pontoontodd

Thank you very much for this advice. I did this and we went back to Interlake over the weekend. As you can imagine by the name, there is a lot of standing water and the engine ran great the whole time, even after quite a bit of washing before we headed home.

Trying to get a set with the ball spline in the middle and fixed joints at both ends if that's what you mean by slip yoke. So the later ones should work, front and rear, just knock the ABS rings off? What year/model should I order for?

I've been trying to get the name/number of a retail distributor, so far no luck. Their main distributor is World Pac. Supposedly their return rate on standard replacement axles was 18%, with these ball spline axles it's 3%. I was going to get a set but they don't have the ball spline version for a 99 Legacy, just the normal replacement.

Alloy or steel? Can you link or post to a picture?

check out this thread http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/122602-99-obs-suspension-lift/?hl=%2Bbrand+%2Bfront+%2Bstruts&do=findComment&comment=1042022 also, these cars are pretty light, adding 500# will affect your performance more than it would most cars

If this car is that much slower than your LGT, are you sure there's not something wrong with the engine? Plugged air filter, etc? Brakes dragging? Is this with three other people and gear or just yourself? Have you driven another 2.2 OB before? Mine has the 2.5 DOHC and seems reasonably fast. More power is always better, and I've thought of turboing mine too, but you should probably make sure it's running right first. I'm not sure the forester struts are much taller than OB, and I think the springs are softer, so that might not get you much lift. I did a 1.5" strut lift front and rear, you could probably go 2". The rear shouldn't sit any lower than the front, although it looks like yours does, you might want to check if any of your springs are broken (look near the top perch). If you do anything with the struts or lift blocks, do it all and go as high as you can while you have it apart. Surprisingly, you don't have to protect the exhaust, it seems to stay intact regardless of the fact that it hangs below everything else. Oil pan and gas tank you should do something about. I put 215/75/15 Hankook Dynapro MTs on mine. They rubbed before the lift, almost never with the lift. I did go to Forester steel wheels since they're offset farther away from the struts. Those wheels are cheap but apparently weaker than other Sube steelies. If you have other Sube wheels with 215/75/15s they would probably have to be spaced out about 1/4" to clear the rear struts. If those are the type of roads you're driving on, you'd probably be better off with stock sized tires, the taller tires will just hurt your gearing more.

You're definitely right that the rear suspension binds up at full droop. I hadn't thought about the bushings having to flex sideways, but that certainly doesn't help. What amazes me is that, from what I can tell, the bushings are bonded to the inner and outer sleeves so they have to flex just to pivot normally. However, you don't have to compress the springs/struts to get them in, even with a 1.5" lift, so I don't think that really limits travel. Also, a flex pit isn't going to compress the stock springs and struts close to full compression, or you'd be bottoming out constantly, so that isn't going to show the full extent of travel he's getting. Northcoast - I like your rear bumper/tire carrier/plastic bumper trimming.

Makes sense, my 2.2 SOHC doesn't have this problem. I'll see how the grease works. Some of those things I would have liked to go slower but that was the minimum speed to get up hills, etc. You can see a few spots in that video where we didn't quite make it. Also, in a few parts the engine was wet and made no power below 3000RPM so I had to keep the revs up. Maybe over the winter I'll go dual range. All that being said, we did ride the trails there for maybe 18 hours, bent three wheels and one strut.

Unless you're going very slow all the time, don't put any grease in the CV boot. It will just cause the boot to balloon out at speed, sling around, and generally tear itself apart. Pack the joint full with a good moly grease if it's an outboard/fixed joint. The inboard/plunging joints don't need to be packed full.

Has anyone used these axles yet? One of the guys I work with told me the guy making these says he's selling a ton of them.

Do a little searching on here, check out some build threads (including mine) for ideas. I'd heard the 96 OB is just a rebadged Legacy with no lift, but I could be wrong. There should be spacers between the subframes and the body from the factory. Yes, the open front/rear and viscous center diffs leave a lot to be desired. A lot of people prefer the autos because you can lock the center diff and the converter lets you crawl more easily. From my experience, in order of benefit/time, I'd recommend: Go over the car, make sure everything is working properly, brakes, struts, check for broken springs (usually at the top), loose wheel bearings, tie rods, ball joints, clicking CVs, structural rust, etc. Guard under the oil pan - go from the crossmember to the radiator support, which you should also beef up. Guard under the gas tank - that will be the next thing to get beat up and it is a PITA to replace. Remove front and rear bumper covers. If you don't, the mud/sand will eventually if you're really offroading it. I have mine set up to easily go on and off. 1.5" or 2" strut lift. Pretty easy if you can do basic fabricating, helped a lot more than I thought it would. 215/75/15 off road tires. With the diffs and gearing mentioned above, you will actually want some wheelspin in a lot of situations, off road tires are as much for durability as traction.

1)They claimed it was a Subaru wheel torqued to spec. They did say it was bent from a previous run. 2)You're right, but if understeer on dirt causes a wheel to fail they're never going to live while beating on them off road.

video from our trip to Kentucky: still interested in any advice on my wet electrical issue

Most of the offroading around here you'd probably consider closer to rally than wheeling. FWIW, I measured the Forester steelies at .20" thick! The steel wheels on my 96 Impreza are .16" thick, I think the aftermarket one I got when I bent one of the stockers is .18" thick. I think the Forester wheels might just be a weaker design though due to the "spokes" and they're pretty flat, so I'm going to try a couple normal steelies and alloys and see what happens. None of them are expensive, I'd just like something that will hold up. While we're on the topic, I just bent my first strut, what other stock suspension pieces should I beef up or have spares?

