Bugaru

As promised, here are the action shots from this Sunday: ATLAS4X4.com Unfortunately, most of the mud dried up during last week's nice weather. Hopefully we'll get some nasty weather soon to make up for it. We still managed to find some hairy trails to keep things interesting--lots of stumps and big holes. Oh yeah, and the trees across the path. Lots of fun to be had up in those hills Subaru style. I haven't had a chance to get any pics of my damage. I'll try to get those in the next day or so.

Finally got to take this thing out in the mud. Here's a link to the gallery: http://usmb.net/gallery/bugaru. Turbone--the wheels are 15"X6" Toyota 6-lug. I don't know if they fit Chevy's or not.

I'd just like to say what an awesome terrain park you guys have down there. I wish we had something like that close by here in Portland. That was a great place to have the trial run for my hatch after we lifted it. It was cool being able to put some faces to names and check out all the other sweet Subarus. We had a great time down there, and here are some pics to prove it: http://usmb.net/gallery/bugaru. I can't wait to see the video that was taken. What I saw of it was pretty nice.

GeneralDisorder and I lifted my hatch last weekend, and after driving around town with 13" rims and sissy tires for a few days, I finally got some decent size tires on my 15" white spokes. It's about time--it gets kind of embarassing driving around town like that, all lifted up for no reason. Well, I just couldn't wait. My wife and I had to blast through some big mud puddles that the hatch used to struggle getting through, but now we just roll right through them. I've gotta take it easy though, since I haven't made a new skidplate or front bumper yet. Anyway, the photo's not so great, but there will be some action shots soon enough.

Well put GD. That is a pretty sweet area, most of the people up there are doing the same thing we are, and are more than willing to help out when needed. The guy on the 4 wheeler ended up going along for the rest of the trip, sorta as our guide, since he knows the area so well. I have been to that exact spot before, but decided to wait to go further until someone else was there to help me get out of trouble. Glad I did, i'ts much worse "better" than I thought. One thing I learned from my first off-road episode in a stock wagon was that the stock skidplate is no match for stumps. After destroying that one, I made one for the hatch out of 3/16 plate steel. I'ts a good thing too, I really plowed some stumps this time, skidplate unfazed. Now if I only had a lift.... Well I guess this is a good excuse to build those bumpers I've been wanting to, with a reciever for a removable winch.

I sent the pages to you in a PM. Good luck. I'll send the mod ones later. Ian

Congrats, on the sweet score. I have the instructions, I'll email them to you tonight. I have some mod pages I will also send you. Ian

bajavwnsoobnut, I would like to check out this elusive book that you have, sounds like a good one. I see you can't make it to the meet and greet in Milwaukee, thats a bummer. I'm not sure I'm going to make it either, I wont know till that weekend.

Derek that sounds cool, I look forward to seeing it. I'm glad you're diggin the wagon, nice to know it has a good home. I had the same fan problem in my Hatch, turns out the wires from the fan were loose in the back of the plastic connector. The time before that it was a faulty thermoswitch. Pm us sometime when you guys want to find some trails, that would be sweet. Ian

Hey Derek, I didn't recognize your new screen name. How's my old wagon doing? I would like to hear about what you have done with it. Got any pics? Ian

From what it sounds like I bought the same radiator for my hatch, one tube is a few inches from the bottom, and the other is just over half way up. On mine, those go to a seperated area in the tank. I just put some rubber caps on them to keep the dirt out (just in case).

I think Larry Owens is John Muir, it's some kind of tax evasion thing. Mudrat, I'll be calling you soon. I need to do some work on The Hatch before I do any serious off-roading though.

I have that book also, great info on building a killer off-road vehicle. Most of what I have learned about VWs is from that book, and I have used some techniques from that section you speak of more than once.

Yes, John Muir published HTKYSA, but it had different writers, a couple of guys by the name of Larry Owens and Joe Leahy, according to Amazon. Amazon has it listed for sale, but I think I'll wait and find it used somewhere else (cheaper.)

I haven't seen the Subaru version of "How to Keep Your _______ Alive" yet, but I do have the VW version, written by John Muir. It has some nice unconventional views on auto repair. I'll have to keep my eyes open for the Subaru one.

I've got a few different off-road repair/survival manuals, but this is the only one I've seen that gives honorable mention to Subaru. I checked Amazon.com and it is out of print but available. It has lots of valuable information, a lot of it being "why didn't I think of that" kind of stuff, simple and practical, while also having detailed technical information. Anyone who has been broken down, stuck or stranded far from help, can appreciate this book.

