pontoontodd

Made a decent resistor bank for the TCM. Used 47 ohm resistors, the solenoids measure 4 or 15 ohms, but I've read online that people who've done this swap have used much higher ohm resistors without problems, I will probably go higher still in the future as the 47ohm resistors get pretty warm. I'll probably get a screw terminal banks at that time as my soldering is not very good. Poked a few strands of each wire through the breadboard and bent them over to keep the wires from pulling out. We've been able to drive the car with the transmission completely unplugged (except VSS jumped across the plug) and everything seems to work fine except the cruise. Only transmission code is the neutral circuit low. Still either flashes or lights up steady the ATF temp light on the dash but no code. Speedo (and OBDII mph) doesn't register until you get up to about 20mph but then works all the time. So I started the diagnosis procedure for the neutral circuit low code. One of the first tests is to see if the harness is shorted to ground on that pin. It is grounded whether I have the toggle switch to the TCM in N or D. So I cut that wire near the ECU. No code with the toggle switch in N or D. Probably not the right way to do it, the FSM says that should be 5V in R or D/3/2/1, but the only code I'm getting is that O2 sensor. That even seems to be the case with the dash unplugged too. Noticed in one of the wiring diagrams for the cruise that one of the wires to the cruise module goes through the inhibitor switch. I have that all hotwired now so maybe that was making the cruise think it's in neutral. Cruise works now with that wire to the ECU cut, dash plugged in or not. Seemed like the main reason to have the dash plugged in was the alternator wouldn't charge without it and it would cause the fuel level code. The FSM showed one of the wires going through the battery idiot light. So I wired a resistor instead, alternator charges and no fuel level code (usually) with this: I guess I don't understand exactly how this works, wouldn't the battery idiot light come on when the alternator is charging? One of the last things I did before we pulled all the wiring out was to figure out the feeds for the various gauges and idiot lights. Debated putting the 02 instrument cluster in the 99 but physically it's surprisingly different and electrically it will probably be simpler to keep the 99 instrument cluster. So, again using the FSM, figured out the CEL/MIL, oil pressure idiot light, and temp sender (for gauge). The FSM seems to have the right wire colors but the pinouts for the instrument cluster are different than the actual gauges. Some of them were easy to confirm by testing for continuity on the well labeled circuit board to the pins on the top of the instrument cluster. Final confirmation was cutting them and then grounding the CEL/MIL and oil pressure to see them light up and putting a resistor between temp gauge and ground to see the needle move. Oil pressure switch is green/orange, MIL/CEL is red/white, and temp is pink/white. Also figured out which wire to cut to kill the tach but still read on the OBDII scanner, same with the speedo. The only other thing going through that super multiple junction that we're using is the main cruise switch, so wired around that and test drove the car again to make sure the cruise works. Now we've got all the wiring out of the car and working on paring it down. I'll put up some pictures of that soon. Once this swap is done I might make a separate mini thread with the basics of how to do the wiring. Someone suggested I get the car tuned once this is all done, should be able to clear some of these persistent but unimportant codes and make 10% more midrange torque for a few hundred bucks. So far I have not been able to find someone who can do that to the EZ30. Anybody know of a good tuning solution for these engines? I can see after spending two weeks already on this wiring, having to buy a whole running car, and not having an easy tuning solution why a lot of people who use these engines just use a standalone ECU.

Finally, what I've heard is the hardest part of making this swap work, the transmission control module (TCM). We figured the easiest way was to keep it and just trick it into thinking it's still connected to an auto trans (again, thanks to the rs25 thread). First thing I tried with the trans was to unplug the passenger side plug on the top of the trans (B11/T4). Car won't start. Plugged that back in and unplugged the driver side plug (B12/T3). Engine started but had a P0866 TCM Communication circuit high code, the fuel level code (probably because the VSS wires go through that plug so the speedo doesn't work), and the engine seemed down on power. Plugged that back in and unplugged one of the plugs from the TCM, got a P0866. Unplugging just the other connector to the TCM gives the P0866 and P1698. With either or both unplugged you can still drive the car but it seems to be very low on power, won't go over 2000RPM in drive, but seems faster in reverse. Only so hard you want to test that in the alley though. It was about at this point that I realized the 2002 FSM shows three plugs for the TCM and ours has only two. Three plugs appears to be for the VDC model. It does seem to show the right colors for the plugs at the trans. I downloaded the 2001 supplement for 6 cylinder which seems to show the right plugs and wire colors for our TCM, but the colors for the plugs at the trans are the wrong colors in the 2001 FSM. Car was built 10/01. Figured the easiest thing to start on would be the gear selector. There is a mechanical cable going from the shifter in the car to the trans. There is a wire plug going to the top of the trans known as the inhibitor switch that tells the TCM what gear you're in. This also lights up the reverse lights and connects the circuit for the starter if you're in park or neutral. So the first step is to splice the white/blue and white/green so that it will start no matter what. Next step was to wire in a three position switch so we could ground neutral or drive to the TCM. One position grounds the reverse pin of the TCM, the middle grounds nothing and causes a code, and the other position grounds the D pin. Took a bit to figure out to cut all the other gear position wires so the trans didn't think we were in say reverse and drive at the same time. Yes, this is semi posterior, keep in mind we're just trying to make the car fully driveable with no codes and nothing attached to the trans, eventually this will be wired to some kind of clutch and/or neutral switch and not this crudely. Plus, if you think this wiring is questionable, you haven't seen anything yet. So now we can drive the car with the passenger side unplugged from the trans. Still seems to be anemic in drive, won't go much over 2000RPM, but seems to keep slowly accelerating, but fast in reverse. First thing we did after unplugging the plug on the driver's side was to splice wires across it for the VSS. This made the speedo work, and we never got codes for the other speed sensors. I think at this point the OBDII port stopped working. We grounded the pin for ground at the harness and it started working again. How would you ever figure that out if you just had the harness and were trying to get it to work in a different car? Various solenoid codes started coming up, and we started just jamming resistors between the sockets of those pins to duplicate the resistance of those solenoids. That basically worked but some of them started going up in smoke. Fortunately I had some appropriate resistance 1W and 10W resistors we were able to put in place of the main two shift solenoids. Another small one smoked and all we had were 0.25W resistors, so I just took about a dozen of about 12x the resistance of the solenoid and wrapped them all together. These eventually discolored but seemed to still have the same resistance we started with. At least once we were able to drive it without any transmission codes (switch in N or D, didn't seem to matter). Still anemic in drive but quick in reverse. We looked up the ratios in the FSM to find that reverse was geared taller than first. So maybe it will only go to 2000RPM but that is faster in reverse? Tried it again and I got over 2500RPM in reverse (which is plenty fast in the alley). Maybe without the electronics, the cable manually shifts it through 1,2,3,4. Tried it in first, still won't go much over 2000RPM. Keep in mind this is with everything unplugged from the trans. So there is no way the TCM or ECU knows what gear it's in, or even if it's in gear, except for that switch I wired in. With the driver's side plugged in, got over 3000RPM in drive pretty quickly. Finally it dawned on us that it must be mechanically in third or fourth and the solenoids are downshifting it. Unplugged the driver's side at the trans again and put our resistors back in to the harness side. We figured out that the 1 and 2 shift solenoids were hot when the switch is in D (to the TCM) and wired those to 12V with the ignition on. Now it seems to accelerate much better, but might be in second based on RPM/mph and seat of the pants. Here is that masterpiece of electrical engineering: FSM says the ATF temp sensor should be between 275 and 375 ohms, so we put a 330 ohm resistor in the harness plug. Never got an ATF temp code, but the ATF temp light comes on (flashes) in the dash. Sensor reads 600o through the harness plug, so we tried a few around there, and a 220o, still no code but light on the dash kept flashing. Reads about 3.5k ohm cold. Speedo has stopped working, wires for that have probably come loose. I'm going to get a breadboard and some 10W resistors to wire close to the TCM to get rid of that mess. Need to get a solid connection on the VSS too, that still isn't working but shows continuity on my DMM. So I think my main conundrum is that fuel level A code, and how to get rid of it without the dash / instrument panel wiring. Anybody know how to do that?

I still can't quite figure out the fuel level circuit. The fuel level sender(s) are definitely through a blue plug going to the back with about a dozen wires (I've cut all but three). If you unplug it the fuel gauge reads empty and the code is on. I can wire those through resistors to ground to get the fuel gauge to read over half a tank, but the code still comes on. After I cut the fuel level wire (according to the manual) at the ECU that code does not come up with or without the connector unplugged. Problem solved you say. This is all with the dash harness plugged into the interior fuse block. If you unplug either of those dash harness plugs from the fuse block, the gauges don't come on and you get the code. Only after many hours of messing with this did I look up the code in the FSM to find that the first troubleshooting step basically says if the speedo/tach aren't working, you'll get the code. So I don't know of a good way around that. Certainly don't have room to stuff the 02 instrument cluster in the 99 somewhere just to keep one code from coming up. The wire that goes to the ECU that's supposedly for fuel level did read 3V before I cut it (stripped a little insulation off). So we wired two resistors between 5V and ground so that in between them was 3V and spliced that to the ECU. Still fuel level code comes up with the dash unplugged. I could definitely use some help here. On the plus side I figured out the fuel temp circuit (P0183), evap (P0447), and code P1400. Just started cutting wires leading to the back of the car. For the fuel temp circuit I just had to run a 3.5k resistor between the red/light blue and black/yellow wires. The wires for the other two codes were constant 12V from the rear, even with the ignition off. So I found a constant 12V (should eventually try to find something switched so it doesn't drain the battery). By accidentally touching it to ground and blowing the fuse found out it's for the clock / interior lights. First wired that through a 10 ohm resistor to the two wires for the other codes. Green/black for P1400, brown/yellow for P0447. Smoked that resistor pretty quick. Then put in a 3.9k resistor, didn't smoke, no codes. At this point the only thing going to the back is the 8 wire plug for the fuel pump, which actually looks the same as the one in the 99. I plan on just running a new fuel pump wire anyhow, the one in the 99 is pretty small gauge and corroded. So still have to sort out which of those wires goes to the fuel pump. I had unplugged over half the connections to the underhood fuse block when we were on our unplugging spree the other day. Had to plug most of them back in to get the alternator back to charging 14.5V. If you unplug one of them it goes to 15.5V! Before we started on the rest of this, I drove it around the block. The speedo only registered over about 30mph, but then it and the cruise control worked. We messed with the P0051 H02S heater control circuit low code. Figure if nothing else it would be nice to get the check engine light off so if it came on we'd know we have a new code. This appears to be the driver's side O2 sensor heater, which has no continuity between the two adjacent pins (pass side OK). Tried putting in several different resistors but can't get rid of the code. Seemed like only the passenger side fan would come on, so I messed with that. Got a temp sensor so I could plug it in and heat it up to get the fans to come on. Sort of worked, but it would cool back off quickly, especially with the fans on. The harness end has +5V on one side of the pair of pins. The third pin gets 10V from the harness and is 1k ohms to ground through the sensor. I'm just going to start using a lowercase o for ohms. The temp sensor across the two pins is about: 3k ohms = 55F 1k ohms = 109F 120o = 210F 47o = 210F So I left the 47o resistor in, which made the ECU try to turn the fans on. Each fan has four pins, two hot and two ground. One of the ground pins is always grounded, although I think the resistance was high (18o?). The other one gets grounded by the fan relay on the firewall, but that was high resistance, about 18o. The two hot leads are switched on by relays main 1 and main 2 (or sub 1 and sub 2). There is also a 30A fuse for each fan, the one for the main fan was blown so I replaced that. Main fan is driver's side, sub fan is passenger side. Relays all seemed good, ground pins are getting grounded (more or less), hot pins are 12V. What's strange is that unplugging the temp sensor will cause the fan to run on low, high, and seemingly higher than normal and cycle between those for a while. Driver's side never works, so I assume that motor is bad. When we wire this up to the fans in the 99 we'll make sure the ground is low resistance. Plan on just using the fans in the 99 and this wiring.

I've learned a lot about Subaru wiring in the last ten days. I'll try to leave out a lot of the trial and error and just describe what we've done that seems to work. The goal is to trim the wiring down as much as possible but have no trouble codes and functional cruise control. After going through this I see why some people would just pay someone a few hundred dollars to do this or even go standalone. But it's been interesting. This thread is great, I need to sign up there to give thanks if nothing else: http://www.rs25.com/forums/f145/t155496-dynes-1999-2-5rs-h6-ez30d-swap.html Far more helpful though is the FSM. Fortunately I've seen links to them online. More about that later. http://jdmfsm.info/Auto/Japan/Subaru/Legacy%20Outback/2002/ This is one of the things I noticed when removing the dash. Some micro switch just below the hood release. I think it was attached to the remote start. I took the dash out in about three hours at a relaxed pace. Much easier than the 99, mainly since there wasn't a roll cage in the way, also since we'd just done the 99, and this one did seem to have a few less things connecting the dash to the car. On the 99 I unscrewed the stalks and slid them off the steering column, which was kind of a pain and still didn't give the dash a lot of room to get by. On this sedan I just unbolted the steering column from the cross beam with the two bolts and it drops to the floor. Much easier. Passenger side air bag is pretty heavy, might wind up leaving those out of the 99. Especially since the wiring will be far from stock when we're done. Took the cross beam, HVAC, and ABS stuff out. First step was just start unplugging stuff until codes came up or the car died. Cut/peeled most of the electrical tape off the harness too. Labeled where various things plugged in. The first thing we decided to attack was the wiring to the front. It goes out under the driver's fender and then back in under the hood by the battery. That would clearly prevent us from getting the harness out of the car in one piece so we unplugged everything and got it inside the car. Laid out on the ground next to the car. These harnesses are all hopelessly tangled and often have splices in the middle of wire runs, so it's not like you can just take the wires from a certain plug back to the fuse box or something and cut them off there. Spread out for easier trimming. So then I cut off all those wires laying out on the floor. They go to the various lights, horns, and ABS. The ones going out the car to the front are for the fans and the underhood fuse box.

So here's my current Subaru collection: Here's the rusty front bumper beam I mentioned: So we were working on this sedan and my friend noticed the LF CV axle was pulled apart. The shaft was out of the outer joint and the inner joint (boot holding it on) and the inner CV was pulled mostly out of the trans. I thought I heard some noises like that when we first drove it, but most of the time it was pretty quiet. The spindle nut wasn't staked: Here's what the axle looked like: Put in an axle I picked up off the ground at a junkyard this summer. It drives better now but the AT oil temp light comes on right away, I don't remember seeing that much before. Also, the speedo doesn't seem to register in first gear, and it stays in first longer than you'd expect. Once it shifts into second, speedo works. We've gotten a lot of the wiring exposed and some of it removed. I'll post up pictures of that when we make more progress.

You mean because it's the lightest car you could get with an EZ30? We probably won't because: It would be a lot of work and expense to do the fuel cell and pumps, cage, seats, belts, window nets, bumpers, etc on this one. And building a cage in a sedan would probably be harder than a wagon. It would be hard to fit all the stuff we want to take in a sedan. This thing is pretty rusty, so not worth keeping and building up (I know, I did that with the 99 but going to try to avoid ever doing that again). You can't really tell from the pictures, but I'll put up a picture of the front bumper beam sometime. It's about half steel and half air/iron oxide. For years now the Impreza will randomly lose coolant. Hard to say if it leaks since it's normally parked on a porous surface. After the first time it overheated last week, I had waited a few hours and tried to add coolant but couldn't add much. The second time it overheated it was bubbling in the overflow. This morning I was able to add a quart or two to the radiator and overflow. I just drove it for an hour and a half (with some stops, maybe driving half the time) and no overheating, no bubbling. So maybe it was just low on coolant before. That would be nice.

Looks like good progress "cleaning". Definitely better than before, hard to tell on the hood exactly with the different paint colors.

Thanks to everyone else for sharing your experiences. Definitely makes me hesitate to buy a newer Subaru. I also vote for the EJ22 being an excellent engine overall. Those charts don't really show an increase in reliability, at least for cars 2005+. If the average age of a car in 2013 was 11 years, that would be a 2002 (2003MY?). If anything it shows an increase in reliability in cars built during the 90s. It also says nothing about how many repairs or tows per year those vehicles require to stay on the road. One problem with things like the JD power quality surveys is that they show problems per 1000 cars. That problem could be a glovebox light burned out or an engine seized up. Is some portion of this due to reduced maintenance or even simple things like how often people check their oil, like Numbchux said? That doesn't explain things like power windows or starters that (should) require no maintenance. Also, as grossgary said, most people who buy new cars are more concerned about performance and styling than fuel economy and reliability. Just look at the graph above, if the average new car owner keeps their car for 6 years and it makes it through the warranty period with few problems, what does the manufacturer care? Sure, some of them like Jeep and Honda brag about resale value, but I'm guessing that's a very secondary concern.

Got the 02 OB power seat working, it was the switch. Put in the one out of the sedan and it works fine. After swapping over the front/back mechanism of course, which was a pain. Drove the Impreza a couple of times today since it's been sitting for a few weeks. Did two ~30 min trips in town with a short stop in the middle of each. Both times the temp came up normally, held steady for most of the trip, and then the last five minutes or so started creeping up, even with the heat all the way up. It's 20F today and the radiator fan was running both times when I got home. The first time the overflow bottle was overflowing. It was empty before the second trip, so I filled it most of the way up, but the radiator was still full. At the end of the second trip the overflow was still at about the same level, but the hose was bubbling. So the head gaskets are probably starting to go, right? On the plus side, the starter and trans have been working.

There is a big difference on these cars between 8 o clock and 9 30 as you put it. The temp gauge sits at about 8 o clock from about 150F to 190F and then starts climbing again over 190F (which is about where the fans come on). I don't know if the motors are serviceable, but you can easily just replace the motor itself by unbolting the motor from the shroud and removing the fan. It might be worth replacing the relay(s) too. Good to hear it's probably not the engine itself.

Below follows the saga of purchasing an H6 donor car. The only nearby junkyard I could find on car-part that had a decent engine and it was still in the car wanted $1500 for the front clip. Not sure how we'd get it home or what we'd do with it once it was here. Seemed like just buying a running car wouldn't cost much more. I've been watching co part, and even bid on one car a while back. I haven't found a good way to see what cars actually sell for, but it seems like anything that runs and drives is at least $1500. There were two listed on craigslist in Milwaukee with 6cyl, so I arranged a time to meet the guy with the cheaper car and we drove up there. Address he gave us turned out to be a Wells Fargo branch. I called and he said he'd just sold it, then had some story about how he just sold a 2006 but was coming to meet us in the 2001. He pulled into the parking lot a few minutes later and said there were a few other guys who had called him. They'd been waiting in other cars in the lot. My friend quickly noticed it was a four cylinder. We drove over to a McDonalds so we could use the bathroom and I looked up the other Milwaukee ad. Different price, pictures, and wording, but same phone number. Not sure what kind of scam was going down there, but he did change the listings to four cylinder. Texted a guy in south bend Indiana who had one for sale for $1200 and he texted me back quickly that it was still for sale. I sent him a few more questions and have never heard back. Ad was gone the next day so I assume he sold it. There is another one in Chicago that we have not been able to get a reply from all week, so we went back home. There was a 2002 OB H6 sedan on co part for $550 buy it now. Runs and drives, 187k miles, dent in hood and fender. Called the M97 broker and it's about $1100 with fees. So I had them buy it now. Wired the money over in the afternoon. Confirmed with the yard that I could just drive it out (I've read online that some make you tow it out even if it runs). I had called a tow service in Rockford a shop I deal with recommended. They go in and out of Chicago all the time so they'd tow the car to Rockford for $110. We drove into the auction in Wheeling the next afternoon. Got the paperwork pretty quickly, had to give them the buyer number (make sure you have the buyer number if you buy a car at auction through a broker), probably waited a half hour or so for them to bring the car out. They have a ton of cars which they move around with two giant forked wheel loaders (whether or not the cars run) that are in constant motion. The guy who dropped it off asked me what our car's license plate number was. I didn't have mine memorized, not sure if that's really what he was asking, but he eventually just decided to ignore it and left the car. I hopped in, found the key, and it fired right up. Drove it back and forth a few times, it made some clunking and scraping noises, but seemed to be mostly functional. We drove it out of the bullpen and out into their visitor lot. The trans clearly wasn't working well but seemed like it would be good enough. Coolant was definitely bubbling into the overflow, so probably bad head gaskets. Popped the radiator cap off before it was warm and it was full. Idled rough, check engine light on. Engine oil, PS, brake fluid were all good, even had ¾ tank of gas. Could not remove auto trans dipstick. My friend followed me in the 2002 OB wagon and I headed west. Only made it a few miles until the trans in the sedan started acting like it was in neutral. Pulled into a parking lot, got the dipstick out with a vice grips, and put in a quart of ATF. May have been slightly low. Added ATF didn't help. Basically you can drive it up to about 35mph normally, if you try to go 40+ it's like the final drive disengages or something, but it doesn't make any noise. The speedo and tach swing around freely when you hit the gas. Between that and the likely bad head gaskets, we figured we wouldn't make it back to Rockford. Spent a bunch of time calling various tow companies near there that wanted $300-400 to tow it to Rockford. The tow company from Rockford wasn't able to pick it up on short notice though. Eventually we left the car at my friend's parents' house, which was about ten miles away. By the time we got there the temp gauge had gone all the way up a couple of times. Left the floormats under the front end to catch the coolant and went home. Tow place picked it up the next day and towed it to Rockford for $150. I was barely able to drive it halfway in the garage since the trans was mostly not engaging. Had to push it the rest of the way in. Here are pictures from the auction site: So if anyone wants parts, PM me, I'm definitely keeping the engine and associated wiring and computers. My friend wants the radiator and fan assembly. I plan on keeping the wheels and tires for summer use on the 02 wagon. Other than that, I will probably scrap the rest by the end of the month. I will try to see if I can use parts from this seat to fix the 02 wagon, but this one moves back and not forward.

