What are your favorite "Old Gen" stories?

[Syonyk]

Silly/stupid/impressive things you've done in your old gens that many or most other cars/trucks wouldn't be able to do. Or that are just amusing.

 

A few of mine:

 

I picked up my '87 GL from a local junkyard. I swapped a new fuel pump in it, and drove it home. After changing the rear wheel cylinder that was leaking & bleeding the brakes, it was in good shape. A week later, I took it & 3 other people (plus tools/spare battery/etc) out to West Virginia (from Iowa) to look at an RX-7 that needed some work. The plan was to drive both back... didn't happen, but the Subaru made it without a problem over 1600 miles round trip. Some highlights included, "Uh... is there anything special about driving up the mountains?" "No, just keep your foot on the floor & downshift to 4th if needed." "Oh." Literally minutes on end of wide open throttle climbing the hills, and it didn't complain a bit. One of the guys riding asked if I knew of any other old gens for sale, he was so impressed.

 

The same 'GL, about a year later. I went down to play on some fun winding park roads with a friend after about 6" of snow. I had street tires that were pretty darn bald - I shouldn't have been able to drive with them in the snow, but 4WD and Subaru... it was impressive. He has his old pickup, and we're drifting through the corners. He was 10-15 degrees off-angle, and where I could get it sideways I was 50-60 degrees off-angle. Well, I miscalculated a corner when following, and slid off the edge of the road into a 3' ditch. Sam begins to slow down, thinking he's going to have to give me a ride and we'll have to tow the Subaru out when the snow melts. I just throw it into 4LO & gun it. By the time he's managed to stop his truck & get out, I'm back on the road behind it, idling away. He comes over, shakes his head, and says, "I can't believe you just did that."

 

Your stories?

 

-=Russ=-

[Subaru_dude]

had a tug of war with an '89 Crown victoria with flowmasters and a k&n air filter, pretty powerful car. I dragged it around the parking lot at about 8 mph while he was smoking the living crap outta his tires. all the little ricers were pretty impressed, their lowered civics and accords couldn't do crap in a tug of war with ANYTHING. expecially a big, heavy, powerful rear wheel drive domestic luxury car. "Dude, what kinda car is that?" exclaimed a totally idiotic boy standing next to a green eclipse with green neons. "It's a Subaru!!!" said me. everybody laughs. what the hell???

[dave valiant]

Taking and engine and transmission out of a completely trashed 84 wagon with a 624 John Deere front end loader and an acetyline torch. We didn't disconect the ac line when picking the engine up out of the car. Those hoses are tough. We had the car a good 4 feet off the ground with the forks of the loader all the way up and the engine attached to the car by one single ac line.

[Durania]

My hatch would backfire like a damn cannon everytime I shifted. So whenever I drove through town I was pretty much guaranteed to get pulled over because someone would call 911 with a "shots-fired" call (My dad is po-lice). On a good night you could look in the rear-view mirror and see a good flash of light coming from the tailpipe. My girlfriend hated the car from the first time she rode in it to the last trip we took.

 

It was great for scaring wild life too. Driving home from work one night I decided to scare the security guard at a small gated community close to my house so I revved it out and left off the gas and has a moderatly loud explosion. All of a sudden two deer shoot out in front of me and go tumbling down the side of the road scaring the literal intestinal waste out of me.

 

Everytime I would get pulled over an older policeman would tell me how they use to own a brat and would always end up having a good conversation. One even owned a EA-81T which I thought was super cool.

[MoscowSubaruDude]

I pulled a fairly new Dodge Ram Cummins pickup out of about 2 feet of sticky Northern Idaho mud during the winter with my 86 hatch... mud that I had just driven through with no problems... he was stuck up to his hubs, spinning, not going anywhere... about 8 inches of snow on the ground, i had rear-wheel chains on there, threw it in 4-lo, hooked up the chains, and went at it... he came out. This with a car that when I got hi-centered, all it took to pull me out was a POS 2wd atv with a piece of hardware-store rope. Not a bad trade-off really, shoulda seen the look on the guys face. Asked me how hard it was to modify that engine to do that, and when I said, nah, it's stock, with 252k on it, he about blew an o-ring.

 

Following a coupla jeeps around 7-mile ORV park in my wagon, going everywhere they did, including rocks, mud, high-speed, hillclimbs, etc... got some serious props from em.