Dr.RX..Yes, in fact I have heard that LSD is bad for you, but I don't have any to give you, sorry. The more I think about it, the better a welded diff sounds. A few minutes to "engage" it sure beats how long it takes to get unstuck. I really haven't decided yet though, I still might give the LSD a try. GD.. I should have the engine swap done this weekend, so if all goes well I should be ready for MUD on Jan 24, and by the looks of the weather we wont have any trouble finding any.

GD.. I am going to tackle the lift myself. It might be a little while, I still have some other work to do on it. I would like to weld the rear, but I still want to drive it around town. I wish there was some way to disengage one side conveniently for street use. I might end up welding it anyway. Does limited slip really work that well to begin with? I don't want to settle for something that just works ok. I can't wait to get everything done so I can hit the real trails. That would be cool to have someone else to wheel with. I'm up for off-roading just about anytime. I've found some good spots somewhat nearby Scappoose, where do you go?

I would like to put a limited slip in my (soon to be lifted) D/R 84 Hatch. What should I know about buying a used one? How durable are they? Any particular year I should be after? Etc. Etc. Any info would be much appreciated.

Having two batteries would be nice, depending on how you connect them. "Series paralell" is a contradiction in terms. Connecting two 12v batteries in "parallel" (negative to negative and positive to positive) would keep the system at 12 volts but give you a higher current. Connecting two 12v batteries in "series" (positive terminal of one battery is connected to negative terminal of the other) would give you higher voltage, 24 volts. In a 12v system, this would cause havoc. Charging the batteries in parallel (with the charge wire from the alternator connected only to the primary battery) would charge both batteries equally, as long as both of the batteries have the same amp hour rating and are of about the same age. Remember, the current will follow the path of least resistance, so if you have both an older and newer battery hooked up, the older one (with more internal resistance) is less likely to get charged, regardless of a single or split connection to the alternator. Another thing to consider is: Connecting a diode in between the two positive terminals(restricting the flow to the spare battery to In and not Out) would keep that battery charged but not allow it to be drained. Then you could use a bypass switch to cut out the diode and get that extra current when you want it. That way you should always have a charged battery, unless you forget to flip the switch back. If it is cca you are concerned about, you could go with a larger battery, in my 83 wagon I run a Diehard truck/suv battery, it fits in the battery tray nicely, and has a rating of 875 cca.

On my 84 wagon there is a mechanical switch that is part of the latch mechanism, the same thing bewildered me when I was installing my alarm, so I had to hunt it down. Other cars I have had always had a pin switch or nothing at all.

Hey Ratty, I have a lot of the same symptoms in my 84 Ea81 hatch. The oil/water mix in the airbox is only coming from the passenger side valve cover, and it looks like a nasty milkshake. The same stuff is all coated inside the oil fill tube also, but the oil on the dipstick is very clean, no sign of coolant. The exhaust didn't show much sign of coolant being burned (you know that pure white cloud). I also had no sign of bubbles in the radiator, yet the coolant level would gradually get lower. I inspected all hoses and connections, none were leaking. Although my new radiator cap kept allowing coolant to escape into the reservoir, when the lost coolant was put back in the system, it wasn't enough to fill it up(the engine was not overheating either). Ok so time for compression check. The driver's side cylinders both registered at 155 psi consistently. Now, while I was testing this side I could see liquid blasting out of the sparkplug holes on the passenger side and it wasn't gas because I drained the fuel system. Sure enough, when I checked compression on the passenger side, they were both barely 100 psi, and it was a very gradual climb to get there. This time, when I started the beast up to move it, i got that dreaded white smoke cloud. Another thing to mention: the spark plugs on the bad side had rust on them. Turns out to be a bad head gasket. It figures though, I've been hot rodding the crap out of it in the snow. Anyway hope this helps, good luck

We (my wife and I) went out to a spot about 10 miles west of Scappoose on Scappoose Vernonia highway. Some of the trails are gated, but a lot of them aren't. They all kind of inter-connect and whatnot, except for the inevitable "hey, this doesn't go anywhere..." Here's a link to some more stills of the area: http://web.pdx.edu/~whirl/. We used Adobe Premiere to edit this video along with Photoshop for the stills. We'll have a longer video available after we get more footage. Catch ya later, Ian

Took the Hatch out looking for mud and snow again today. This is the result: http://web.pdx.edu/~whirl/Hatchback_Prev.mpg (11.2 MB)

Yeah I know what you mean, ever since it started raining the Subaru fever has gotten worse. All I can think about is finding more mud holes. Good luck with the rest of the work.....