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Gen 2 and Gen 3 Liberty/Outback platforms are completely different in the rear end. To swap in a Gen 2 rear suspension you’ll be welding some strut towers into the back of the Gen3 to accommodate the MacPherson style struts. Not worth it in my book. You’d be better off replacing all of your bushes in the suspension, front and rear. This will refresh the handling and a new set of springs and shocks will further complement the ride quality. Well worth the effort. All the best with it! Cheers Bennie

Drove to a large old gold mine called gold hill, supposedly mined in the 1850s. We saw a few stacked stone walls a few feet tall sloping up to the mine. Took a trail that wound up going along one of them, it was there to hold the road up, still holding 170 years later. At first B was hesitant to drive up but when he saw me going up it without any issues and taking pictures he decided to follow. We made it to a little flat spot at the top and checked out the main mine pit on foot. Found some quarts crystals. Did some five point turn arounds in the little flat spot, hanging the bumpers over the edge of the cliff, but got down without incident and went to the pony express trail. Again, mainly gravel roads, but all kinds of roads/trails off of it and good scenery. We camped just off the route in Overland canyon. One of the most beautiful sights any human has ever witnessed reflecting a nice sunrise. By this point it was clear the electric fridge slammo gave me wasn't working. You could hear it running but the sound was different and it wasn't getting cold. Also had noticed a weird smell when I opened that door of the car so I'm guessing the refrigerant leaked out. Important ingredient for staying out of civilization for extended periods of time so I'm probably going to buy a better one. Saturday morning we finished the pony express trail. Over the last couple days B had mentioned some vibration in his car, at first he thought it was washboard on the road but mine was riding smooth. We swapped a few of his tires around, never made it better, the last one we switched seemed to make it worse. Then he said it got a lot worse. Driveshaft was missing three bolts on the diff flange and the remaining one was loose. We put in some spare bolts and continued on smoothly. Pony express route generally follows the southern edge of the salt lake basin. As we went farther east there was actually traffic on the road, which was unusual for the week. Not sure if it was because we were getting closer to the Salt Lake City metro area and pavement or because it was Saturday or both. Also I think this is where we saw the first UTVs on the trail all week. We'd become accustomed to seeing a few pickup trucks a day or maybe a Jeep if we stayed off pavement. When we got to the first vault toilets (at a campground entrance) there was almost steady traffic on and off the road for people using them. Continued east, not long after we got on pavement we saw a stunt area not too far off the highway so we started driving towards it. As we got closer there was a truck and trailer parked in the main trail, something we saw in Gold Hill the day before. In this case though the guy on the flatbed trailer was setting up to do some target practice. His buddy waved us by and we found the little hills and trails we'd seen from the pavement. Made some PB&Js and found a different way back to the highway. Along the way we saw a few other fairly large stunt areas with all kinds of trailers and dirt bikes, might have to check those out sometime, maybe during the week. Stopped at the closest gas station, filled up with gas, swapped out air filters, and aired up tires. B mentioned as we drove into SLC metro that we could probably see more cars at one time than we'd seen in the entire previous week. Drove back home without any other issues. Cruise is working pretty well in Impreza. AC works great but if I used it on long mountain grades the coolant temp gauge would start to climb. B said he did about 3900 miles, I'd guess around 1000 of that was off pavement. Need to figure out the cooling issues with the Impreza, after discussing it with slammo I'm thinking maybe thermostat. It's most often a problem at low speeds while climbing or driving on sand but will start to go up sometimes going up long grades at high speeds with the AC on. Impreza takes some cranking before it starts sometimes, usually after sitting overnight. Wondering if it takes a bit to build fuel pressure. A few times, sometimes after some hillclimb, we'd hear the fuel system make a gurgling noise after the car had been shutoff for a minute. We used our jerry cans twice and I rolled into gas stations on empty four times. And that was after cutting our trail riding short so we didn't run out. It would be great to have more fuel capacity so we can wander better. I discussed the propane spare tire well tanks with slammo and he found one for about $300US shipped with 10 gallon capacity that should easily fit. https://shop.vanmeenen.com/en/lpg_cng-tanks-&-valves-1/lpg-toroidal-tanks-42 I'm thinking a vent/overflow hose to the main tank and another line with reversible pump. Then it can just be filled by the stock fuel filler and when the stock tank runs low it can refill that. Definitely need to finish the rear bumper for the Impreza, would have made the recoveries easier. Super happy with the performance and reliability of the Impreza overall. Forester holds up well too but definitely needed the low range to do some hill climbs the Impreza could do in high range. Still a great way to explore the back country and hit some fun trails. It also seems like on our last few trips a lot more people than usual have been complimenting us or commenting on the cars. These turn of the century Subarus are getting more rare in general, and who doesn't love a first gen Impreza, but it's still a fun surprise. Over the winter I want to make the straight cut planetary low ranges and get caught up on editing youtube videos, we got some good footage this past week.

Friday morning we went to Ely, got gas, and started calling and visiting tire shops. We couldn't find a 215/75/15 of any kind but they did replace one of B's valve stems that was leaking. We'd found Devil's Gate slot canyon online that was roughly on our way so we started heading that direction. Going up the mountain pass we came upon a full size pickup truck with ~20ft enclosed trailer. Truck had a Green Bay Packers sticker in the back window. Fortunately he was pulled over just enough for us to squeeze past him. We stopped at the pass/saddle to enjoy the view and then B saw the truck and trailer coming. We ran back to our cars and made sure we stayed ahead of him. Going down was a narrow, rocky, dirt switchback mountain road. I have no idea how he was navigating it but we looked back when we were near the bottom and could see him slowly working his way down. Continued east through the desert down some washes/canyons. The last one was quite fun, we could go there quickly since it didn't have 2' deep ruts like the Vegas to Reno course. Took it to Devil's Gate. We hiked through it and up to the top and drove out of the wash and while there was a large flat gravel area that could be called a parking lot, there were no signs of any kind this awesome slot canyon is here. It's limestone which is unusual, most slot canyons are sandstone. So the rocks here are polished. From here we headed back into Utah towards Massey northern #13, a portion of the old pony express route. On the way we took a side trail up a wooded valley along a stream with an amazing alcove in one cliff. Cut across Massey 13 and headed north through some hills on some fun trails.

We wanted to check out some areas we saw on our way home from the last Vegas to Reno so we headed south on 93 (alt) and then bailed off on a dirt road to the west. Went up through some old mining ruins in the hills. I tried this hillclimb but didn't make it to the left turn. Saw some wild horses and went through some pine forests. Continued southwest and wound up along a big flat wash. Drove up another one which was a long narrow trail up a wooded valley with quite a few cattle but most of the trees were burned. There was a big hillclimb we drove to the top of. Well, it looked like the top at first but just turned out to be a flatish spot maybe 1/3 of the way to the top. In the picture below you can see the part of the hillclimb we didn't reach. I drove up somewhat farther but was running out of power and traction and came back down. We camped along the trail that night. The main trail seemed to end at a high point overlooking the burned out valley. We drove up another valley but the trail kept getting steeper and looser so we turned around. Also by this time the Impreza's temp gauge would start rising with any sustained climbing or driving on soft ground, I'd have to run the heater to keep that under control. Drove through the town of Cherry Creek, B wondered whether they'd ever seen a Subaru. Went west through a cool canyon, some mine ruins, and through an area with various side trails and some pine forest. Continued south on some mountain trails, hit a few side trails and hillclimbs with some great views. Yes we did the hillclimb pictured below. View from the top. Near the bottom the canyon narrowed up with some fairly steep cliffs alongside us. Continued south to Ely to buy gas. Next we went to a nearby section of National Forest we'd seen on the way home from the last Vegas to Reno and drove into the mountains off the highway. Trail didn't seem too bad and then came to a big grade which looked fine from the side. When I made the turn to get on the grade I could see there was a big rut full of rocks on the downhill side of the off camber trail. I was able to stay out of the rut for a while but dropped in it a few times. The last time I dropped in it blew out my LR tire. I was able to back down to the corner but unfortunately I was stuck in the rut and it pulled me against the bank on the inside of the turn. After some trial and error and head scratching and with some tension on the winch cable we were able to jack the LR up and sideways out of the rut and away from the bank. While we were in the middle of this 2+ hour recovery operation I noticed oil dripping out one of the exhaust welds near the back of the car and something dripping off the LF control arm into the wheel. We replaced the tire in this position which was scary but seemed like our best option. Don't worry though we had a towel on the winch cable. Before I started the engine I turned it a few revolutions by hand to make sure some cylinders weren't full of oil. With four good tires and three of them on (over) the road I was fairly easily able to back across the road to the semi flat spot outside the switchback. The oil leak was probably past the rings down into the exhaust. The other leak was power steering fluid, maybe from turning the wheel without the engine running? Neither leak continued after this incident but it did take a while to burn all the oil out of the exhaust. \ Body damage wasn't as bad as I expected. After that excitement we decided to find a campsite.