So I've now bent four steel Forester 15" wheels on my 99 OB. They are $20 each and offset a bit farther from the struts than most Subaru wheels. I've considered trying alloy wheels but the rally guys say they're stiffer so you just start bending suspension parts instead of wheels. Plus I am afraid they will break instead of bending. I also considered trying other Subaru steel wheels and then I saw this video: What do you guys run and what seems to hold up the best?

We drove 600 miles to Rush Off Road in Kentucky this weekend. Many more, steeper, and taller hills than we have around here. If we did a lot of those types of trails I could see why you all want low range t-cases. I'll put up some video and pictures soon. We bent three Forester steel wheels. Would I be better off with alloys? Are other 15" steel wheels stronger? Also, the Outback still runs rough when the engine gets wet. It doesn't throw any trouble codes anymore and it runs well above 3000RPM and usually dries out in 5-10 minutes but it's a big pain. Any ideas?

I removed the spindle/hub and took it to a friend's shop who did the pressing. It was very difficult to get the bearing out of the spindle, so maybe that's bad. I am trying to get some replacement spindle/hub assemblies, for spares if for no other reason. For what it's worth he's worked on a lot of Subarus and says they basically always just get looser and looser until they're undriveable. Yes, I tightened the spindle nut with the wheel on the ground, didn't realize I shouldn't do that at the time. Thanks for that advice though. It was torqued to spec and didn't loosen. Yes, I'm sure it's the same one. I plan on replacing the hub (since I can get a new one pretty cheap) and wheel bearing and see how it goes and try to find a good assembly in the meantime. In the long run I plan on seeing if there's some larger or higher capacity bearing that could be made to fit, even if it required machining the hub.

I tried the dual parking brake handle setup with disappointing results. I think the rear parking drums are just too small to work as turning brakes. Still considering hydraulic turning brakes. Also tied the front bumper into lower radiator support, boxed in the tow bar points, and painted it. Now that I've taken it off road a few more times, I'm really happy with the 1.5" lift. It makes far more difference than I expected it would. I would do it rather than getting mud tires if I had to choose. It does well off road with the bumper covers on and all season tires now.

I have one front wheel bearing going out on both of my cars and have a couple questions for those with more experience on here: Should I get a new hub from Rockauto (Dorman for $24)? One of the bearings that is loose and noisy again was just replaced a couple thousand miles ago. How do they normally fail? They obviously get loose, which causes some wandering and brake pad wear, and squeak occasionally. Do they just get so sloppy as to be undriveable? Do they suddenly lock up solid? Do they eventually make a ton of noise? Just curious, I'm sure someone out there has driven on a bad wheel bearing without noticing until something really bad happens.

All cars are five speeds. I saw them drive the 98 Legacy without a rear driveshaft, diff, etc with my own eyes. They work on Subarus a lot and said they've done that before. That car and my 96 Impreza have a significant amount of drag, say 10ft-lbs, to turn the rear driveshaft, while my 99 Leg OB spins freely.

Got the car up on a lift and my mechanic friend told me it was definitely the rear pinion bearing. Long story short, I wound up using an older ('90?) diff I've had laying around forever because it has 4.11 gears. I knew the side gears were different so I swapped those out. Two things I didn't know and have never seen online, the idler gears and pinion flanges are also different: Older gears are on the left, one piece. Newer on the right with a separate washer. Seem to be the same size as the old ones with the washer but gear teeth are smaller since they are two piece: I wound up using the older style ones since they seemed to have less play when assembled, plus the teeth are bigger. More importantly, the pinion flanges have a different bolt pattern and pilot diameter, so I had to swap those (figured this out once the diff was in the car unfortunately). Again, older style pinion flange on the left, newer on the right: The car is nice and quiet now. I can actually hear some wind and tire noise. I also tightened up the rear parking drum adjusters so the parking brake actually works now. It's so weak I doubt it would work well as a cutting brake though unless I change the leverage on the handles. I have another question which I couldn't find the answer to online. Is there some kind of test for the viscous center diffs? I know they occasionally fail and lock up, do they ever fail and act as an open diff? In my Outback I can easily turn the rear driveshaft with the rear wheels off the ground. The Legacy I pulled a diff (which turned out to be a 3.90) and various other parts out of had a lot of resistance. With a wrench on the bolts you could turn it but it was far more drag than mine. After we pulled the rear diff, driveshaft, axles, etc out of the car one of the guys there hops in and drives it out of the shop, no signs of slippage or anything. I didn't think that was possible with the viscous center. Are there different center diffs? Is there some amount of torque it should take to turn the rear driveshaft?

Another good long travel fabricated suspension build that's got me thinking: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/121735-wagonstien-taking-fully-independent-suspension-to-the-next-level/

I know this is an ancient thread, but does anyone have any pictures or video of this? Can I buy a DVD?

Is the 92- oil pan lower capacity? Do you have to use the older pickup tube also? Thanks for the tip on the water pump, wish I'd known that when I did the timing belt on the Impreza.

Now we're talking! Any more pix/build thread/travel #'s?