lesstutrey

Took some shots in nordhouse dunes when i went out a little further than i wanted to in my 02 VDC OBW, no damage except i cracked the flex joint on the exhaust to the point it finally broke the next day. Some bundling wire has got that held till my fix comes tomorrow. Just a 2" lift and BFG Rugged Trail 235/60R16's and about ohh 500lbs of camping gear and coolers. Oh.. need new springs too.... but managed not to bottom out and missed the deep ruts. Did smush my bumper a little i think... need to make one from metal... but first i need to replace the steering rack, rear pads and rotors and get the camber fixed in the rear (ordering kit from SPC, and bushing from SJR to get that wheel right) before i can do that. Probably need more lift too. New tires in the spring too... never been a fan of these, and after a couple 3k mile ski trips to colorado this winter i'll be getting past 50k miles on them. BFG KO2's next time. Wish i had more pictures but this was an hour of extra wheeling when i was supposed to be going to the dune climb.. So.. here's a couple.. Must upload the video too.. The Ruts were pretty deep, managed to avoid them... rained later that day.. was fairly glad i wasn't out there then. Had enough clearance for the stump.. Rut was deep.. girlfriend has some good pictures too.. but i don't have her phone at the moment. Was pretty sandy... this just lead to a tiny mud pit, guess it wasn't a trail.. never lost traction though. Butt was pretty weighed down, think i need new springs That's all for now.. Will try to dig up the video... this wasn't anything too hard, but it was definitely not a road. Fun times.

I've been using some 10.9 bolts from fastenal for like 2 years. No issues. Getting some 12.9 bolts with socket cap heads, because it will make getting them out soo much easier, and i'll actually be able to torque the top one properly. Believe they're 40mm.. but don't quote me.. replacing the bracket on one side due to a seized slide that really messed up the OEM bracket. I'll find out actual length this evening.

So billet spacers for less than 2, steel tubing to over 2" Well, i already got the 2" lift. I'm just trying to figure out how the trailing arm shims works. I was thinking i'd get those as well as SPC control arms that fix toe/camber +/-3 degree (i mean... might as well get things back as close as possible to stock for best handling) and your shims fix a problem thta megan/whiteline/spc don't address. Can you send me a picture of what the trailing arm shims look like installed? I'm just not sure how they go in/where they go in and would like to know that before ordering. I'm looking at the picture of them (well, i'm assuming it's those pieces as the are not pictured in the 2" kit without it) but not sure how they get installed.

Huh.. noticed the uh caliper bracket on my left side is a replacement for the right side... my right side is oem... so guess i'm ordering a left and swapping them... though apparently symmetrical?

Also gotta replace either right side spindle, caliper bracket.. or both. Starting with the caliper bracket as it's much easier. The spindle seems stripped, so not sure if that's why i keep having brake issues, or i need a rebuild bracket (the bottom pin was very seized and i cleaned it up, but still getting noise on that brake (as in it's uh... sticking or something. My spindle may just be jacked up though... either way the bracket could probably used to be replaced as the slide area is very pitted and i couldn't get it smooth without.. well.. a bunch of grinding, and for 26$ it's kinda easier to just replace.

I found a set of SPC control arms and a bushing for the lateral link that allows +/- 3 degrees of toe and camber, it's about 180$ shipped for a pair of them. I'm going to do that. Pretty sure i'm gonna get the SJR trailing arm bushings as well though. Thinking i might upgrade the rear swaybar and links too.. since i stiffened the front i should stiffen the rear. At 127k now.

Zombie thread coming back to life. Lifetime warranty half shafts still going good. Still haven't taken my heri HP into advance yet, but i will soon. I think it died from bad ball joint and bad end links. I had bad steering wobble on the trip i took it on. Inner boot blew out. No excuse for that, but if it had too much play in it from the wobble, i can kinda see how that would happen. Will replace when the lifetimes go out. Back on to rear camber. While out west this winter while doing switch backs i noticed i could hear my tire rolling up on edge. Obviously the positive camber from the lift has uh.. weakend the sidewalls.. that and the BFG Rugged Terrain was a waste of money tire... i mean.. does good offroad, and actually pretty well on road, but sucks in snow and ice. Worse the MVX4 in ice/snow. The lack of ANY siping is what i blame for that. Anyway, since i'll need to replace these tires soon now that the sidewalls are getting worn, i don't want to put a nice set of ko2 or something like that on it and kill them early because i wore out the sidewall again. So i need to fix my camber issues. Few options: whiteline kta124 set (i was not told i had toe issues, but it can fix them, about 350$ solution, not sure if it fits 2" lift as it's hard to get answers from whiteline.. pretty sure they do though based on Paul Eklund's advice) Another option: local fabricator sells just the control arm (what does camber, not toe) for 265, designed for a 2" lifted vehicle. Should fix my camber issues. Also noticed SJR now sells a 2" lift kit with "trailing arm shims." Already have the normal lift kit, wondering if the trailing arm shims might also fix the issue. Then there is some megan racing stuff that.. i also don't really have answers on their products either, in regards to raised vehicles. Wish i could find my last alignment sheet to see how many degrees out i was. Was close to green zone, but not close to center of green zone. Was told to make to sure to rotate tires at every oil change... which i do. What would you guys do for the rear camber? Don't feel like killing another 150 a tire set quicker than they should be. *EDIT* i had to slot the camber hole on my front struts to get it into the green zone and use grade 8 bolts. Kinda sucks since i need an alignment anytime i disconnect it. May go to firestone lifetime one for that... Also getting to end of life on the GR2's and springs i imagine, at 125k (gr2's installed at 80k) so will probably put king springs (can't decide if just stiffening or raising ones, as i know i'd need drop blocks to raise higher, but another 1.25" would be nice, and make bottoming out less probable, and thought maybe 3 1/4" lift with 2" drops might provide uh... more normal wear patterns since it would act like a 1.25" lift and i realize i'd need knew brake lines too, but that is easy stuff.)

