long travel Outbacks or making Subarus faster and more reliable offroad

[el_freddo]

11 hours ago, pontoontodd said:

This is nothing, you should have seen us when we were racing the buggy.

I can understand a race vehicle copping stuff like this, but a slightly modified passenger vehicle that does some mild offroading is another thing (oh, and for those that didn’t pick up on it, ^ insert sarcasm here). 

11 hours ago, pontoontodd said:

Only one out of five spokes is broken though

Well going by Meatloaf’s theory, you’re doing better than two out of three, so that ain’t bad - if you’re game!  

Cheers 

Bennie

[pontoontodd]

Video from our trip to the UP last year.  If you like extracting Subarus from mud you'll love this one:

 

[pontoontodd]

When I pulled the white Outback in the garage after firing it up outside in single digit (F) temps and doing a lot of steering it had puked some power steering fluid out.

When I was jacking it up to replace the automatic transmission I assumed was bad, I noticed the RR axle was pulled out of the rear diff. 

I thought I'd looked for that but apparently not.  Good reminder to diagnose thoroughly before undergoing major repairs.  The diff side seal was shot so I knew at a minimum we had to remove the axle.  Also you can see the inside of the diff carrier is quite worn but I wasn't too worried about that.

Noticed the inboard joint pulled apart easily, that was strangely worn like it had been overextended and wiped out the big snapring and groove.  Balls were no longer shiny and smooth.  Fortunately I had a spare axle for that corner.

Insert several hours of cussing here.  Seemed like the snapring wasn't really holding the axle in very firmly so I foolishly tried bending the snapring a little smaller.  Then the axle wouldn't go in at all.  Was able to remove and install that snapring a few times (of the course of said hours) but then it would be too small for the axle to go in all the way.  After some testing on other axles and diffs it just seems like they're pretty easy to pop out.  Seems like in the past they've taken some significant effort to remove.  Eventually I noticed the crosspin had turned (while the diff was still in the car).  At that point I figured we should just swap the diff.

Rollpin must be broken, haven't fully disassembled.

By removing both the rear cover studs we were able to swap the diff with only one axle/suspension corner disassembled, which is a huge time savings.  Took the car on a test drive, seems back to its normal level of slush.

While I was cussing, B replaced the side mirrors.

After the test drive, we installed the sandblasted and repainted front bumper and skidplate.

Doesn't match the lower half of the car nearly as well as the bumpers on the Impreza match it but I got them all painted together and figured this would be better than its previous rusty state.

So I guess we're doing a long term test on what a little brake fluid in your auto trans does.  I will change that soon but even a drain and refill on an auto trans only changes about half the fluid.