TheSubaruJunkie

You are correct. I used http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html and I think i left the rim size at 14" or something. My Bad.

So ive slowly been repairing some damaged body panels. Already replaced the fender, nothing fancy there. Next was the hood. So I picked up a replacement hood last week, and it needed paint. I could have just painted it red to match, but i thought I would do something alittle fancier. At first I was going to sketch a skull or something crazy and paint it, but skulls are overdone. So I did something alittle different.. First was to blow up the insignia to make a masking. Check out the Rastorbator if you ever want to blow up an image across multiple sheets of paper. Here we have the insignia covering 15 sheets... i think it will fit perfectly: Next we have to put a base coat. Im going to do a red insignia, so I laid a few coats of red down, then masked: Then i taped the insignia in place, and carefully traced it with a razorblade.. cutting through the sheet, and the masking tape underneath. After removing the left over stencil & masking, this is what we got You can probably see some of the red paint was lifted with the tape. Kind of pissed me off, i guess my prep-work wasnt as great as it should have been. Oh well, it will all be covered with black. A few coats of gloss black And after a few more coats, I removed the left over masking, and viola!! I'll let it sit in the garage overnight and continue to dry, then install it on the truck. Extra Credit for anybody who can tell me what this insignia is from

Thats true.

You could change the Fuji Heavy Industries at the bottom to something else so people are aware they are not the original and could raise speculation if a diff with that decal shows up on eBay.

WOW DUDE!!!! Super Gratz!!! This is one thing keeping me from biting the bullet. Since you passed, you win the opportunity to swap mine too!!!

I couldn't transfer with my job. But now Im no longer employed, and can go anywhere I want. I do have roomates here that I have to deal with, i just can't leave them high and dry. Now the list goes: Oregon, Colorado, Washington.

I dont think those are lifesize in the picture rob. Here is a more realistic shot:

Yup, stuck in California. Looking for an excape. Maybe this summer if businesses start to hire again, i can find someplace outside of California to work and live.

Nobody anymore.

Stock, IIRC, is 175/70R13 which equals 23.3" total diameter.

You probably didn't miss me one bit, but awkward enough I missed you. Good to see your doing well Corky, and welcome back. Same to you Geoff.

The difference is so small it doesn't really matter. I mean, yes... there is a difference... but it wont make or break anything.

Should do a good job of lighting the top of your roof.

Yeah I wasn't poking fun at Subarus crawl ratio's... just thought it would be nifty to know. 163:1 is impressive for the Sube Brian, I can't wait to see it in action.

Took me forever to find them for my Brat. I bought 2 sets from Napa thinking i was buying just 2 gaskets. So I got 4 of them... 2 were the wrong ones, 2 were the right ones. Same part numbers. Its kind of hit or miss.

Just wait until you get some.

I was snooping around when I did the gears for my Toyota, and found a crawl ratio calculator. So I punched some numbers using this as a guide to transmission gear ratio's: And what I came up with was; EA81 Dual Range 4spd Crawl Ratio of 20:1 EA82 Dual Range 5spd Crawl Ratio of 22:1 this is with a 3.9 final diff. In comparison, my toyota with the new gears has a crawl ratio of 90:1. And when I stack a second transfercase it will go up to 208:1.

So a jeepin buddy of mine called me up and wanted to buy these spare jeep rims i had laying around. Then he tells me he needs them cause he has been invited on a wheelin trip with some guys he's never met. Of course I was invited, and I couldn't refuse. it was a pretty laid back trip. A bone stock wrangler came along, and a stock F150 as well... so I knew ahead of time it wouldn't get too extreme. We mainly stuck to forest service roads and some power line trails. It was a good time, great weather and scenery. A few pix of course: Still waiting for snow to melt on the real trails. A few more pictures that I didnt post can be found here: http://photos.bydemons.com/v/4runner/april4/

THat one is great!

Yeah I wouldnt do it either. I have heard of others doing it. Its been a long time. I only know about the brake pad thing because I once owned a EA82 that came with EA81 wagon wheels on it. They worked fine, but then I did a brake job and once I replaced the pads the wheels wouldnt move.

