I took KC (91' loyale wagon), my floor jack, all my tools, and my girlfriends 80 year old dad, on a back roads adventure in the Tillamook forest on the Storey Burn road, I had my Coleman coffee pot, stove, cooler, lawn chairs, and lot of food for a nice afternoon off road tailgate picnic. despite having a bulging tire, and developing a thump, thump, thump, knock, knock, knock in the axle/wheels/bearings, or someplace, we had a good time.

 

I shoulda brought the camera, Grandpa never gets to get away and he had a good time, we backed that car down an old dirt trail through the trees until we came to a small crick, we flipped open the tailgate, and spent the afternoon doing a cookout and chatting about anything and everything under the sun, grandpa especially liked the "4x4" action getting to and from that crick.

 

I changed out the drivers side rear bad tire for the donut spare, and the thump, thump, thump, knock, knock, knock, seems to have gone away on the trip home, but I did notice that the driver side rear brake drum has a loose castle nut which means that cone washer behind it is probably shot, and i noticed that the drum has a lot of loose slop and play to it, (Possibly the reason for the thump, thump, knock, knock, knock maybe?)

 

I know the sound was more then just a bulging tire, it was definitely coming from an axle, bearings, brakes or something, I just can't tell where, but it did seem to go away when I changed out the bad tire.

 

I will be looking at it further in the morning

Edited April 22, 201213 yr by Stubies Subie

Sorry you didn't have your camera. Sounds like fun.

Good times off road with Gramps, so cool! Hope you get the the rig squared away soon.

Good times off road with Gramps, so cool! Hope you get the the rig squared away soon.

 

+1 its been doing really good since the repairs have been done from when it started... Makes my faith in Subarus grow constantly

+1 its been doing really good since the repairs have been done from when it started... Makes my faith in Subarus grow constantly

 

yup, I used my trusty tire machine today to mount up another tire, I replaced the cone washer on the drivers side back axle, tightened everything up and the drum is now tight as a ...well, ... drum, there's no wobbly movement at all, I took it out for a test drive and everything sounds good, the thump, thump, thump, knock, knock, knock noise has not returned.

 

I'm thinking with the combination of that bulging tire and loose castle nut, that it might have been the drum banging around causing the noise.

 

I really need to remember to take my camera when we have outings like that, in-spite of the minor car trouble, it was an awesome day.

Good going.......happy for you.... and Gramps!