pontoontodd

Video from our trip to Badlands off road park around Thanksgiving. Couple of good jumps at the start and you can see a few spots where I tried the dual range:

So the spacebar doesn't work when I try to reply using Edge but works in Firefox. Videos show up in Edge but not in Firefox. Here are a few videos I've edited and uploaded recently. I've got another one to put up, maybe tonight. Let me know what you think of the videos and if you can see them in the post. Always appreciate feedback regarding what parts of the videos you like or don't like, are they too long, too short, etc. On the first day of our trip back from the V2R we spent most of the day at Flaming Gorge in Wyoming. My favorite place overall that we've gone trail riding. Lots of different trails, most fairly easy, some difficult climbs to try, awesome scenery and wildlife. We still had a big crack in the body so we were trying to take it easy. On the second day we spent a lot of the day in Dinosaur National Monument in Colorado. Easily the most scenic place I've ever driven off pavement, but there's basically just one long dirt road and it's not challenging. We still had a big crack in the body so we were trying to take it easy. Two week trip my wife and I took to California and back in November in the 99 Outback. First time I really used the low range, at about the one minute mark I put it in low range for the rest of the climb. Most of this is near the UT/AZ border.

We haven't beaten on a second gen outback yet. I'll let you know when we do.

I think the main structural problem we've had with the Outback might be caused by the leverage the lower arms have on the front crossmember. The crossmember is spaced out from the body on the 99 and that spacer isn't very long. This is where the body cracked and the lower arms and engine seem to keep getting pushed back. I tried bracing the crossmember close to the control arm mounts but that didn't clear the exhaust. So I cut a couple of tubes that push against and bolt to the engine crossmember and trans crossmember. If I do a 6MT swap I think I will just make a trans crossmember from scratch that bolts to the engine crossmember. Also, I've uploaded a few more videos to youtube recently and have at least one more to go but I can't seem to post them here anymore. Even old videos posted on the forum that used to show up are just blank spaces. Anyone know what's going on?

The 2wd and 4wd I beam suspensions definitely give a lot of wheel travel. Camber change is excessive as you point out. Probably the only IFS truck/SUV that would easily give more wheel travel than the Subaru at a similar width. I've seen people convert the front of their Jeepspeed Cherokees to TTB. Surprisingly, lots of SUVs and small pickups are lighter than the Outback, like similar year Wranglers, S10s, and Rangers. Probably nothing with a full body and as much or more interior volume than the Outback is going to be lighter though. Trackers are much lighter but have much less power and the shorter wheelbase probably wouldn't ride as well. One of my friends has one of those he claims rides like the Subaru but I haven't seen it in action. You are right about the body lift, that would be easy and improve approach, departure, and breakover angles and should allow more travel and/or larger tires. Right now I think my biggest structural problem is the leverage the front crossmember has on the body with the stock subframe spacers. With taller spacers that would be even worse. The 2002 doesn't appear to have any spacers though, so that might be a better car to body lift. I've been thinking about just building a new trans crossmember that would connect to the engine crossmember, if I did a 6MT swap I would probably do that. Even the limited slip rear and lockable center diff of the 6MT/R180 from an STI would be a big improvement. I rarely get into situations where lockers would help but it would be nice. Perhaps the VDC would be an adequate substitute as scalman says but I've heard that makes engine/trans swaps much more difficult.

