pontoontodd

Finally put a real patch on the hole in the floor of the black Outback out of .040" thick 4130. The hole was much smaller than this but this is how far out I had to go to weld to decent sheet metal. Started with the piece of roofing material as a template and trimmed and hammered from there. I was surprised how well this repair went. I figured if I got 50% attachment I'd be happy but I'd say it's closer to 90%. Primered it, painted black too but haven't taken pictures of that. Figure it will at least delay the rusting process, but either way should outlast the rest of the car. I kept thinking I'm going to be parting this thing out soon but at this point I think what will total it will be some kind of wiring malfunction or fire. So I think slammo is right, probably just keep patching things up as needed until that happens. While I did this, B and Z swapped out the door lock cylinder, rear door, put on folding mirrors that slammo sent me and a few other things. I really do need to get started on the billet rear knuckles soon and the Impreza.

Car looks great! Better underheating than overheating. I would guess some kind of fuel delivery issue but I don't know much about those engines. To test the whole system it's best to disconnect the supply line as close to the engine as possible and run the fuel pump. Good rule of thumb is 1oz/second per 200hp. Don't know offhand how that converts to non barbaric units, we usually just fill a 12oz bottle/can and make sure it can do it under 12 seconds (for a 200hp engine).

Went up to the UP last weekend. Based on a previous trip I didn't think there were a lot of trails in the Keweenaw but we decided to check it out. I wanted to try a trail that supposedly went north from Bond Falls and A said he'd never seen the falls so we did that hike. Tried one trail that was fairly short and dead ended at a large dilapitated cabin owned by the US gov't right along a river. Hit the highway for a while and headed to the start of the Bill Nichols trail. Saw “Adventure Mountain” on the map and Z thought we should check it out. Took one dead end trail along some houses and then took another one that went to an awesome overlook with a great view of Mass City. Checked out the Adventure mine entrance (looked like copper and ice on the rocks) and some other mining ruins and a Pinzgauer parked by the visitor center. Hit the Bill Nichols trail and walked the Firesteel trestles and took some pictures before driving over them. Stayed at a state park along the trail not too far north of there. Tons of mosquitos but the people weren't super noisy and it was nice to have a bathroom with running water. Drove through Houghton and Hancock and went to the Quincy mine. Got there around 10AM and their next tour wasn't until 1:30PM so we figured we'd check out Gay beach in the meantime. On the way we hiked to Hungarian falls. Fairly short hike, less than a mile, uphill on the way there. Two big falls, smaller one much easier to see than the larger one. Got to Gay and went out on the tailings (crushed rock byproduct of copper mining, almost as fine as sand). 23 million tons of mine tailings were dumped and less than 3 million are still there on the beach. They're reclaiming them to use as an aggregate in cement. The tailings are mostly soft and generally required full throttle in first or second gear. Looped around a bit and Forester was starting to run a little hot so we stopped by the trees where the ground is firmer and aired down. Did a little better with 20psi, eventually we wound up at the north end of the beach where there's pilings for an old pier. I decided to try driving up a steep but short hill/bank up to the level road. I asked A and he thought we should go for it. Just as we crested the top at an angle I backed off and we felt the ground fall out from under us. The car rolled on to the driver's side but fortunately stopped there. A said he saw the mirror fold in, shatter, then shatter the driver's window. We'd driven off a ~30” tall wall. First step was securing the car so it didn't roll farther. Took us about an hour and a half to get the car away from the wall and back on the tires. Here we're swinging the rear of the car away from the wall. Pushed on the car by hand and pulled with the Forester to roll it back down. We'd debeaded the LR tire and lost some fuel. We ate some PB&Js to let the fluids drain back where they're supposed to be. Got