They will clear if: a) your brake pads are worn down really really far... you grind off alittle of your brake caliper. Other than that, no.

My buddy & I planned a trip to do some wheelin this weekend. We spent the last week putting a Dana 44 and 14bolt into his Toyota. I had my gears in, swampers on, and I was ready to rock! We planned on leaving Saturday around 5pm, and returning monday afternoon. Saturday came and his truck still didn't have any steering. We were installing a full hydraulic setup, and spent a good amount of time trying to adapt the toyota steering linkage to the orbital valve. After some welding, cutting, prying and cursing we finally got it. Then we found out the front driveshaft he made wouldnt work, and had to find a replacement. By 8pm Saturday, his truck was ready to load, and we set off. Our plans were to goto the Wentworth Springs campground, near the Rubicon Trail. We knew the street would be unpaved, and it would be a purely snow-wheelin trip. Around midnight we made it to the end of the plowed section, and decided to setup camp there, and wheel in the morning. Camp, night #1: Here is my truck, loaded and ready to go: The gears in my truck worked great! I was able to cruise along in 3rd low and it was about as slow as his truck in 1st low. He has 5.38's in his diff's, I have 4.88's. But his t-case is the stock 2.28 low range vs. my now 4.70:1 transfercase. My buddies truck had alittle trouble with the steering. His orbital valve was failing, we're not sure if it was overheating or if there is an actual malfunction. We would stop and cool the valve with a block of snow, and it would resume operation... and we would press on. We made it a good 3.5 miles in without much trouble. By now it was almost 3pm and the sun was high, it had to be at least 65 outside, and the snow was getting soft. Even with the swampers aired down to 9psi, i had trouble staying ontop of the snow. And after a pretty nasty incline, i found myself stuck and in need of some help. Luckily, my buddies winch worked... and we set off winching my truck up, 75' at a time: We fought this hill for almost an hour. There was a pretty good clearing in the woods next to us, and we decided it would be best if we took this opportunity to setup camp, build a fire and get things setup before the sun started to set. My truck was not completely unstuck, I had managed to back myself into a ditch and could not climb out. I figured I would leave the truck where it was and unload all my gear (and the hundreds of pounds of firewood I was carrying) and try to get out in the morning. Camp, Night #2: The next morning, I woke up and it had gotten cold enough to freeze overnight. Our water jug was frozen over, along with some left-over water and drinks we had out. I knew it would be easier to get the truck out with the snow iced over, and without any gear in it. With the help of my friend spotting me, we picked a few choice lines and was able to drive the truck out of the ditch and back onto the trail... So we packed up camp, and got a late start back to the tow rig. We ended up leaving camp around Noon, when the sun was getting up there. The snow was soft, but it was all downhill back to the rig. We didn't make it half a mile before my buddy warned me over the CB he was spewing steering fluid everywhere. So I stopped to wait for him and when he caught up we realized he blew the pressure line from his pump to the orbital valve and lost all steering. We had plenty of spare fluid, but no extra hydraulic line, or anyway to fix the one he had blown. So slowly, we had to drive his truck the 3 miles back with no steering. One of us had to stay outside and kick the front tires when they would steer off track. If we were in a good set of ruts, it was no problem. But there were sections where there were no ruts, and it was a pain in the rump roast. 8 hours later, we made it the 3 miles back and by 8pm we were loaded up and ready to head home. It was an adventure, one we were expecting, but could have been better planned for. Now we have a few more items to add to our list of recovery gear. I have alot more pictures I didn't post here... you can find them in my album: http://photos.bydemons.com/v/4runner/snow2/ Alot of scenery shots and some other pix of our rigs together in the snow. I also got alittle video as well: My 4.7 gears doing what they do best: My buddies truck driving to camp #2: I think im done snow wheelin'. I can't wait to get back out on the rocks!

My tires do not rub on the springs, but I have also not tried turning with them full locked either. Right now, the steering stops are bent and I could easily destroy my birfs if I tried to turn too far. This is something I have been meaning to fix, but for now I just limit the amount of turning radius I do.

Let me know how that aussie locker works out for you. I was thinking of getting one for the front of the 4Runner. Glad to see some progress being made.

Needs bigger rocks. But still pretty badass.