pontoontodd

Looks great! Did you fire it up? How do you get the engine and fuel cell in? Slide in fuel cell and then engine from the side and then put on the carb, etc? Are the rear CV axles at a huge angle? You should weigh it when it's all assembled and running.

yes We did make them all the same amount longer. I see what you mean now about having the ones farther from the trailing arm pivot longer than the ones closer to the pivot. Thanks for bringing that up, hadn't thought about it. It's not that extreme though, the fowardmost link is about 70% of the way back, the middle one is about 80% of the way back. So even if you made them all an inch longer you're only talking a quarter inch or so error, the bushings flex that much. These links are not much longer than stock, just enough that we can get more droop before we bottom out the inner CVs but the axles don't pull out of the diff at ride height. At the moment it doesn't seem to matter with all the flex in the various bushings but I'll probably experiment with at least making the link closest to the trailing arm pivot shorter when I start on the longer shocks. Will probably just pull one bolt out of that one and cycle it and see if it should be longer or shorter. Fabbed up, painted, assembled, and installed another set on the driver's side last week but haven't really driven the car since then. I'm a little temped to just remove that forwardmost lateral link, it really shouldn't be needed except as others have pointed out the trailing arm bushing is super soft and it would be the only thing controlling toe.

About 2" IIRC. Now I can mock up a longer shock and different shock mount and figure out exactly.

Built some slightly longer lateral links for the 2002 Outback. This will allow more droop before we bottom out the inner CVs. These are the mockup links we made to determine length. One end of each was welded to a bolt that threaded into a nut that was welded in the tube. That let us change the lengths and allowed the ends to pivot since we didn't have bushings or ball joints. Also shows the various link ends. This is one set of links tack welded in the jig. One set of links fully welded. Had to bend the tube for the upper link to clear the bump stop part of the frame. Could have notched the frame but wanted to make this as bolt on as possible. Bushings pressed in. The outer bushing for the upper link is offset so I cut it off and made a spacer. This will allow me to eventually make a spare that will fit either side. Used that same bushing cut down for the front lower lateral link since you can't buy those bushings separate. Compared to stock links. Installed. Had to use a longer bolt for that long link since I made the little bushings on the end so the holes don't get wallered out. Had to put a big point on that bolt to get it started. Then had to pry down on the suspension to bolt the shock back in. Not sure how that's going to go with a longer shock with more droop. I've driven this a little and the axle doesn't pull out of the diff so I think it's good. Made another set for the other side and painted them, just have to press in bushings and put them on the car. I have the shafts and bodies I need now to make the shocks longer. Might be a while before I get to that. Need to make new upper shock mounts and put big holes in the floor to run the shocks through. While they're apart I want to change the valving too.

One of our friends got a 2004 Forester XT recently. We built strut spacers and oil pan and gas tank protection for it. Same as we've done the last few times, I don't think I took any pictures. Will be interesting to see how it works on the trail. One thing it has that we've never seen before is bracing under the front control arms. Looks like it would be a little harder to work on the suspension and might limit lift or travel but that could be fixed. My 99 Outback could really use something like that. If my windshield keeps cracking maybe I'll build something like it.

I have considered a turbo, an STI would really be ideal with the stronger drivetrain. The biggest downside is they're still expensive. Also you can't fit 15" wheels over their giant brakes and I'm not sure our long travel struts would bolt up. They're almost all sedans too. I've thought about a WRX, that might be the best bang for the buck. The low end torque is still terrible though, that's where the EZ36 with variable valve timing would be great, even better supercharged. At that point you'd probably need a 6MT and R180 even in a light car though. Aside from being light but still having decent cargo capacity, I like the first gen Impreza since it has manual climate controls, seats, etc. Fewer things to go wrong even though that stuff holds up better on a Subaru than most other cars. Yes, the white Outback has a 4EAT and EZ30. I think if you're just nicking your rockers occasionally you're probably sitting about right. The more you lift it the worse the cornering will get, you'll start to lose weight on the front end in hill climbs, and just put more stress on everything.

I can just unbolt that plate if I need to use the tow points or winch mount. Since it's an automatic it really shouldn't be flat towed. We've only had to flat tow a car three times I can think of in the five years we've been doing this so it's pretty rare. Most likely if we're going somewhere on the highway this would be towing a lighter car like my Impreza. Winch has also been used rarely, maybe a half dozen times, and a few of those times we should have just used a snatch strap instead. Haven't tested the lift points yet, need to make a 1.25" square post for my high lift and test that out, probably this week. I thought about removing the air box like I did on my Impreza. That seems to be working but I figure the more intake length and twists and turns are in the system the less likely I'll get water in the engine.

I used to do that with my 99 but it doesn't stick out far enough from the lights and fenders to really protect them. I drive in town and trial ride them both and my Impreza. Didn't do any races last year, would like to at least do one in Texas this year. The 99 is much more fun and consistent to drive with the 5MT and steering brake, so it's still my first choice trail riding. It won't last forever though and the cage makes it less comfortable. Keep thinking about what I'd replace the 99 and/or the Impreza with. Leaning towards a first gen Impreza with H6, maybe 3.6 supercharged, long travel struts, and some kind of steering brake. Might be 1000# lighter than the 99 and 50% more power. Main purpose of the bumper is pushing over / rubbing around small trees when necessary. I have a similar plate below the bumper on my 99 and it doesn't make the car run any hotter at highway speeds (tested with gutted thermostat). I have full skidplates on the 99 but at this point I think that would just be extra weight and hassle on this car, trying not to make it super heavy. Even if the airbox gets a hole or crack from a well placed branch, no big deal, just don't want it to be completely smashed. After hitting a stump while blinded by glare one time I've been building these engine skids pretty heavy duty. Like you say it's really handy in the woods to be able to just pull up or back up to a tree without damaging the car. Have done that while winching someone out before too so the car doesn't move. Definitely want to see how your King springs and AGX struts work in Arkansas.

Built a front bumper for my 2002 Outback. 4" square I used on my 99 seems overkill and blocks a lot of the radiator. Went with 2" x 4" tubing for the main beam of this one. The one on my 99 is a little lacking in protection for the fenders and lights since I built it to fit under the plastic bumper cover. I'm not planning on putting the plastic back on this one so I used 2" x 4" by the lights and made it stick out a little wider. Wanted to make the main beam out of one piece of tubing for strength and appearance so I got a little creative on this end clearing the airbox. Used CAD (cardboard aided design) for the layout. Blocked up the beam to get it level with the headlights. Left about 4" between the lights and beam to allow room for a short light bar on each side Also exposes a lot more radiator to direct airflow than my 99. Built some mounting plates. I had to knock out the mounting studs to get the bumper on and off with some other tubes I added later. That was a real pain. Passenger side of beam closed up and tack welded. Bottom of the beam showing lift, towing, and winch points. By my calculations those receivers on the sides should easily be able to support the weight of the car. Tubes to allow sliding over obstacles, support a steel sheet, and brace the radiator support. Diagonal tube will hopefully keep branches and saplings from hooking on the end of the bumper and wrecking the fender when backing up in the woods. Built some tubes on the other side for the same reason and to protect the airbox. Slotted the top mounts to allow the bumper/supports to get pushed back. This is how it looks painted and installed. Blockoff sheet didn't hurt cooling on my 99 and keeps the radiator much cleaner. Would have to remove it for winching or towing, not cutting any holes in it for now. Tried to build it to stick out about 2" from the fenders and lights.

Yes, I think the main limitation to lifting these cars is you start to wear out the CVs very fast.

I'll take another look at the HVAC. The handle rusted out and fell apart a few years ago, during the Vegas to Reno as a matter of fact. So I got a new one from the dealer. And yes that was a huge improvement. It's not tight or high effort, it's like it's still latched shut. Sometimes if I pull up on one corner of the hatch it will pop open. I think on my friend's Forester we had to lengthen one of the control rods, I should probably check those. The key lock hasn't worked for a while but the power lock does, might be related to that.

I think you could just clearance that part of the subframe if you want it to go down more. A little bit will go a long ways. I like the old recovery tracks.

Does anyone have a good alternative to the stock 1st gen Outback (2nd gen Legacy) HVAC control? I think I've had two or three of them go bad now. I tried opening up one of them to clean the contacts and it's now in a million pieces. The hot/cold cable has always worked perfectly, I wish it had something like that to control which vents the air comes from. Also my 99 OB hatch is a real pain to open. Any advice on making that open more easily would be great too. The good news is that I did some shock tuning and got the 99 jumping better. Going to see how it works like this and then probably try a few more things when it's warm and dry.

If those are roads you're cutting the ruts in, you should wait until summer so you're not ruining them. If it's private property and they don't mind, you should straddle the ruts so you don't just make one deep set. Nice pictures, sort of reminds me of the UP. Do they log those woods often?

Went through the front struts on both Outbacks, wanted to change a few things and check them over. Replaced the one steel reservoir with an aluminum one and changed the valving. Made some chromoly steel front control arm brackets for the 99 OB. If they hold up well this year we'll probably make more next winter. Made the jig using a stock bracket that was in good shape. Not the strongest jig but seemed to work fine. One change I wanted to make was having longer slots than the stock brackets. The control arm and front crossmember is pushed back on the 99 on the driver's side so it's difficult to get a stock bracket bolted in even after elongating the slots. When you do get it in the arm is rubbing on it and I think that contributed to the failure last year. Welded. Painted and assembled. Had some group N bushings lying around, I had bought them not realizing those are brackets to fit an Impreza. It seems like many of the normal bushings are grease filled or something, maybe these will last longer. Also replaced the bolt on front wheel bearings while it was apart. They seemed fine. In the future I'll probably just keep a good spare in one of the cars. We've never had one fail and they're easy to replace. Replaced some CV boots, a ball joint, and an inner tie rod. They were all just a little loose or leaky. Replaced a brake disc that was pretty worn with another used one that is pretty thick.