This is How the Instrument Cluster ended up, after the Deep Cleansing and New LED Bulbs Retrofitted, just Before to put it Back in my BumbleBeast: Now to put everything Back together. To put Back the Four Vacuum Hoses for the A/C Control Buttons is Easy, because Subaru Marked each one with Numbers... #1, #2 and #4 ...No Number three! ... ... but the last one is unmarked, as the last Vacuum Plug, so No problem at all. The Problem is to Keep them in Place, because with Age, those becomes Loose and the Tiny metallic plate that goes in their back, attached to the side's screws, isn't enough to keep 'em Hooked. So, I Used four tiny Zip ties, one for each hose and cut their excessive longitude, with scissors: That shall be More than enough. Now Reassembly everything back together. Finally, this are the Results: Somehow I Believe that the Original Designers of this Instrument Cluster, desired that it looked with Great Contrast, white numbers over black background as it looks with daylight... but since the incandescent bulbs emits amber Light, they decided to paint the Numbers with a green tint in the Newer Models, that the newer clusters has. The White illumination gives to the car a Much Modern Feeling, and is not Blinding at all, but Camera Lens tend to exagerate the Glow... it does look as Sharp as a Modern car's LED instrument cluster. Final Notes: ► You can see that the only part that has Green Tint painted behind the numbers on the instrument Cluster, is the Kilometers per Hour numbers, under the Miles per Hour numbers. ► I managed to Fix the Oil Pressure Gauge, just by sliding it slowly with my Finger, 'till it reached the Real "Top" of the readings, then it sat on the right 0 Mark, not under it as it was. The Gauge reads low, but Low is Better than under-zero (Negative) Readings ► The Dimmer Control does work Fine with LED Bulbs. I Uploaded a Video and is in High Definition Let me Know what do you think about the LED instrument Cluster and this Writeup; you can post and comment in the Discussion thread exclusively for this Modification, Here: ~► http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/69467-ea82-dashboard-backlights-upgrade-to-hid-white-led's/ If you find this writeup, Useful, please let me know by hitting the "Like" Button below. I only ask this as a Motivation to continue Sharing my work with you. Kind Regards.

The Usual Bulbs for instrument Clusters / Dashboard panels are: The T-10 (10 mm base) and the smaller T-5 (5 mm base) wedge-like Bulbs. These Subarus only use those two, but other car brands uses an intermediate sized bulb, known as the T-6.5 (6.5 mm base) bulbs. Here you can see a Comparison between Standard (incandescent Bulbs) and two type of LED Bulbs: ► Round tip LED Bulbs: Points the Light pattern and doesn't spread it very much. ► Inverted Tip LED Bulbs: Spreads the Light in a +/- 120º wide angle pattern. ► Multiple Tip LED Bulbs: Spreads the Light all-around, similar to a Standard Bulb.

Then I Removed the Front Plastic Lens and Used a Soft cotton cloth, Damped in Carnauba plus Teflon (PTFE) and Silicone Wax to Polish it, inside and outside: Hard & Fast movements with the said Wax, Removed Dirt and also removed the Scratches it had, letting it Shiny like New! Then I cleaned the Cluster's interior using a soft cloth, damped on vinyl cleaner. Now you can see the words inside the Center Panel:

The rest of the Screws are visible and are easy to access with the Dash cover Removed Unplug the wires at the cluster's top, remove the Screws and Carefully Pull the Speedometer Cable twisting its plug, you'll find a pair of Round connector plugs with wires, one at each side of the instrument cluster's back, those have a Release Lever in the middle, that sticks out from the conector's center, following the wires. You only need to push that lever stick to one side and that will release the connector; pull them carefully, and your Subie's instrument cluster will be free to take out from the Car. so, I Removed the Instrument Cluster from my "BumbleBeast" as you can See: There was Much Dirt & Dust hidding behind the Dashboard: But I Cleansed it all!

To remove the Dashboard's cover is not Rocket Science, but you must be aware of this: Both sides of the instrument cluster has Button panels, you shall Remove the Screws that holds the one on the Right (A/C control buttons) Before removing the Dashboard or you'll Break the Plastic base on the Dash; but the button panel on the Left (Rear Defroster, Height Control, Cruise Control, ~ on certain Models) could stay in the Dash during the Removal, as long as their wires' plugs are unplugged; those along the rest of the Buttons below and the controls; will come along the dashboard without Damage... ...Remove all the screws that are marked with orange arrows and don't forget to unplug everything. Don't worry about the Lots of Plugs: They're Colour Marked and almost each one has its own shape internally and / or externally, so is hard to mismatch a wiring there. Caution: Be Careful with Old Plastic, it can Break Easily! In the Right Side (Where A/C Buttons Are) you remove -pulling carefully- the Lower and the Upper Buttons... ...and You'll see a Screw behind each one... ...you Must Unscrew them both... Why you Must Remove the Right Side Button Panel's screws, First? Because the metal box with the A/C buttons, its vacuum Hoses, and the Steel Cable for the Temp Selector, are attached to the plastic dashboard with those two screws, and trying to pull a plastic dashboard attached to a metalic box + steel cable, is a very Bad idea. Subaru designed that A/C Buttons Panel to stay hanging there while the Rest of the Dashboard is Removed... ...because it is attached to the Dashboard from Behind with front screws, unlike the other side's buttons panel: In the Left Side (Height Control, Cruise, etc.) It is Not necesary to remove this buttons panel, because it will come out along the rest of the Dashboard and its buttons, as long as its wiring plugs are disconnected. But if you want to remove it, there are two screws hiding behind the part which is nearest to the Cluster... ...and, unlike the other side, this panel comes out to the Front. After unscrewing and unplug everything, you'll be Ready to pull out the Dashboard cover, Unless your Subaru model version, features a Manual Choke Lever, in such case, you'll need to detach the lever first: