run the length of the body. And the cat is just crammed up against the trans crossmember. Good for off-road clearance. But I can see it becoming more of a problem with things cracking if I leave it like that. Also the Y-pipe is not wanting to line up properly at the engine causing nice leaks at the heads. Guess I gotta try to put it back to a more "stock" setup. (I do like the clearance though) Wish I had the cash to just take it to the shop that did my Y-pipe and have him do the rest of the system with ground clearance in mind and a "test pipe" for off-road so I can save a new cat from getting bashed again. I'll do that in Febuary. I should hit up the U-pull it tomarrow to see if I can find an S pipe and hanger in good shape. ...... I wonder if I could just chop out the usless cat for now and replace it with one of those cheesy flex pipes... It would do till I get it all fixed right and I could leave the exhaust solid mounted and still have flexability for the engine.... hhhmmmmm... Crap way out but it could work for now...

That sounds like fun. Bet you can see the fireworks on Mt. Hood good from there.

I love my wagon off-road. But I would think the hatch would rock as it seems to be the shortest of the bunch. As usual it's a matter of personal preference, and what kind of off-roading your going to do.

Yeah. It's just to the left a little ways before you get to the gate. If you go into the easy enterance to the bottom of the pit you basicly see it right in front of you once in there. A fun little climb, the ruts just seem to have gotten deeper since the last time I was there. Last time I made it up with pretty much no problem. This time I almost thought I was not going to be able to halfway up (lots of tire spinning). But I was able to keep moving, not without paying the price though. Gonna finally get around to fixing it sometime today. Not sure if I'll be able to get ahold of the neighbor to put some tack welds on it though to help keep it from happening again yet though.

Proly could have made it out without the strap by picking my way around rocks. But I only had about an inch of clearance, so it would have been way slow.

Yeah I just took some pics of the mountains. It was a pretty clear day out so you could see forever. Lucky for me it broke on the way back down.

Nice. I'm gonna have to go check that area out. Well, once I have the subie ready for long highway trips.

Decided to head up to Goat Mt. last night for some pics of the view before dark so my grandma could take them back to MI today. (she was visiting) Well on the way back down I decided to hit up a familiar hill climb. Which had deeper ruts than the last time I was there. Upon cresting the top (it drops into a hole at the top) I got a very loud suprise. The offending hill. Note the scrape mark from my exhaust all the way up. The break. The fix. Glad I had that old way too short tow strap. Just shut it in the pass door and pulled it tight under the car to hold the pipe up for more clearance. (not too worried about it melting as that pipe was not used for exhaust after that) I had tools but it was muddy and I didn't feel like crawling around under the car. I'm gonna pop it back in and take it next door for a few spots of weld. That should hold it till I replace everything in that section of exhaust. (The caved in cat and piping just after it are kinda shot but will do for now) It was a cold, loud ride home. But now I know what an old EA81 with open exhaust sounds like.

Met up with Scoobyclimbs for a trip up to hood this past saturday. Took a bunch of pics, resized, cropped, ect. a few. Here they be. A tree was across the trail. We made short work of it. Headed up the trail to the fire lookout. Got nice and powdery. HA! Primitve road. Perfect for Subaru's. (there were faint covered over tracks in the snow when we got there, but those are mostly our fresh tracks) Another one from the "primitive road". Found an empty lot to go nuts in. Had some nice deep spots to blast through. We should have gotten some action shots. After sliding around the lot I had a nice snow hubcap. Complete with Subie emblem. Last spot before dark. The top of a big gravel pit. Overall a very fun trip. Helped out some stuck subies. Helped a Forest Service Law Enforcement officer get his chains on. Dug ourselves out once. Spewed alot of snow and sometimes mud and gravel. And I only had to throw chains on the front for the most deep and cement like snow. (yeah I cheated for parts of the day, but it kept things moving and helped with the "GL understeer" :-p ) And I got to use my new lights on the way back out to 26.

HAHA! I love my old EA81 as well. But really. Go with whatever year/model you want. In the end it's up to you and what you feel comfortable driving around the woods in. I do think when it comes to the hardcore stuff a hatch would be the way to go, but if ya want to haul stuff for camping and whatnot a wagon might be better. I have tons of fun with my stock GL. Could use a lift and tires but after 300K the engine needs a rebuild first. (still strong though, just knocky at startup)