So annoyingly found out when i went to get core charges on the half axles (that might not even have been bad, again i might have been misdiagnosing a noise, new ball joints and sway links fixed that) had a lifetime warranty, so i could have had them replaced for free. To top that off i think the Heri's are the worst half axle on the market. Passenger side is clicking in corners, so the heri's are going out already. Back to the autozones.. and maybe try and bitch about labor and alignment costs should be reimbursed, before asking for my money back on the heri's. What a load of crap for a product.

OEMs?

Well.. i'll see how the Heri's fare. They got rid of my tire rub issues on the passenger side. I dunno how they'll hold up, guess i'll find out. While i replaced them i found a ripped ball joint boot and feels like i may need a new inner tie rod on the other side.. Probably gonna replace both ball joints cause the other ones seems a bit worn out too... Kinda wondering this though: what brand of ball joints do you guys use? Thought about getting whitelines, but they only come in that kit for roll center/bump steer correction, though maybe i'm having bump steer issues if my steering wheel won't freaking stop wobbling. Pretty sure i replaced one ball joint last fall, and it may be starting to make noise too, not sure what brand was used, but that could be the inner tie rod i guess.. or the rack.. i hear the rack can develop issues too.. Tire could be out of round i guess too... will have it balanced and checked for round when i do allignment after ball joint(s) and tie rod. BFG Rugged Terrain... a pretty meh tire, though it has some pluses over the KO (dry dirt, gravel, sand, wet roads, and highway in general), and some minuses too (snow, ice, slick mud). Think i'll get KO2 next time (seems like.. best of both of these tires)

it's my CV's... getting Heri's to replace them. Never should have replaced my OE ones (i thought tire rub was them, and knew they went out when you lifted, but they weren't bad yet, and my rear CVs are OE and perfectly fine, 38k miles later). Already replaced these half shafts 2-3 times per side up front, probably once or twice without need... time to upgrade to Heri since they actually make one designed for lift/older cars with more slop... only downside is the 120$ pricetag.. however.. i've spent well over 120$ on the half axles i've gotten so far. Thnk they were 75$ a pop... and that's 150 for drivers side, and 225$ on passenger side.

I'm using high mile synthetic designed for 7k oil changes with a 10k mile oil filter. My oil comes out cleaner than when i was using regular oil and changing every 3500 miles. But yeah.. gonna.. check out sway bar one way or the other... pretty sure if i get some ramps i can reconnect the links pretty easy. Previously had been jacking it up, putting it on jack stands, and then using my high lift jack wheel lifter attachment to pull the wheel up... which was better than what my friends were doing by having mutiple guys push the damn thing up while on a lift..

2 oil changes for me would be every 14k miles.. but yeah i am aware i should rotate them as often as i was saying anyway. Remembered it was a grade 8 in the front instead of a camber bolt, yeah nothing in the rear. That's why i was looking into adjustable trailing arms, it actually would give some adjustment in that regard. Not a huge concern to me. The bigger this is the front noise... which i think i'm gonna figure out later on tonight if my friends will bounce on my car for me. I have ruled out CVs because it's not my CVs, i've checked, not my tie rods or ball joint or strut mount (well if it is the strut mount the spring ain't spining and it's not what is causing the noise). I can't really seem to find a good guide to diagnosising bad upper sway bushings though... best i can tell is in one video.. where guy seems to be complaining about same noises i'm getting. Gotta check on the rack to make sure it's not that, bushings in the control arms seem fine. Just never dealt with bad upper bushings before.. and know i could just disconnect the sway links and drive and see if it goes away as well as doing the "feel for the pop" thing i'm going to do.. it's a PITA to get sway links back on with a lift.

it's a lift from highguys, 2" strut top, basically the same as the SJR etc. Yeah actually you can add grade 8 bolts to adjust camber in the rear (if it's lifted, if it's not you can just use cambering bolts). I'm just a few degrees (like 1 or 2) off of ideal camber in the rear. I know that's not a big deal, just means i need to rotate tires and have them balanced every 7000 or so. But the annoying loud popping from the front is way more the issue, and i'm fairly sure that's my uper sway bushings, because it started when i replaced my front sway links with whiteline sway links. Want to order some whiteline top bushings.. but unsure on the size of the of stock anti-sway.. plus gota make sure it's not broken before i do that (gonna put it on the lift at the shop in a few minutes). I was just wondering if anyone had used like... http://www.ebay.com/itm/Subaru-Trailing-Arm-Set-93-07-WRX-STi-Impreza-Forester-Outback-GD-GC-SPT-/252010309946?hash=item3aacfc293a&vxp=mtr these? Seems like they MAY be good enough for deal with 1-2 degrees of out of camber... but they're more for lowered vehicle. I am actually close to the guy that makes him.. but can't seem to get him to reply.. because i'm sure he could add threading on them to make them more... adjustable...

Woops, though i put OBW in the topic.. it's a outback wagon.