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Just my 2 bucks here. If you're feeling shake while on the gas and then shaking (mostly) stops when you let off, my experience has been the inner joint of one (or both in my case) of the CV axles is bad. Considering the low quality of aftermarket CV axles out there, this could be a high probability. Who knows how old and what "brand" your axles are? Other than that (as stated in earlier posts), wheel balance leaps to mind. NVZ

Before the trip the dual range in B's Forester had started making a slight ticking noise in first gear. We weren't sure if it was the transmission or the engine since the frequency was about the same as engine speed. Also the driveshaft bolts in the middle of the (2010 STI) driveshaft in the 99 OB have been making noise under load in first and sometimes second gear for a while now. Seems the hanger bearing is just too flexible. The white Outback started making a similar but much fainter noise. On the way out of town we did a couple drag races between my 2002 white Outback and the 99 black Outback. They accelerate about the same which is kinda sad considering the black one weighs about 1000# more and they have the same engine. On the way north the white Outback was already running hot. We stopped in Escanaba to blast the radiator as best we could without disconnecting the radiator hoses at a car wash. We got to Rapid River and aired down and hit the super whoops. The black Outback didn't seem to take them as well as in previous years. I think I had been able to go 40-50 in the past over the more mild sections, this time 35 is about all I could do. It didn't kick the back end it just seemed overly bouncy. White Outback and Forester seemed better than before. By this point the white Outback needed to cool down. We pulled over in the shade and bypassed the trans cooler I'd installed in front of the radiator. That didn't seem to help much. We drove it with the heat on most of the weekend. At some point I realized I'd turned the heat up and it was at 80 but it wasn't blowing hot. It actually goes up to 85 and then it blows hot. Later on we realized it was at 84 and not blowing hot. Automatic HVAC controls are the bane of my existence. We wound up at the entrance to the big spring so we went there. We hit a stunt area the next morning with fairly steep and tall sandy hills. Z got stuck at the top in the black Outback. M tried pulling him out with the white Outback but it wasn't doing anything. We set up the winch and it pulled the black Outback out with ease. I did let it sit for a minute in the middle of the pull but it never shut off by itself. Then we aired down and Z was able to drive out on his own. We hit the climbs a bunch of other times in all three cars. At that point we headed to the campsite on the bluff along Superior. We walked down and along the beach and back up to a different campsite we've never stayed at. A got back to the cars first and removed the hood from the white Outback. He and I took a test drive to see if it helped coolant temps. It made no difference and while we were driving around with no navigational technology we hoped nothing bad happened since no one else was with us and they didn't know where we went. We set up tents and cooked food so people would know the site was occupied. Then we went back out for a few more hours of trail riding. After maybe ten minutes the black Outback completely shut off and I coasted to the side of the trail. The 100A fuse in the 2002 (H6 donor) fuse block had blown. We put in a fusible link and it fired back up and we kept driving. After maybe another ten minutes that blew. We checked many things and eventually I decided the only thing that could be otherwise unfused was the ignition switch. The start portion of the key switch has been working about half the time for the last couple years but I figured it was probably just old wiring. Also I've been able to take the key out while the car is running for years so it seemed believable that the switch was shorting out. We put the 100A fuse from the white car in the black car and just made a jumper wire for the fuse in the white car figuring the wiring in that seemed OK. I hotwired the ignition switch and it worked fine the rest of the weekend. The next morning we took trails to Grand Marais. At some point we stopped to reinstall the trans cooler in front of the LF tire in which did seem to help engine cooling a little. B and I headed down to the boat ramp to dunk the radiator in the white Outback after removing the fan fuses. He drove it in and out about a dozen times, didn't seem like a lot got washed out. By this point A pulled up in the black Outback and thought we should do the same thing since we'd gotten it stuck in a mud hole earlier that day (and used two cars to pull it out). I agreed it was a good idea so I spotted him as he drove it in and out of the lake. Didn't get a lot of mud out. I must have told him to go a little too far in as he said all of a sudden water was pouring into the wheel wells. When he tried to back the car out it stalled and wouldn't restart. We pulled it out as quick as we could with the white Outback. Started pulling back carpeting and removing the ECU. The ECU did look like it had gotten some water in it but it was fairly clean. Actually looks like it's had water in it a few times. Dried it out with some isopropyl alchohol. Thankfully it started back up and ran fine all weekend. We headed to the bar, this time with me driving the black Outback and M navigating. We took many side trails since we had plenty of time and not a lot of distance to cover. On one of the many side trails we picked up a vibration in the black Outback. A branch had broken one of the radiator fan housings and broke a blade off. We disabled that fan. Also noticed the ECU wasn't turning both fans on when the engine was hot. So we had to run the AC to keep the engine cool. Had to turn on the heat also for a little bit once. M cut off the opposite blade on the radiator fan and we hooked it back up. Went back out trail riding for a couple hours. White Outback still running hot so we had to keep stopping for that to cool. At one point we got back out to the main gravel road that goes east to the bar. Z was navigating, we told the guys we could just take that back to the bar and then hopped on a cool looking side trail in about 100 feet and did a big loop. Took another side trail close to the bar. There were some decent sized downed trees across the trail but we cut and moved those and drove over the rest, eventually looping back out to the trail we came in on. The next morning we mostly took main gravel roads/snowmobile trails to Pictured Rocks. Figured since the white Outback was still running hot and most of the guys hadn't seen them it would be a good idea. Hiked to Chapel Rock again, always amazing. On the way home we decided to hit one more snowmobile trail that was a pretty straight shot. It was fairly soft and washboard gravel so I had to run the black Outback in fifth gear just to maintain 55mph. White Outback was running hot again so we had to wait a while. Also on the way down there the black Outback picked up a pretty violent shaking under braking. The RF OB CV boot was badly torn, that axle had been making noise for a while. We drove down the road another ten miles or so to a shady parking lot and started swapping out the CV axle. Turned out one of the caliper bolts had fallen out and that was probably our main problem but we did replace the axle too. M reported being able to run the AC at 70+mph in the white OB on the way home but had to run the heat under 60mph. Fans both seemed to be working fine every time we checked them. A said the power steering was cutting out on him occasionally. White OB has much worse driveshaft noises now. Forester is definitely making noise in first gear, most of the weekend B tried to start in second gear low if he had to. The code on the trans is 502685 / 4D-TY754XKBAA. If anyone knows of a good source or even part # for a dual range (EJ) main shaft we could use some help. VIN # for a car with similar trans would help too. On Thursday I removed the radiator from the white OB and you can't see through the fins at all, they're basically folded over each other (and doesn't look like from pressure washing). Tubes might be ballooned out which might have buckled them? Ordered a new one from the dealer.