I think that's also what car-part said about the airbags, not at all concerned about that. That power seat I saw listed for $160 was on car-part.com. There was at least one that was cheaper but in C condition, seems like a waste of time to swap in a worn out seat. I should call some of them and see if they'd just sell the fore/aft mechanism.

This is going in the 2002, which we don't plan on racing. Have to use a race seat for desert racing anyhow. The other seats are tan leather so I'd like to get something to match that. Looks like they didn't offer manual leather driver's seats though. After looking at it, I kind of doubt you'd be able to put the manual slide rails under this seat.

Pretty exciting stuff here, trying to fix the power driver's seat in the 2002 OB. When we first got it, it would move forward but only sometimes backward. All the other adjustments work fine. Now it will only move forward. Fortunately, since it is from CA, I was able to easily unbolt the seat. The plug going to the fore/aft motor was getting +/- 12VDC when I pushed the switch both ways. Took the seat completely out and put it on the workbench for disassembly. When I hotwired the fore/aft motor with 12V either way, it would occasionally twitch or hum, and one time moved about an inch, but usually did nothing. So I don't think it's a switch/wiring/fuse problem. Removed the whole fore/aft mechanism The bearing blocks spin freely on the screws. The screws don't seem to turn, so I assume the right angle gearbox(es) or motor are locked up. One side slid freely, the other was sticky but not terrible. For the meantime I just threaded the bearing block things most of the way up the screws to give me more legroom. The bearing blocks have to bolt to the rails before you slide the whole thing in and bolt in the gearboxes. Anybody know of a place to get that mechanism without buying a whole seat? Only nearby junkyard with a good seat wants $160, and it's still about an hour drive. Don't see anybody on the forums parting one out with a seat at the moment. As much as I love AC and cruise control, I really don't understand power seats. Just seems like they're slower, heavier, more expensive, and less reliable. The super adjustable cushion on this one is kind of nice, but not worth it. Maybe I should just look for a leather manual seat.

Second the small hose clamp or zip ties on the overflow hose, that seems to help. You could check with an OBDII scanner that the ECU is getting a proper temperature reading. The gauge and ECU use different sensors. You should be able to hear if the fans are running if the car is just ignition on, especially with the window rolled down. I think the easiest and most definite way to check for head gasket leaks is to look in the overflow bottle when the engine is warmed up and running. If you see any air bubbles coming out of the overflow hose, even small ones every few seconds, you probably have bad head gasket(s). You can also get a head gasket leak check kit that you put special fluid in, warm up the engine, stick it in place of the radiator cap, pump a squeeze bulb, and if the fluid changes color from the air going through it you have hydrocarbons in the coolant. Hate to say it but if you have to add coolant but don't see any leaking onto the ground you probably have bad head gaskets. Maybe you're lucky and the fans aren't coming on when they should and then the engine boils some coolant out. How high does the gauge get? Does it rise rapidly or slowly creep up?

I thought about polyurethane but those can be noisy also if not regularly greased. I'll look around a little more. Good point about being able to use some non stock sized bushings though, since we're making the links. One of our friends recently put an EZ30 in his four seat street legal buggy. He is just running a bus transaxle, but it does have some aftermarket gears in it. He also runs fairly small tires to help the transaxle live. Between the small tires and it being a four seater, I don't think it wheelies, but he said it will chirp the tires if you're too aggressive shifting into fourth gear. He really likes the H6 and that's one reason we're planning on swapping one in my 99 OB. There are a lot of people who've put Subaru engines in air cooled VWs, so adapters and clutches are readily available.

We're planning on making lateral links since we've bent them repeatedly on the Outback and at least one on the Forester. Not a big deal when it happens, and fairly easy to straighten out, just figure if we actually finish the V2R they're sure to all be bent. Figure we just make them fit the stock bushings but make the main tube 1" .095" or .120" 4130 or something stronger than stock. So I was looking at bushings and the dealer wants a silly amount for them, $10-$24 each. I did find this place that sells them for $6 each: http://www.fastwrx.com/products/subaru-oem-lateral-link-to-knuckle-bushing Anybody know if they're any good? Couldn't find any mention of them online. These Group N lateral link bushings are cheaper than the standard ones from the dealer: http://www.rallispec.com/mou_bush_rstbk1.html Am I missing something? We've discussed making them tie rod style, heim joints / rod ends at both ends and a threaded tube in the middle. My experience with rod ends is that they would get sloppy pretty fast on a street car. The stock bushings seem to last almost forever.

02 Outback didn't start again the other day but we were able to jump start it. Battery showed 12.5V on the multimeter but wouldn't even try to start the engine. It is from 2013 and lived in the 99 Outback for most of that time. Got an AGM battery at O Reillys (35PLT I think) and it's been fine since. My friend stopped by yesterday and we did some more test fitting of the long travel parts on his Forester. His cruise had stopped working a little while before the engine rebuild. Seems like it's getting vacuum and the fuse is good, light comes on when he pushes the cruise button, but it doesn't work. What else should we check? We measured a few more things on the 99 OB long travel before we make more parts. I'm going to order the shocks, tubing, and machined parts this week. I plugged the coolant temp sensor back in and put new vent hoses from the dealer on in place of the ones I tore up. Seems to run OK when cold again at least. New electric jack mount: We managed to get the dash out. That was a pain with the rollcage in the way, but we eventually pulled it past the tube on the passenger side and then it came out fairly easily. Hopefully I can get an H6 and a crapload of wiring and black boxes this week.

Picture of the double slotted retainer for the spare tire mount. Replaced the inner tie rods and rack boots in the 02 Outback. Both tie rods were sloppy and both boots torn. The boot/tie rod package deal from Rock Auto is definitely the way to go. I also noticed the left front outboard CV boot was torn, so I pulled the axle too. It's almost a pleasure to work on a car that has almost no rust. While I was at it, I completely removed both lower ball joints and covered them with anti seize before putting everything back together. They were set firmly in the taper in the control arms, but I've never removed ball joints from spindles so easily before. Even the CV axle splines, which were completely dry, slid right out of the hub. I think someone had replaced the outer tie rod ends, they were still stiff and had small cotter pins holding them in place. While I had the axle out, I greased both ends and replaced both boots, the inner one was dry rotted. I still haven't tried to disable the alarm on the 02 Outback yet. The power driver's seat no longer moves back. It worked intermittently when we first bought the car. Moves in every other direction. There's still wind noise coming from the driver's mirror. It's still consuming coolant too, but I doubt it's used a gallon since I got back from California. So overall not too bad considering it just rolled over 230,000 miles. Can't wait to have an H6 in the 99, I definitely put my foot to the floor much less often in the 02 just driving around town. Part of that is that it is eager to downshift, but it definitely gets up to speed quickly. Getting started on new long travel struts too - upgraded parts for the 99, a new set for my friend's Forester, and some extra parts while we're at it.

Did some work on our Subarus on Sunday. Impreza trans is still working well. A little hard to get it in first gear when cold. One time a couple weeks ago it wouldn't start, no clicking, no cranking, couldn't jump start it, wound up pull starting it with another car. Started the next day, then I sanded the spade terminal on the starter, no problems since. Alternator is putting out 14.5V. I noticed when we did the trans swap that the sleeve over the long heater hose was very rotten. Since that heater hose burst on the Outback recently, probably because the sleeve holds water around the hose and lets it rot, I figured I should replace them on the Impreza too since they're probably original. Got that done. Forester is still running well with fewer codes than before. Rebuild definitely solved the coolant consumption problem, not sure if there's any change in oil or fuel consumption. We straightened out one of the rear links that was bent on that and replaced the accessory belts. 99 Outback is barely running now with the coolant temp sensor unplugged. Plan is to get an EZ30, harness, ECU, TCM, etc soon and just swap it out. Junkyard not too far from here has one with 140k miles, they'll sell me all that for $1050. Changed the mount for the electric jack a bit, and used that to work on the car again. Replaced the rear brake shoes and caliper pin boots. Replaced the left front inboard CV boot that had a little tear in it. Also changed the quick release fasteners for the spare tire to use a C washer instead of the keyslots. Seems to work a little better but I think we'll wind up just threading them into the jack. 02 Outback has General Altimax Arctic snow tires now, they can stay on the car year round. We've used them on one of our other cars for a few years now and they seem to work well. Sold the old summer tires, which were still in good shape. After the car sat for a week or two, the battery was completely dead. Couldn't even charge it. Put the three year old battery from the 99 OB in it. Alternator seems to be charging to 14.5V, but one time my wife said it cranked really slow but did start. This was the day after we drove it about 400 miles on the highway. Been starting fine before and since then. Rear pads were getting thin so I replaced those. The front rack boots are both shot and at least one of the tie rods is sloppy. I noticed on Rockauto you can get a boot and tie rod kit for not much more than buying either separately, so I got a pair of those. I'll probably put them on sometime this week.

I forgot to check the voltage again, and now it's cooled off. After a lot of cussing and tearing apart the crankcase vent hoses, I was able to unplug the coolant temp sensor for the ECU. For some reason the fans still run, even when cold. After it warmed up it started running rough again. So I'm starting to think it's some kind of head gasket or mechanical issue. Except that it's done this before and I've fixed it by replacing the MAF or O2 sensor.

I keep forgetting to try this. Might try it tomorrow. It did have good voltage when cold (12.5V off, 14.5V running). One of my friends suggested unplugging the temp sensor. Much easier said than done, but I'll probably try that. If it cures the problem, then it's probably an electrical problem. If it keeps running rough, then it might be the head gaskets or something, but I haven't seen any white smoke out the exhaust, it doesn't seem to be using much coolant, and haven't seen any bubbles in the overflow. This week I tried a different ECU and a new O2 sensor, no change. I sprayed ether around the intake when it warmed up and didn't seem like there were any vacuum leaks. So far I've tried: MAF sensor (and unplugging) O2 sensor (and unplugging) ECU coil cam position sensor fuel pump This is on the 99 OB EJ25. It always runs great when it's cold. As soon as the temp gauge gets to the normal operating spot in the middle, it will gradually run rougher and rougher. It's still barely driveable, but hesitates, sometimes makes no power, and bucks. But sometimes runs fairly smooth and steady. Sometimes it seems like a fuel delivery issue, but not always.

I started editing the first post as a sort of guide since this thread has gotten really long. Let me know what you think. Also, still haven't figured out why the 99 OB runs rough when warm yet, any more tips on that would be appreciated.

Converted the tire mount to quick release. First thing was to key slot the holes for the jack base. That will hopefully just stay bolted in the car most of the time, so I added a small bolt hole to hold the top in place while the tire is going in and out. next step was to do the same to the spare tire mount jack bolted back in Got these cam lock handles from Grainger. Cut down some long 8mm bolts and welded collars on them. Then turned them to a point and loctited them into the handles. I'd like to make the heads on these bigger but they barely fit through the lug holes on the wheels as it is. Tire locked in place It is definitely fast to remove and no tools are required. It's a little tricky to get it clamped in right. It doesn't clamp super tight either, if you push hard you can shift the tire around a bit. Figure I'll see if it stays in place driving around town and try to think of something a little better.

You can get a 110V MIG welder fairly cheap. They are easy to use and indispensable. I think after you have a socket set and a vice grips, that's the next most important tool. The hidden winch is cool, how is the cable going to come out? I'd definitely recommend some kind of protection for your oil pan and radiator support. Something like 1" x 2" tubing running the width of the radiator support with another one under the oil pan going back to the front crossmember. If you've already started hitting hidden obstacles, it's a short matter of time before you bash in the oil pan and/or radiator support. If you're going over a lot of rocks, something to protect the gas tank should be next. Since you like to go fast (judging by your Miata use), your best entertainment per dollar would be a set of rally struts/shocks/springs. They will make the car much more fun. Also, consider mud tires instead of all terrains. They're not much more expensive or noisier than all terrains. They will definitely save you from getting stuck in the mud and should be harder to puncture, and will work about the same as the all terrains in all other conditions.