pontoontodd

Alright, time for more advice wanted. Long story, and eventually I'll at least put up some video, but we went to an off road park yesterday that was all rutted muddy trails. On the plus side, the long travel seemed to work great and we even went over a rock pile that I never would have attempted before. After hundreds of starts/stops and a bunch of pulling people out, my clutch was starting to slip. Then near the end of the day I broke reverse. Not sure how, it just suddenly didn't work and made bad noises. Fortunately we were able to drive home but the clutch did slip a few times just flooring the gas pedal in fourth or fifth gear. So I need a new clutch and trans. I was looking at the Exedy HD, specifically 15801. I think I've found a trans not too far way for $350, I will probably just get that and then try to fix this one when I have time. I would really like lower gearing and/or locking diffs but that's probably not something that's going to happen in the next couple weeks. Thoughts?

The long travel definitely helps. Even with the 1.5" lift on the stock struts it was able to get up that 5' steep hill and the Impreza can't though. It does ride much better than the Impreza now. We definitely would have bent some struts on the Outback if we had driven it that hard on the stock suspension. And that Bronco has some city boy tires so that was holding him back some. We've done a little more tuning since then and the front is great now. Plan on going out Sunday to see how well it does in the mud/dirt, maybe some small rock piles. We have a bunch of other ideas on the front ends. One is to have a more solid lower rad support and have rails that connect either end of that to the bumper and then down to the swaybar mounts. Also instead of the rectangular tubing under the oil pan something like a 10" C channel that could sit up higher and surround the oil pan. If I did another one from scratch that's how I'd do it anyhow. How were you thinking of tieing it into the crossmember? Right now it bolts to the middle of the crossmember behind the oil pan. Any ideas on a shorter radiator or raising/tilting it for better approach angle? Something like a Cherokee rad and fans would be good but they're too wide. I've seen someone put the rad and fans on top of the engine but with no hood.

The oil pan is badly smashed in again. So bad this time the oil pickup tube was bent up a bit (found that out when trying to put a good pan on). The guard was bent up and the engine must be moving around quite a bit on the mounts since the valve covers appear to be rubbing on the crossmember slightly. The rubber in the engine mounts has been cracked for a long time. I got group N engine mounts, expensive but hopefully they will keep the engine in place better. Changed the guard a bit to make it easier to remove, farther from the oil pan, and a bit stronger. Hopefully it isn't too low now. Eventually I'd like to put a piece of 10" C channel under the oil pan.

We might meet some friends at little Sahara in OK the weekend of April 11th to check out the dunes. We also might go to Black Mountain in KY, possibly instead of going to OK, sometime in April for some trail riding. Let me know if you're interested in either. It would be good to have more Subarus join us.

We were trying to break the suspension on Saturday and couldn't. This isn't how I plan on driving it normally, just figured it would be best to find the weak links close to home if there are any.

Good call on the wire and switch. Speaking of starters and alternators, should we worry about having one of those fail? We beat on the car hard on Saturday and didn't bend or break any suspension. Got some good video too so hopefully I'll have that edited and posted in a few days.

Thanks, I should be able to get some good video today so hopefully I can post that soon. What I could still use advice with is this. For our longer trips, what sort of spare parts should we take? Considering these cars have 200k+ miles on them, should we be packing cam/crank sensors, coils, injectors, ???

Thanks, glad you like it. Plan to get back on it today. Fabricating is just a hobby although I've done a fair amount of it. I do some machining at work but it's not my main job.

Five speed manual. I assume it has the original gearing. I know the rear ring and pinion is 4.11.

Glad you like it. The upper arms are a little questionable but there is a lot of 1/2" steel plate in them and they seem to be holding up well so far. The upper arm mounts need to be reinforced a bit though. It would have been much simpler to go with long travel struts in the front but I don't think we could have gotten 12" of wheel travel that way. I really want to get some good video of this in action but unfortunately it will be a few weeks. UHMW on the belly is a good idea. I don't really have much interest in crawling though, or many places where it's needed within 500 miles of here, so probably no dual range. I have lot of other ideas, but an M62 supercharger is pretty high on the list. I've seen a few clean installs with a TMIC.

Drove the car a few times now and it's already much better than before. It can use some tuning, especially in the front, and there are a few minor issues to work out, but overall I'm happy with it. Probably be a few weeks before I can get good video up.

Full droop: This is current ride height. Front is sitting about 2" too high (trying to get both ends to sit in the middle of the travel and about where they were with the 1.5" lift and stock struts), but the rear is about right with these springs.