a little knocking when I first fired it up and shut it off. I remembered I've heard EZ30s make that noise before after major service (head gasket replacement) so I just cranked it for a minute or so and then started it up. No more knocking noises, seemed to run smooth. On the way out of town we fumigated the place but after a mile or so it cleared up, probably some oil drained past the rings into the exhaust and/or intake. Not too many fumes or rain inside the car with all the windows down so we did that and just put a tarp over the car when we parked for any significant duration. Got back to Quincy with about five minutes to spare before the tour started. Tour was great, biggest steam hoist/winch in the world, took about two hours. Tour was a couple hours long and definitely worth it. https://www.flickr.com/photos/photostoartbymike/33489192096 http://www.vintagemachinery.org/photoindex/detail.aspx?id=11161 Headed up 41 and along the north shore of Keweenaw. Drove some trails north of Cliff drive. Drove to the overlook on Brockway Mountain, maybe the best view in the UP. Got some beer and relish in Copper Harbor and continued up the Mandan loop. On the way to the rocket range we saw four Subarus on the trail, and it was a fairly rough dirt road with good sized water holes. Got to rocket range (small launchpad for rockets in the 60s, hasn't been used since 1971). It was getting late so we just camped there. LR seemed to have some positive camber so we adjusted it for max negative camber. Mosquito infested but otherwise a cool place to camp. Did more of the Mandan loop on Sunday wandering around on various side trails. At one point we did a couple narrow/overgrown trails that we eventually turned around and drove back out of, one of them seemed like we probably could have made it through to the end. Hit a sandy stunt area with some cool hill climbs. I looped one big one a couple times and then asked A if he wanted to ride along. First time I got stuck just before the peak and was able to back down. Second time I got stuck just past the peak and couldn't get unstuck. I was barely able to get out the driver's window. Hooked a couple of our longest straps together and Z pulled me down in the Forester. Eventually got back up by Cliff drive and did a bunch more trails there including at least one excellent trail to a clifftop view/campsite. Wound up driving to both ends of a road flooded by a beaver pond. Fairly steep climb with big rocks going up from that. Found some other mine ruins and the snow thermometer (27 feet last winter). Went back to Gay and bombed around some more on the tailings. We drove up and down the bank I'd driven over and one time A thought they were too close to the edge and started having flashbacks of our rollover. Didn't see the stamping presses I thought I'd seen there before but checked out some of the other ruins. Saw a wood(?) turtle crossing the road. Center diff was locked up by the end of the day and we weren't able to easily get it unlocked. Radar showed rain increasing all morning Monday so we packed up fairly early and headed south. Stopped at Ed's on the way and luckily they had a door and it wasn't raining too hard. Took us maybe twenty minutes to swap the doors. Ride home was fairly uneventful, rainy but good to have all the windows back in the Outback. Noisy and drafty without the door card, we hadn't bothered to swap that over. We moved some things around in the cars in Milwaukee and split up from there. About fifty miles from home the RR wheel bearing started to make noises and feel increasingly unstable. Got off the interstate and took back roads to A's mom's house. He had talked to his grandpa about meeting us there with a trailer but it didn't seem too bad at 40-50mph so I told him I'd just limp it home. I did make it home but it was getting increasingly smoky. Tire pressure sensor was beeping, peaked at 196F. Hub and CV temps exceeded 600F by the time I measured them. Overall a good trip, saw a lot of new trails and sights and came home with some stories. Definitely a good thing we had two low range cars although most of what you couldn't do with low range was at the end of a climb to a campsite/overlook and wasn't a long walk. I do have a complete spare RR knuckle, I think I'm going to just swap the whole thing out. Need to do that, do a little more painting on the door, properly patch the floor, and start working on the Impreza.

Drove up to Z's house last Thursday and stole his truck so we could pick up slammo at the airport. By the time we got back Z was home and had a cam position trouble code on the FXT. Sounded like the root cause was probably plugged filter screens at the turbo and cam phaser acuators. They didn't seem super dirty but we removed them all. Just to be safe B drove down to the only Oreillys that had the phasers and sensors and bought those. In the meantime A and I went to the grocery store to buy food. Then we finished loading up and headed north. By the time we got close to the UP it was getting dark so we were just looking for a place to camp. Saw a trail in WI but it was of course ATV/UTV only. As soon as we got in the UP we went down some trails and found a spot to camp next to a small lake. The next morning we trail rode up to the Baraga pipeline grade. Hit a couple sandy stunt areas on the southern end. The best jump we found was actually one farther north than we normally go on the grade. Hit some powerline grade near there next and started heading east. We were on a lot of trails we'd never seen before and covered about 200 miles mostly off pavement. Camped in a clearing along a side trail. We found a small scrap metal pile so we started looking through that and found a pair of Subaru CV axles and control arms! Drove through Dukes/Upper Peninsula experimental forest which we'd never seen before. Near the end of the day we drove to Laughing Whitefish falls to do the little hike. Just before we got there we started getting splashed with water from the rear floor of the Outback. About a square foot of sheet metal had almost torn off. I was able to tuck it back up and safety wire it. Falls was pretty cool, one of the best in the UP. We took a whooped out railroad grade to the Forest Lake campground. Along the way we saw another scrap metal pile so we grabbed a piece of roofing material for the floor. Near the end of the whoops was a big one A hit at about 45mph that launched the car in the air and we cleared the next four or five whoops. At camp A cut the roofing material to fit and screwed it to the floor. The next day we hit some more trails and stunt areas and saw a couple snapping turtles on the way to the bluff campsite. The slightly better site was taken so we camped at the one slightly to the west. Rained a little and was super buggy but the view was great as always and had a good nights sleep. Monday morning we did a little trail riding on the way home. Slammo found a long trail along a river on the map so we followed that past where it ended on the map and just kept getting narrower and rougher and we eventually turned around. On that trail the Outback started running a little hot even with the fans on. We stopped and didn't hear them running, then the next time we stopped one of them was running and the temps were solid the rest of the day. Went to the opposite end of the trail we couldn't get to the end of from the between the lakes campsite and every option we could find had very long stretches of standing water. Went down and back up the rutted out climb to a river. Got to the campsite between the lakes and then started heading home. Hit a couple more good jumps. Drove home with no other issues. Outback had a very worn/beat inner tie rod, which seemed fine right before the trip. It's like one of the races for the ball joint got pressed in/out. Had to replace one of the fan fuses. Z had a leak in his LR tire that he had to plug a few times. His cam codes eventually went away but then he started getting an O2/cat code. No major problems, weather was decent, covered a lot of miles. Struts are almost ready for my Impreza, will probably start lifting that and installing suspension soon.

B and I met travelvw last Friday in Missouri for some trail riding and camping. Within an hour we got to a paved stream crossing. Got enough water in the car the power locks on the Outback stopped working. Did some trail riding that night, saw some small waterfalls. Travelvw got stuck in a mud hole in his Marty McFly Toyota so I drove around and pulled him out. Didn't seem to hurt anything, he said later it was just an inch below the doors and trans/tcase vents. Camped out on a little hilltop, it was warm at night and rained quite a bit very early in the morning. The next day we followed travelvw around. Saw more little waterfalls and some excellent views. He talked us into trying one rocky climb that we probably would have just driven around on our own. I was able to get most of the way up the hard way in low with center diff locked but the ledges were spaced just right so I'd get all four wheels stuck in muddy ditches and couldn't quite make it all the way. Took an easier line and was able to make it up. B tried it in the Forester with the dual range a couple times, couldn't get quite as far, and took the bypass. Went to an old school bus that's been parked for a long time. Went to a campsite along a big stream and parked the cars, travelvw's friend R showed up and we all rode in travelvw's truck across the stream and a little farther down the trail to a cool waterfall. While we were walking around I saw a baby snapping turtle floating helplessly down the stream. Thought it was a leaf at first. I was able to grab it out of the water and showed the guys. It was playing dead so I took it back to the campsite. It eventually started crawling again so B took it in the woods so we wouldn't step on it. Sunday morning we went to a trailhead and travelvw got in B's car and R got in mine. We did a loop we'd done Saturday just to show R the trails and what the cars could do. More cool rocky climbs and great views. Stopped at an old cellar to make PB&Js and check on a few things, just tightened up some bolts. Kept going and got to a badly rutted out muddy section (with an easy bypass). Travelvw was going to just drive around it but when I told him I was going to try it he had to. After about half a dozen tries he made it through. I made it most of the way through and to keep from backing up and packing my skidplates with mud travelvw pulled me the rest of the way through. Got to an old farm and a strong flowing spring and big stream. Left front corner on the Outback was starting to make a lot of clunking noise. At first it just seemed like the control arm bushing(s) was worn out but then we noticed the subframe was cracked. Turned out later the inner tie rod was worn out too. It was supposed to rain an inch the next morning so we wanted to be fairly close to gravel so it wouldn't be too challenging to get out. Travelvw found a moth with a cool paint job. Monday morning I wanted to get off the trails before it started raining so we aired up and ran from the storm. Corner was a little sketchy on hard right turns but mostly unnoticeable on tarmac. Stopped at a little city park on the way home to get out of the cars and make PB&Js. While I was making them I saw something swimming in the pond, it looked like a carp. We looked at it closer and it turned out to be a common water snake. Got some good pictures of it and saw another one swimming around too. Power locks were working again by the time we got home. Overall a great trip, no major issues, each of us only got stuck once. Lots of low range usage. Probably the trip we've done where low range was most required just to make any of the major trail loops. Used it less than 5% of the time but absolutely required many of those times. Also made it a lot easier to hit some of the steps and obstacles slower than we would have in the past to go easier on the cars. By the end of the weekend I figured out that it's difficult to unlock the center diff (all other shifting super easy) so I only locked that when I really needed it, which was quite a few times. Travelvw wants the low range and long travel but is thinking he'd add 2” of subframe and strut spacers. This would reduce a lot of rubbing, banging, and scraping on those trails. I told him just stick with his Toyota for that kind of stuff but the lift would definitely have helped our cars down there. Already welded the crossmember and removed the control arm to replace the bushings. We're planning a couple of trips to the UP in late May / early June, if anyone's interested in joining us please PM me.

Take all this with a giant grain of salt. I have assembled dozens of automotive engines, even won some races with some of them, but have only assembled one Subaru engine. Proper oil control is definitely key to longevity especially in road racing. I would err more on the side of maximum drainage than too much baffling. Make sure the heads have healthy drainage to the case, not sure I've ever looked at that in a Subaru. I have no idea without looking closer at one how much comes through that drain pipe but clearly some of it, maybe even most of it, drains down the center. Don't have one torn apart here to look at. Personally I'd angle the top layer down at a much steeper angle, maybe 45 degrees if you could make it work. Again, it's been a while, I think most Subaru engines have some kind of semiposterior windage tray. This is what I meant by a crank scraper/windage tray though: https://eliteracefab.com/collections/oil-baffles-crank-scrapers/products/killer-b-oil-baffle-windage-tray-ej-series You want them nearly touching the rods and crank to get as much oil off the outside of your rotating assembly and down into the pan as possible.

Interesting. So two layers with the bottom one perforated? I suppose room temperature water probably has about the same viscosity as hot engine oil. I'd be a bit worried about having adequate drainage to the bottom, I'd try it with baffles that are angled downward more steeply and/or don't stick in as far from the walls. I'd be surprised if a significant amount of oil goes through the perforations. Some quick googling indicates the oil pump can flow about 10gpm (40 liters per minute) at high RPM, similar to a garden hose. You want to make sure that can all get to the bottom of the pan. Have you thought about making or buying a crank scraper/windage tray? Definitely let us know how the test run goes!

The conversion axles are the best of the R160 rear axles. I don't think I'd ever broken any before the 6MT/R180 conversion, probably because the open R160 diff would go first. Before this weekend I think I've broken three of them and two of those were trying to launch the car. See slammo's post below but for the most part STI rear axles require STI knuckles which means bigger wheel bolt pattern and brakes. Plus with the front axles in rear we'll probably just each carry one spare front axle which means less cargo weight and volume. Not the best trip ever but I'm glad we went. That RR grade would be perfect in a mountain bike where you could just carry it over/through the occasional obstacle/stream, that whole section was pretty cool. Maybe a dirt bike. Diff stubs are already in the works. Speaking of which, if anyone has any R180 spider gears I could use one for checking spline fitment. Yeah really gotta get going on the knuckles.

Two of the rear R160/R180 conversion axles. Seems to be the last weak link in the black Outback's drivetrain. Left and right are slightly different lengths so luckily I had one of each and broke one of each. They've been disappointingly weak but on the plus side they're much easier to replace in the field than a trans or diff. Really have to get the billet knuckle program going so we can put front axles in the rear. Also had standard front and rear axles packed.

Now for the next dose of critters and carnage. We hit the Kentucky Adventure Tour just outside of Lexington and headed east/clockwise. https://kentuckyadventuretour.com/ At least part of it followed the Daniel Boone Backcountry Byway. https://www.ridethedbbb.org/ Fairly early on I thought we should check out one of the “hard” options. Almost immediately it went down a badly rutted out long steep grade. There was a wheel and tire assembly and Land Rover bumper along this grade, probably not a good sign. We thought we could probably get back up if we had to but figured it went through so one way or another we could get out. Portion of this was along an old railroad grade that someone spent a lot of effort building. Some of it was washed out making it barely wide enough for Subarus. Near the end of the day we got to a tunnel which went under the RR grade, drove down to that, through, and back up. Camped for the night along a stream. The next morning we continued down the grade until we got to a four way intersection. Our first attempt was the GPX route which went up a fairly steep long rocky grade. I broke a rear axle trying to make the climb in high range. B towed me up to the next level spot with my car having only front wheel drive (center diff locked). We swapped it out. First time we've ever broken a CV stub, all the other rear axles I've broken have been the bar shaft. On closer inspection it turned out the bar shaft also broke! Just after we finished we were checking out the next portion of the climb which had even bigger rocks and we watched some modified UTVs cruise up it easily. I think we could have done it but we decided to try one of the other options. Our next attempt was to continue on the RR grade. There were a few badly washed out sections, some just wide enough for a Subaru to drive over. Other sections were so badly washed out that there were bypasses. One in particular went down and across a small stream. B tried it but didn't have enough approach angle and got the front end stuck in rocks. I tried pulling him back up the muddy clay bank but his car started sliding sideways. Eventually we used the high lift on the back bumper, shoveled out from under the car, and put a ramp under the RR tire. Then I was able to pull him out. We both drove through the stream and continued on. Here you can see the (rail?) road base. Eventually we came to a bridge that didn't exist but the supports on either bank of the stream were impressive stone structures. There was a trail down to the stream but the bank was soft sand. I think we could have driven across it if we'd been able to get off to the side. I took my shoes and socks off and walked through. Put them back on and walked about a half mile down the grade. There was one narrow section but other than that it didn't look too bad. There was possibly a way down and across the stream and up out of the valley but I didn't walk it to see for sure. The grade eventually came to a narrow cut in the rock with an old locked gate at the far end. We decided to turn back around, this time I got stuck trying to drive up the soft bank on the far side of the one tiny stream. Winched to a nearby tree and continued back to the four way intersection. The last option crossed a river and required driving down the river a bit. B walked it, the water was a little over knee deep. I went first in the Outback with water coming over the front of the hood, probably the deepest water crossing I've ever done with it. Did get some inside but not a lot. Z drove the Forester across and we continued, eventually getting back to a main road. Long story short it took us about a day to cover maybe five miles. Z got stuck in a muddy section of trail in the Forester and right after we pulled him out a group of wild horses came down the trail. We stopped at a railroad trestle that was marked just off the route, there were a few trails there including one that went over the trestle. Sunday we did a lot of pavement driving. We were trying to hit the KY state high point and get close to Knoxville to pick up some wheels for travelvw. Most of the route seemed to be paved. We stopped at a park in VA to get out of the car and make PB&Js. Saw some red spotted newts mating in a small lake. We short cutted the easternmost part as it appeared to be paved on my map and this would get us to the Jackson NF. Unfortunately that was almost all paved too. We got to the high point of KY. Then we continued and eventually got to more unpaved sections. On a rutted out climb I dropped a tire in a big hole and when it came back down it broke the other rear axle. I was able to take an easier line up the hill in low with the center diff locked and made it up with just front wheel drive. B and I swapped out the axle and by then it was getting dark so we made dinner and set up the tents. This one broke the axle shaft but on closer inspection the outboard stub was cracked most of the way around. Monday morning I found a salamander and a big American(?) toad. Tried driving to Hensley Settlement even though that road was marked extreme on the GPX route. Got a ways up it and then stopped at a levelish spot. Just got rockier from there so we decided to turn around especially considering we were running out of time and had no more spare conversion axles. We drove up to Pinnacle Point in Cumberland Gap NHP. Overall a decent trip, way more pavement driving than we like. Plenty of recovery practice and low range use. If this was the part of the country you lived in, a Toyota or something would be a much better tool for the job. Low range in both cars was working great all weekend. Engine oil leak in the Outback even seemed to slow down significantly.

Another recent project. B has been skeptical of the LR strut tower on his blue Forester. He finally took out the interior to find this. Car is otherwise rust free. After cleanup with some wire wheels it actually didn't look too bad. Looks like that whole corner of the car was replaced at some point. Black on the inside and the VIN sticker doesn't match the rest of the car. Can see where it was cut, rewelded, and repainted at the rear pillar too. Used B's new high lift to spread/preload the towers a bit and did some welding. Added some strips at the bottom, seemed impossible to get a decent weld at that seam due to the thin layers, caulk, etc. Painted and reassembled everything. Also welded a bunch of other little cracks/gaps, most of them also from this old repair.

Couple recent fab projects. R was sick of the factory rear lateral link adjusters either self adjusting or rusting solid in place. Really don't like the idea of having the threaded bit right in the middle. We made up these from some right and left hand bolts, threaded rod, bungs, and 1.125" tubing. Brush painted them hoping that will hold up a little better than our normal rattle can painting. Doesn't look as good and started assembly before they were fully cured because we're that impatient. Used Whiteline bushings, have always just used Subaru in the past, they seem to last indefinitely. These are far easier to install though. Had to cut the old ones out. Replaced eccentric bolts with 14mm bolts and nuts, welded some spacers inside the stock rings to locate the bolts. Seems to work so far. Finally got tired of using this dilapidated wooden block for the floor jack for our lifted Subarus.

Video from our trip to Arkansas last April. Got video from a few more trips last year but no idea when I'll have time to edit them.

For what it's worth I've now read that all the wiring should be there, module is different between manual and automatic.

I am wondering how difficult it would be to add cruise control to a 1998 Impreza Outback Sport (5MT if it matters). Couldn't find this discussed anywhere. I have another Impreza that I think has all the parts I'd need to swap over - steering wheel, main button, module under hood, module under dash. So I guess my main question is, would a car without cruise have all the wiring and connectors in place?

Not sure about fifth gear but we definitely drove up a lot of hills at the off road park in fourth in low range. Definitely a huge improvement in capability, time will tell how many people buy them. We had the only car to finish the Vegas to Reno last year. The only other car entered was a relatively stock beetle that didn't finish. In the past beetles have finished but most people aren't crazy enough to try. 1600 buggies (stockish VW drivetrain and suspension) are even rarely entered, maybe one or two on average. The organizers are also pretty sure we have the only station wagon to ever finish and I'm guessing we have the only unibody car or Japanese car to ever finish.

2.94 if my calculations are correct. Testing it on the bench and driving it seems to be about 3:1.

Slammo's front strut bodies. Got these welded along with a pair for my Impreza. Dropped them off at ID grind today. Front and back of the shirts we had made.

Finally turned over 300,000 miles in the 99 Outback. As B pointed out, it's really the 120,000 miles that we've put on it that are impressive. Took the low range out to inspect it recently. Considering it had a year of abuse on it, it wasn't in too bad shape. Definitely have some ideas for how to improve them in the future. Pile of parts for the other three we're trying to finish. We were able to get the low range installed back in the transmission without removing it. Not easy but good to know that's possible.

Trying to fix an oil leak on my 99 near/under the oil cooler. Tried putting JB weld on the outside and running the shop vac hooked up to an old oil filter with a hole cut in it. Unfortunately that didn't seemed to work, in the process of getting it all off and cleaned up and starting over now. Polyurethane for padding the engine to the skidplate, definitely needed for finishing the Vegas to Reno. Funny to me that it's permanently bent now. Finally got our tires back from Baja Pits, this is the one that we had to replace at mile 6 in the Vegas to Reno. This was the hatch gap when I first got the red Impreza home. Taking the taillights off, always surprises me how much the sealant stretches. We did push and pull the bumper and hatch opening back to about where it should be. Worst part of the red Impreza. B cleaned it up and we got the door aligned better but I still plan on replacing it.

Very open to suggestion on how to better post pictures.

Apparently I can't add any pictures because links have to be https now? I did finally get some shirts made from Vegas to Reno, if you want some I put them on ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/255364495038 https://www.ebay.com/itm/255364499402 https://www.ebay.com/itm/255364966643 Also have some other sizes and long sleeves if anyone wants them.

The weekend before Christmas I flew out to San Diego. T picked me up at the airport and we stopped by a speed shop that does a lot of Subarus. They had three of them and all of them were getting or had gotten engine work done. Then we went to T's house and had lunch and checked out the red Impreza. It was mostly as advertised until I opened the LR door and saw the giant patch of epoxy/fiberglass that had been added. We drove up to my brother's house. He had bought B a very nice white Forester. It only had 112k miles on it and was like new inside and out. Even our mom was impressed with how nice it was. It didn't have a hitch so B and I shipped out his hitch and my hitch ball, stabilizer bar, magnetic lights, etc. T had bought a Harbor Freight folding tow bar. My brother and I got the towing all set up. I drilled a few holes in the bottom of the Impreza bumper beam and my brother TIG welded the brackets on to it so we weren't just relying on the spot welds. The lights had worked the previous night but one wasn't working as we pulled away from the house. Turned out to just be a bulb so we got one from a parts store and swapped that out. Drove to R's on Saturday. On the way we saw a recliner in the middle of the interstate. In Arizona we hit one stretch of I10 for 10 or 20 miles where the car was wandering all over the lane even when I slowed down. We pulled over on the shoulder and everything seemed to be attached, kept driving to the next exit, cars still wandering around. We tightened the bolts for the tow bar tabs as they'd crushed the bumper beam some. Got back on the interstate with the same problem. My brother noticed when I was off to the side of the lane riding the stripe it seemed more stable, then we realized it was because the right lane was badly rutted. The rest of the way back we mostly forgot we were towing a car. Once it got dark we saw a large hay bale that had been run into/over countless times in the middle of the interstate and a guy towing a side by side in the second lane from the right at a snail's pace with a strap in Phoenix. We got to R's and worked on the WRX a little bit and then went to sleep. His shop is spacious, well lit, well insulated, and climate controlled. I brought my normal Subaru tool kit but he already had almost everything we needed. We swapped out the steering rack, both front CV axles (boot on one had just torn), one of the lower balljoints (couldn't loosen pinch bolt on the other one), shifter u-joint, oil cooler gasket, and catless uppipe. All of these parts have been on the car for 19 years and 230,000 miles. When R showed me the new shifter u-joint he got from the dealer he said “look, this one has bushings in it.” We had to do a little mini lathe work I think to make a rollpin install tool for the steering u-joint. Over half the man hours were in replacing the up pipe. We didn't break any bolts but a lot of sea foam deep creep and heat was used on many of them. Had to remove more of the exhaust than R expected to remove so we had to get some more gaskets. Those, an O2 socket, ball joints, and a few other things required about a half dozen parts store visits. Fortunately most of them were fairly close by. I still think it might have been easier to remove the engine despite R's skepticism. We wound up removing the U brace to swap out the rack following slammo's advice, that turned out to be pretty easy. Went for a late night test drive and everything seemed to work fine. I was quite worried that the rack or a CV axle would puke its guts out but figured at least most of what we'd done would be a good fix. R's first reaction was that it was quieter than before, we'd fixed some kind of exhaust leak with all the gaskets we'd replaced. He's super happy with the fixes, says it's like owning a new car. Monday morning we packed up, welded the tow tabs on the Impreza with R's flux core welder, and headed east. So we used a Bridgeport, TIG welder, mini lathe, and flux core welder all in the same weekend. Stayed the night at a cheap hotel in Vega, Texas. Kept driving the next day, had dinner with travelvw. Got home the next morning. Didn't use any oil the whole trip or have any problems once we got going. Thursday morning slammo was in town, we troubleshot the white Outback's brake lights. A couple bulbs were burned out but the main problem was the switch was mostly not working. We swapped out the bulbs and one of the housings that was cracked. I got a switch in town and put it back together and they seem to work now.