Noticed one of the seams on the front crossmember was cracked a bit so I welded that on both sides of the car. I drove down to visit a customer in Florida in the 99 Outback. Car ran fine all the way down, trans is fairly quiet and seems happy. On the way home I always pass through a national park near the FL/AL border. This time it was getting dark when I got there and I started driving around in the woods on some dirt roads. I got on a few trails that were fairly narrow and had some crazy jumps built into them (erosion control). A bunch of these had a drop of about ten feet within fifty feet of the ridge. I only aired it out a couple times. One of them had some big ruts right after the landing that bottomed out the suspension. I used the steering brake in a couple turns and broke the reflective part of the passenger side mirror (already replaced). The new headlights are definitely low beam in either position, with the extra HIDs they're not too bad but I need to get that figured out. On pavement it's no big deal but in the woods more light would be better. The rest of the trip home Tuesday was uneventful. The next day the left front tire was flat and I eventually figured out the leak was coming from a small crack in the rim on the inside of the wheel. Got that replaced today. I've been talking to a few of my friends lately about a better vehicle for what we're doing than the Subarus. The idea would be to get/modify something with similar or better ride quality than what we have but have a true low range and locking diffs or at least limited slip and staying fairly narrow. A better power to weight ratio would be good too. Small SUVs with IFS like a Blazer or Toyota have shorter CV axles than the Subaru in stock form and would be difficult to improve without making them considerably wider. Even Raptors with longer arm long travel kits I've seen have only 14" of travel in front if they keep the 4WD, and that's getting really wide. Rear solid axle would be fairly easy to get some reliable wheel travel with. A Cherokee might be more reliable than a Blazer but the solid front axle would mean it would have to sit high to get a decent amount of suspension travel. Perhaps a Ford with TTB would be the best. Any of those would allow larger tires than the Subaru. I'm going to try to get a few rides in some prerunner trucks next year to see how well they really ride. At the moment I'm planning on sticking with the Subarus. One thought we had was to build internal bypass shocks or just add hydraulic bumpstops so we can soften the suspension a bit. If you guys have ideas of a better car/truck for what we're doing I'm open to suggestion.

I found some springs from Century (L-30) that are about the same wire diameter but about half the coils and a little longer than the stock detent ball springs (on right), so they're about twice as stiff. Fortunately pretty easy to swap out with the trans in the car, I replaced all three. They definitely make a difference in the feel, it is notchier going in and out of gear. But if I didn't know I had replaced them I'm not sure I would notice the difference, it's not super stiff. It will be a while until I can do a good rough downhill test but they are promising. They're cheap but the downside is Century has a $40 minimum order and none of their dealers stock this size. I had to buy some other springs for other projects so I got them at the same time. Finally got the 9003 HID bulbs and installed the early Outback one piece headlights. Should be more robust, the level on top is nice, and the adjusters are much better than the 99 headlights. They work well but there seems to be no difference in brightness or pattern between high and low beam. Plugged into the same wiring and ballasts as the old bulbs, hi/lo worked on those. What would cause that?

Rerereassembled the dual range trans. I got a new 1/2 selector/hub assembly. To replace that the pinion gear stack has to come completely apart. It is scary how small the keys are that drive third, fourth, and fifth. Once I got it all apart I found that first and second do not run on needle bearings and the shaft that first runs on was worn down about .020". This seems to have transferred some material to the inside of the gear. This was right next to that pinion bearing that failed on me the first time. And yes, there was some debris or RTV plugging one of the oil holes. This might explain the rumbling/growling noise at idle. I have plenty of other shafts and gears now, for better or worse, so I used a good set and put the new 1/2 selector/hub and the gears that were in the dual range on it. I made a thinner spacer for the reverse idler, this one is .14" thick. This allows the idler to go a little past the output gear but it's still mostly engaged. Figure if the teeth wear/bend a little it will be pushing the idler into that spacer under load rather than popping out of gear. Idler is still entirely engaged with the teeth on the input shaft. I noticed one of the diff bearing outer races had some dents in it. You can see they're just on one side of the bearing, not all the way around. I'm not sure if it was dented before, but I thought I should replace it while everything's apart. Have to check the backlash and pattern anyhow. Set the backlash and checked the gear pattern. This is really tedious. Fortunately with the low range case you can sort of get to the ring gear through the input shaft hole. Then you're trying to rock the ring gear either with the diff stubs, through the drain plug, or through the input shaft hole without disturbing the dial indicator. The real problem is you need some preload on the diff bearings, so that has drag, but the pinion shaft has almost no drag. So it's much easier to check the backlash by turning the pinion shaft. I wound up double checking backlash by putting an indicator on fifth gear, which is outside the case. It's about 50% bigger pitch diameter than the pinion gear but with a little math it makes for a much easier and more consistent measurement. So I think I have decent pattern and backlash. After I did that I tried to put the input shaft assembly in but it wouldn't go in all the way. Eventually I figured out the gear I put in from the old Outback trans (right) was slightly different than the one that was originally in the dual range (left). You can see the groove on the OD of the gear on the left and the groove on the face of the gear on the right. They are only about .010" or .020" different in diameter but one has 38 teeth and the other has 39 teeth. Good thing it wasn't the opposite, I probably would have assembled it and not even noticed. So I polished out the inside of the gear from the dual range, unstacked and restacked everything and double checked the gear pattern. First test drive went well, there is a slight rattle when coasting in neutral, but I found something on the body rattling a little so I hope that's it. It shifts nicely and doesn't make any significant noise at low speeds and doesn't leak.