Rear inverted strut construction Had to ID grind the initial springs to fit over the strut body. The springs we're using now fit without grinding. Had to clearance the wheelwell for the strut body, shifted it away from the spindle for tire clearance, and it swings in at full droop, so first I notched the bottom of the "frame rail": hammered the crap out of it and welded it back together: Strut body with camber adjustment: Long travel (11" at the strut) vs stock (8"): Installed:

Nests from laser cut parts: Front end construction:

Thanks. We're doing inverted struts in the rear now and everything is in double shear. Most of these pix were just mockup, checking clearances, bump steer, etc. I am nervous about the CV life, but I guess we'll find out. Should sit about the same at ride height but obviously flexes more.

Yes, even with a 1.5" lift they rub the fenderwells near the footwell area bad. And that part of the body is pretty solid so it's tough to just hammer it back. You should also hammer flat the rib in front of the struts that the splash guard mounts to. One of the things we'll accomplish with this suspension is moving the front wheels forward and out enough to prevent them from rubbing in the rear of the wheelwell. Maybe still a little in the front of the wheelwell at full bump and steering. Thanks for the compliment. Might be able to drive it in a few days.

lower arm construction:

CAD model of front suspension.

Front lower arm mocked up about 1/2" farther outboard and 1 1/2" forward of stock balljoint. This helps tire clearance with the upper arm and wheel well and the axle can extend enough and still have some travel left. Also gives us about 10 degrees of caster. Going to make lower arms out of laser cut 1/8" plate, box construction. After a lot of trial and error we've arrived at this upper arm mockup. Everything will be fully boxed and gusseted, this was just to figure out wheel, tire, and spindle clearance. The outer part of the arm will be made out of 1/2" plate, most of the rest will be 1/8" plate. 12" travel with full steering with some rubbing at full bump and steer. Some hammering of the wheel wells should fix most of the rubbing. Bump travel limited by tire rubbing in wheel well and axle hitting our upper arm rod end. Droop travel limited by both ends of the tie rod binding. Plan on using 2" coilover reservoir shocks with 6" travel. Any suggestions?

After trying the five link setup and a single Y shaped trailing link, it seems it would be simplest to just make an inverted strut for the rear. The reduced camber change solves some clearance problems and it should be overall easier and cheaper to make than the other options we tried. Since the stock rear struts are so long it looks like we can still get 11" of travel. Mockup picture to test clearances/binding: CAD model using a 2" smooth body reservoir shock below. Upper spring perch not shown. Also we'll probably use a stud mount on top. Still planning on a-arms and coilover shocks in the front, pictures of that coming soon.

We finished mocking up the rear suspension over the weekend. Main goals were increased travel, more tire clearance, and getting rid of the struts. Also, we wanted this to be bolt on and use as many stock components as possible. This is all just roughly laid out for checking geometry and clearance. The brackets will all be boxed and gusseted. Side view of rear suspension at full bump, ride height, and full droop. Trailing arm frame bracket replaced, two trailing links reduce spindle rotation compared to one Y shaped trailing link. Probably make all of the rear links out of CNC bent 1.25 x .120 4130. Links bent inward to provide more than stock tire clearance. Rear view of rear suspension at ride height and full droop. Droop limited by inner CV bottoming out. More droop possible by increasing camber change but more camber change increases clearance issues at full bump. View of rear suspension looking outward at full bump. Upper link contacts frame in several spots, upper link contacts axle, axle nearly contacts frame. Tire barely clears shock body at full bump. Oversized tire with 1/4" wheel spacer. Should be able to have spring collar above tire if shock mounted "upside down." Tire rubs wheel well at full bump. Oversized tire with 1/4" wheel spacer. Might be able to hammer adequate clearance in body. Full bump and full droop with stock sized tire. 11.5" of travel. Some toe out at full bump. Almost done with the front, I'll post that up soon. Suggestions?

Still running the Hankooks on the Outback, they seem to work well. I think you actually want some wheelspin in a lot of offroad situations with stock gearing and power levels. An aggressive tire can actually keep you from getting up a hill or bog you down too much in a soft section. I think I'd try Cooper Discoverer ATs based on this article: http://expeditionportal.com/where-the-rubber-meets-the-road/ They probably look different because I went to the more common black steel wheels after the Forester steel wheels bent. Right now I'm running alloys which are about 15# lighter and seem to hold up fine.

What drivetrain are you going to use?

pre lift:

video of a recent trip to the Badlands off road park: