CNY_Dave

Certainly check crank pulley bolt and flex plate bolts are tight, and try without the serp belt, and make sure the crank pulley isn't rubbing the front cover (I had that happen, the rubber degrades).

That axle seems to move too much (in the not rotational direction)

I have had the shaking under power be a bad inner CV joint, can be surprisingly hard to track it down.

I had a little hub puller but no slide hammer, so I bought a stout threaded rod with washers and nuts and bought 4 5lb barbell weights to go on the threaded rod. I literally had to be careful I didn't yank the car off the jackstands.

Both control cables seized in my forester when it was about 10 degrees out, with the heat off of course. (In snowy weather I cool the windshield before parking and leave the heat off to help keep it cold) I ended up putting 2 small holes in the dash with stiff wire coming out, the wire connected to the doors.

Yes, exactly as on mine.

Yes. Has some weird rust in places, mostly paint that flaked off under-hood spot welds and brackets and a little on the rear diff carrier.

Oh and gear lube, my magic mix had gear lube. My magic hatch lock grease was atf, bearing grease, and silicone grease.

I had my cable (2005 forester) start to bind, from top and bottom I would lube with paste mix of ATF and wheel bearing grease every couple of years. Well, more the little round thing that holds the cable in the shifter than the cable.

Kind of glad now my unicorn* forester is a 2010 not a 2011. *(bought in April, 28,000 miles, manual trans)

I had a slightly different OEM 6 disc changer and yeah I had to take it apart to get my disks back. It wouldn't even play them...

I had a coolant weep from a head gasket for almost 200,000 miles, the subaru / holts rad weld conditioner kept it under control up to and beyond the combustion leak into the coolant. If something was beyond a weep or maybe a small trickle yeah it probably wouldn't work.

I favor the JDM engine route.

Old motorcycles to be fixed up in my case, late 70's yamaha XS750 triples, plus there's my XR650L to haul to further riding places.

I just bought a 2010 and reflexively clicked on this then recalled it's a stick... Haven't had a stick since 06? 07?