Thanks. For now I'm just finishing three more of the STI 6MT low ranges and two of them will have homes. It has been working great but I do want to take it out and look over it before we put them in a few other cars. Maybe with a little more testing and a few on the shelf I will need some help getting the word out. We've been discussing making center diff low ranges for other Subaru transmissions. The most marketable one might actually be for the CVTs but since I'm a terrible businessman, I keep thinking about what I can make for my friends so they have a decent low range. From that perspective the 5MT is the next transmission to fix. There is room in the case for the low range itself but not much room for shift shafts/levers. It seems like the only way might be to use the old 5MT cases with the inspection cover on top, which would make converting most of the 5MTs more complicated and expensive. We also discussed doing the split case 6MT but it's actually not used in as many cars as I'd thought. If you're talking about these guys: They are eastern red backed salamanders, definitely the most common type of salamander around here. They do have little legs. Fun fact, they have no lungs or gills and breathe through their skin. A few weeks ago we pulled B's dual range trans out of his Forester because it's been stuck in high range since our last trip. We took it apart and the high range synchro was melted to the input shaft again. B decided we should just try removing it. I'd thought about doing this before but always figured it'd make it a lot harder to shift. We sealed up the trans and put it back in and replaced an inner tie rod. B said it's been shifting and driving about the same as with the synchro. Maybe it will stay in his car for a few years now. It would be really nice to have proper low range transmissions in a few more of our cars though. Especially after riding in and following slammo's Lexus I really appreciate the low center of gravity of the Subarus.

Since we got back my brother bought a rust free white 2002 Forester for B with low miles (just over 100k) in southern CA. T bought me a red 98 Impreza Outback sport near San Diego. I plan to drive it up to my brother's house in a few weeks and then we plan to tow it back to IL with the Forester. The Impreza is meant as a replacement for my 99 Outback which is quite beat. It didn't give us any real issues on this trip but the body/chassis has taken a lot of abuse and I'm nervous about the wiring. Plus little things like not being able to drive it over 20 or 30mph with the windows down or the exhaust fumes get to you, HVAC controls not working properly, etc. My short term plan with the Impreza is to piece together some "obsolete" long travel struts and swap in a 6MT/R180 with the low range so I don't have two cars torn apart for months. Then depending on the timing and my ambition I plan to swap in an EZ36 with a standalone this winter or next. Other than that keep it fairly simple, skidplates and fabricated bumpers but no cage. Might replace spare tire well with fuel cell down the road but just carry a jerry can in the meantime for extra fuel capacity.