Have you tried taking the upper radiator hose off the radiator (still connected to engine) and filling the coolant that way? That is the classic Subaru coolant filling technique. It makes a big difference though if it's just leaking overnight or pushing coolant out. Clean your engine bay, especially around the overflow bottle. If you see evidence of coolant spraying out the top, it's probably a head gasket leak, not coolant leaking out onto the ground. Or are you saying you are filling the overflow bottle and radiator completely, and overnight the overflow bottle level drops? That might be normal, the coolant will expand and contract as it heats and cools. When it's hot the bottle will be much more full than when it's cold. If the hose going from the radiator to the overflow is leaking (put a small hose clamp on it), the radiator will push coolant out when hot but not suck it in when it cools. It would help if you could narrow down the problem.

So it's leaking out onto the ground? Can you lay a sheet of cardboard or something under it to help you tell where it's leaking? Knowing Subarus my guess would be a head gasket, see if you can see any green coolant drips where the heads bolt to the block. If the bottom of the engine is too dirty/oily to tell, try to blast it off with engine degreaser, brake cleaner, or carb cleaner. Check the radiator where the plastic tanks meet the aluminum core. If all your hoses are stock, it could be any of those - radiator hoses, heater hoses, there are other small coolant hoses too. My friend's Forester had a pinhole leak in one of the steel coolant lines under the intake manifold due to rust, a real pain to fix.

Did a few other things while the car was up on jackstands and I was waiting for trans parts. Passenger side rack bushing has been coming out for a while, rack doesn't really move but I replaced it. Got a set of Whiteline rack bushings since they were cheaper than the standard bushings from the dealer. I was only able to replace the passenger side but the driver's side still looked good. Whiteline control arm bushing on the driver's side is looking pretty rough, but that's mainly because the crossmember is pushed back a bit and it's smashing the bushing. Trimmed that up. Used a bottle jack to push the crossmember forward and added a couple of tubes from the crossmember to this arm mount, but they interfered with the exhaust so we took them off. Planning on bracing the front crossmember to the trans crossmember. I've noticed this steering rack tab has had a little crack for a long time, and neither of them are fully welded from the factory. So I welded them. I also welded a few other seams that were split or looked like they were starting to split. Trans assembly next.

Looks like you had a good time. You could have easily just driven over that birch sapling that was laying across the road. Are there a lot of roads like that near you? Photos don't show up on your last post, says "please update your account to enable 3rd party hosting", your other ones are fine.

Ever since the Vegas to Reno I've been meaning to weld the seam on the side opposite the one that split open. It's had a small section that's split open for a year or two, figured it would be best to weld it while it's still mostly intact. Easiest way I know of to remove the undercoating is with a propane torch. Heat it up until it burns and shrinks up a bit, then scrape it off. Had to basically tack weld the length of it to burn the rest of the sealer/undercoating out, then was able to put a decent weld down the whole seam. The little beads off to the side near the middle were little cracks in the sheet metal. Then I primed and painted it. Hopefully it's stronger than stock. I can definitely see why this is step one of building a proper rally car. That whole seam had at most a dozen spot welds holding it together. And it's the main thing attaching the front suspension, steering, and engine to the rest of the car.

Video from the last Vegas to Reno race:

It's better than the stock struts at any speed. Yes, they help at low speeds. High speeds is really what they're made and tuned for though and where they work great.

Yes, we have the same springs and valving on both cars. The struts and springs are set up more for the Outback. The Forester is probably 500 pounds lighter so it doesn't ride quite as well, but much better than stock. We can get various rates for the rear but I haven't found much in the size we're using for the front springs. Also, the start of the video is about the lowest speed they're tuned for, it really starts to smooth out over 40-50mph.

Got the video edited from our UP trip back in July.

I made a brass spacer .240" thick the last time I put the trans together after reading about that on here. Yes, it lines the reverse gears up much better than stock. I think the idler gear going past the others actually helps hold it engaged though. I made a .140" thick spacer I'm going to put in this time so the idler is somewhat past the other gears so they hopefully hold it in place. I've been unable to find stiffer detent springs which I think would help too.

Yes, I have the 1.59 low range. The 4.11 that was in the trans had a slight chamfer on the ring gear. I had to swap in a different 4.11 gearset and grind a chamfer on it in the lathe. I posted about it a while back. I haven't found stiffer springs. I'm thinking about putting a little spacer behind them.

I'm not stopping you from adapting struts from a different car to fit your Subaru. I have not found a good chart or list of strut lengths. Again, I think the other problems I would have is that they will probably not have enough compression damping, so they will bottom out easily, and they will probably bend if driven hard, especially if they are longer than stock and bottom easily. I think Bilstein sells generic strut inserts with up to 9" travel for inverted struts, but you would still have to make bodies and fit springs to them. The stock Subaru rear struts have 8" of travel, you might have a hard time finding something off the shelf with much more than that. If you do find something post about it.

The 4.44 gears would help some but that's a lot of work for 8% more reduction. Also, would the ring gear even fit in the front with the low range? I already had to clearance the 4.11 ring gear. Is there a high strength reverse gear available? It seems like the idler is the first one to go, which is odd considering the gear on the input shaft is half the size. I'm tempted to make a few but it would take a while and/or be expensive. Does anyone know of a fix to keeping first and second from popping out of gear? I think it only happens when driving down rough grades while engine braking. Not a huge problem but I'd like to do something about it while it's apart. I can't find any springs for the detent balls that are stiffer than stock from McMaster or Lee. Mine have a small patch of white paint on them, I'm wondering if Subaru or some aftermarket company sells something stiffer.

Yes, we made the same long travel struts for the Forester as we've been using on the Outback. Go you youtube and look up channel pontoontodd. I am uploading one right now, and have four more to edit this winter. You can read through this thread for ideas. In the first post I listed modifications we've done with most important at the top. If you won't buy better struts I would at least look into lift springs. In your case I'd save your money until you can buy a rust free car. I've learned that the hard way. Just go out, drive around on backroads and trails with at least one other car, have a good time, and see what you want to improve.

I'm not completely sure why reverse was starting to go. The spacer might have actually hurt, using reverse in low range is probably a bad idea, and the climb I was trying to back out of was flexing the car so that wheels were leaving the ground. It was still working when we took it apart, I'd just rather fix things before they fail completely.

Since the transmission in the 99 Outback was popping out of reverse under load unless you held the shifter I decided we should take it out and take it apart. The last few times we've removed and installed Subaru transmissions, we've just balanced/strapped them to the floor jack and had a couple guys balancing/wrestling it in and out. With my jackstands all the way up we would generally have to slide the trans off the jack to slide it out of the car. We thought about getting the car up higher but then the jack wouldn't lift high enough to support the trans. So I made a tilting bracket that bolts to the bottom of the trans and goes into the floor jack. Here is how it bolts to the trans. That made it much easier to get the trans out and down. We were even able to tilt the bellhousing down far enough to roll it out the front of the car on the floor jack. Took the trans apart and the reverse idler is definitely damaged. Some teeth are worse than others. It probably only takes one or two bad ones to kick it out of gear. Here is the reverse output gear. It's a little easier to see in person than in this picture, but the rear half of the teeth (bottom of picture) are bent or twisted in a direction that pushes it out of gear under load. I should really replace that while the transmission is apart but I don't look forward to taking that whole shaft assembly apart and putting it all back together. I have a good reverse idler I could just swap out and put it back together today. The idler is $66 at the dealer and the reverse output gear with hub is $150. I am leaning towards just buying those new and waiting a few days. The brass spacer I made seems to line up the gears perfectly but seeing this I think I should make a narrower one so the idler gear pushes against the spacer rather than being pushed out of gear. Any thoughts on any of that? Anything else I should check/replace while it's apart? Everything else looked good and was working fine when we took it out.

His Forester has long travel struts now. EJ25 and 5MT. There's a big somewhat loose climb leading up to that jump. His Forester can normally keep up with the Outback now that it has long travel. I still have a bunch of videos to edit. I'll post them here as I get them done. In the meantime this video has a few jumps we've done: The long travel lets you jump without breaking things.