I think the combination of sand blasting and salt is pretty hard to completely guard against. It's basically how accelerated corrosion testing used to take place at GM. I've been amazed how nicely painted and plated everything is on the cars we've bought from out west, some of them look like new even though they're 15+ years old with 200k+ miles on them. I'm going to give the etching primer a try. I plan on finishing fabricating those lateral links soon.

Thanks for the tip, I'll try that.

Yes, shims or valving washers. Once you have the shaft out you just have to take the nut off, restack the shims, and put it all back together.

Went through the rear end of the 99 Outback to fix a few issues and do some preventative maintenance. Put aluminum reservoirs on the struts hoping they'll run a little cooler. Changed the valving, put in new oil, and replaced a boot and the top bearings. I had a wheel bearing fail last year and I've been putting 20k miles a year on this car so I thought it'd be best to just replace the wheel bearings, seals, and hubs over the winter. Will probably do this every winter if I keep driving the car that much and it keeps them from failing on the road. That one parking brake shoe was really bad so I replaced all of them. I don't use it much but I think mud and sand get inside the drum and just eat the shoes. One CV boot was leaking, another one might have been leaking slightly, they were all at least a little cracked, and this one was worn over halfway through, so I replaced them all and repacked the CVs. I think I've already swapped out the trailing arm on the driver's side but this one on the passenger side was getting bad so I replaced that with a used one. They're $76 from the dealer so I'm thinking about getting a couple of them. While I had everything apart I figured I should do some body repair. It hadn't really failed completely but was starting to crack again, haven't done anything on this corner for about five years I think. Hard to see from this picture but the seam on the left is separated and the seam at the bottom where the floor meets the strut tower is pulling apart. Also that shiny piece laying on the floor was barely attached to the strut tower so I pulled it off and cleaned up all the rust and sealer. Welded those two seams and welded that extra sheet back on. Also added a piece of sheet metal to the bottom of that seam by the door (lower left). Painted to slow the rust. This is what it looked like in the wheel well after a little cleanup. Welded some of the seams, then added that big patch. You can see where I welded the extra sheet on the inside penetrating through. Burned/scraped more undercoating off. That big rusty crack on the right is welded on the inside of the car. Hammered for some strut and tire clearance. Painted. I've noticed a gasoline smell when I filled up the last couple times. Pretty sure this is the source. I've made these gaskets a couple times now, I think originally from cork and the last time from Buna N which is supposed to stand up to gasoline and alchohol. They're just shredded. I suppose some of the breakdown may be mechanical but I assume it's mainly chemical. Whatever they made that flap out of on the inside is still holding up great. Got some flourosilicone from McMaster, expensive but hopefully it'll last more than a couple years.

The off road shocks I've worked on you don't have to drain the oil to change shims. I've always charged all the ones I work on to 200psi, I think you can go to 250 or 300 on most. Ours have a floating piston in the reservoir.

I think changing shims is actually easier and cheaper than changing oil. If you're off that much I could see only a different oil will get you close though. You can't change the nitrogen pressure much, too little and you'll have cavitation, too much and you blow them up.

The viscosity of shock oil is certainly important. Also keep in mind that the "weight" system is almost meaningless. One brand's 10W might be thicker than another brand's 15W, etc. There are some charts online showing many different brands of shock oil and their viscosity at high and low temperatures. I've thought about changing out the oil in standard struts with something thicker for more damping but we've blown out the seals as it is, that would just happen more often with a thicker oil.

Were the springs inline with the sliding part of the strut or angled out at the bottom towards the tire? That makes a difference in theory and in practice. We have tried a few different kinds of bushings to find something we're happy with, the first few kinds tended to shrink when soaked in grease for a while. ID ground the last few sets of housings we made, that definitely helped, or at least vastly reduced the amount of hand sanding needed to make the bushings fit right. Also put grease fittings in between the bushings and we'll usually grease them all after a long weekend of riding, probably not necessary, annually would probably be enough. I have read one of the big problems with the STI inverted struts is that the grease dries out or washes out after a while, people add grease fittings to those.

Glad you like the videos. Hope to get some bigger jumps on video this spring. I don't completely understand your question about the struts. I'm not going to give out detailed plans on how to make them since I'm sort of trying to sell them. The fronts have 9" of stroke which gives 10" of wheel travel, the rears have 11" of stroke which gives 12" of wheel travel. Sorry if this comes across as rude, but if you have the ability to make them you probably don't need plans and could just go by all the pictures I've posted. There aren't many complicated machined parts but there are quite a few custom machined parts you'd at least need a lathe to make and I had ten springs custom wound for the front struts. If you look through page 25 of the thread that should give you a good idea of all the parts that go into the current design. On page 4 I posted a CAD drawing of the original inverted strut design, same basic design we're still using.

Sounds like you have the wrong O2 sensor. Which one is the plug that is in your car? I'd look up one for a year before or after your car's model year and see if it fits, return the ones that don't fit.