 

I'm sure I'll have more of these in the months to come when I get said wagon back in running condition.

[bgd73]

I have several favorite old sube stories

My 87 drove around without a rear driveshaft and a cup on the end of tranny to keep fluid in for awhile....

 

I looked up after tinkering with the radio at 65 mph in northern maine to a rather large deer with antlers milliseconds from a collision- I ducked down instinctively expecting to hear the glass shattering and things breaking- to only hear a thud- and the car ringing like a bassy church bell. I looked up and there was no deer and I couldn't even find it if I tried (I really launched it). Upon a parking lot with lights- there was zero damage and several deer hairs that stabbed through the plastic covering edge on bumper like straw through a telephone pole in a tornado. 4 years or so later when I gave the car away to junk- the hairs were still there after 20k more miles I put on the old beast.I was Very lucky.

 

The craziest darn thing I saw (in any car going down the road) was two fat guys sitting on the front end of an ea81 wagon as it drove home barely scraping the wheel-less right rear hub on the tar on 3 wheels .Hazard lights on and harmless, a local officer stayed behind it for the half-a-mile journey.

[daeron]

.....two fat guys sitting on the front end of an ea81 wagon

 

THAT is the funniest part, and overall one of the funniest things, i have heard in a LONG time.

[Virrdog]

Locally there is a nice off-roading area with some nice steep climbs and mud holes, etc...

 

Guy comes in with a newer GMC truck with the Z71 off-road package. Proceeds to get highsided within a matter of minutes. :-\ I have chains in my '85 Brat and offer to pull him free. In front of him is dry ground, behind is a mud slick covered area (the kind that pulls your shoe off if you walk in it). He wants me to pull from the slick side.

 

Get the guy out and as I'm putting up the chains I tell my friend to take pictures. The owner was none too happy about that. I load up my stuff and we are at the bottom of a very steep hill sitting in the mud. I back up about 5 feet, gun it and go straight up the side of the hill. Later on that day, he stopped me and actually verbalized that he was impressed with how the Brat went right up the hill!

 

 

Story 2. Won a 4x4 wagon on e-bay (I'm now on #4 I think, this was #3). I saw that it was in a "B" city on the east coast. My silly brain fills in the gap with Baltimore. Not too far of a drive from the Cleveland, Ohio area. As I'm about to drive out I go back to the auction to get driving directions. Oops, its Boston. I'm panning in Google maps and I didn't even realize how far America stretches East past New York City. So instead its a 700 mile one way trip instead of less than 7 hours to Baltimore.

 

I didn't really have a car I can drive, I had my turbo Legacy apart working on it. Friend going with me is living in his parents house and they won't let him drive his car that far (CEL was on). So we borrow my friends '89 GL 4x4 Sedan. Drive it clear out there no problems. I get the '87 4x4 Wagon. We immediately drive both back at full throttle the entire 700 miles. We did stop and sleep for a couple of hours, the wagon was much more comfy . We did the 'follow whoever is going the fastest' on the highway routine. Doing great until we tried to follow the guy going 100+ through one of the major cities. Couldn't quite keep up. Wagon made it back without so much as one peep.

 

I don't think I'll ever take that kind of chance again...

[paulpicard]

Don't think I can top those tales - good stuff!! But (Of course there's a but!) last week I was driving my nephew to the 'Hound station some 60 miles north of home when there was a very loud noise from the vicinity of the hood. As there was an unloaded logging truck ahead, I thought he had got on a very loud Jake brake (you NW guys will know what I'm talking about) But nephew says " Uncle, that racket is coming from your car, not the truck" Long story short, #4 spark plug departed the EA81 and I drove the thing very loudly about 15 miles more in time for the nephew's bus. Sounded like an air compressor with a broken hose, and had about as much power. A new plug screwed in and I drove home with no problems. Can't figure out why it still had threads left, but it did. Viva Subaru!!

[bgd73]

Don't think I can top those tales - good stuff!! But (Of course there's a but!) last week I was driving my nephew to the 'Hound station some 60 miles north of home when there was a very loud noise from the vicinity of the hood. As there was an unloaded logging truck ahead, I thought he had got on a very loud Jake brake (you NW guys will know what I'm talking about) But nephew says " Uncle, that racket is coming from your car, not the truck" Long story short, #4 spark plug departed the EA81 and I drove the thing very loudly about 15 miles more in time for the nephew's bus. Sounded like an air compressor with a broken hose, and had about as much power. A new plug screwed in and I drove home with no problems. Can't figure out why it still had threads left, but it did. Viva Subaru!!

 

Some rigs can be incredible. I have had them shake things in my car as they were behind me. I have been all over Maine and still do not understand the mentaility that goes with the demand for rigs as big as I have seen here. The straight pipes shaking houses, jake brakes ratttling objects within them. Ridiculous.

One night on the highway doing 85 in my 2wd (it loves it ). I thought for sure there was a rig with the old two round headlights catching up to me in the mirror. I shrugged it off- I was doing 85. Within a minute after spotting the monster it was climbing on me fast and got real close - so close I could feel the engine and its brake- all at 85. I spotted in my left mirror some blue lights of a cop car, the reason he didn't just fly around me at the 100+ mph he was doing. After the cop car went by, I went for all it was worth to lose this monster..I finally did in the hills of the interstate. My wagon wouldn't have done it with the same engine. The 2wd proved some important defense that night I won't be forgetting anytime soon.

I have posted this before on another subject. I frequent a local large truck stop here for my father's job is trucking and spotted the exact monster truck, mentioned it to my dad. It is a small world - I know who it was now, and the company it works for. If a bit more short tempered- I would have attacked him physically- and asked- "Did you get close enough to see the the baby seat? Tough Guy?" (even tho I don't have one)

[zyewdall]

The same 'GL, about a year later. I went down to play on some fun winding park roads with a friend after about 6" of snow. I had street tires that were pretty darn bald - I shouldn't have been able to drive with them in the snow, but 4WD and Subaru...

Your stories?

 

-=Russ=-

 

Last winter, we're going cross country skiing in my friend's 87 GL wagon. It had rather bald tires on it, and three of us and a big dog and our gear in it. We head up to another friend's house in the mountains -- last half mile of the road is steep and unplowed, with 6" fresh snow, and up to a foot of tracked out powdery stuff underneath. With the bad tires, I figure there's no way we'll make it (I spun a bit in my 4wd truck with good tires two days before). But as we're approaching the driveway I put it in four lo, 2nd gear, and rev it to 3,500rpms to give it a try. A few minutes later, we're parked at her house, no drama whatsoever... only even felt the wheels spin once.

 

I also had a friend buy my old '85 GL wagon, because he wanted a 4wd winter car. Then he rarely put it in 4wd in the snow, because even 2wd was so much better than the mustang.

[WoodsWagon]

Just made a new story. I drove my uncles '71 bronco down to town at 9 at night to wash the engine off. Oil had mixed with red dirt to coat everything in a paste. Apparently that paste was sealing something important, because it would hardly run. I limped it to the end of main street. My uncle, who I had put in my Subi wagon (EJ22, D/R 5spd, 4" lift, 29" tires) as a chase vehicle, pulled in behind. We tinkered with the bronco for a bit, decided it wasn't safe to drive, as gas was pouring out of the carb and running onto the exhaust pipe. We traded vehicles, hooked up the tow strap and hauled the bronco home. Used 4wd Low to get everything moving and the car pulled the bronco just fine. Only disturbing part was that the weight of the bronco would jerk the rear of my wagon around whenever a bit of bounce would get going in the tow strap. 7 miles home, 45mph top speed, climing a grade to boot, and no problems whatsoever.

[Roundeye]

With my OZified 87 GL Wagon, I've pulled out 2 stuck 4x4 Cherokees that got high centered trying to follow me, climbed a hill that a Z71 could not (in front of alot of his friends and GF:lol: ).

 

At the same place several months later got farther up a hill than another Z71 (with lift and 33's) in front of many other 'wheelers. This guy could not stand it. He HAD to redeem himself. So he went for the biggest mud hole in the place and promptly sunk it to the headlights. Truck died and would not even attempt to start when it was pulled out. I guess he showed me:D .

[paulpicard]

With my OZified 87 GL Wagon, I've pulled out 2 stuck 4x4 Cherokees that got high centered trying to follow me, climbed a hill that a Z71 could not (in front of alot of his friends and GF:lol: ).

 

At the same place several months later got farther up a hill than another Z71 (with lift and 33's) in front of many other 'wheelers. This guy could not stand it. He HAD to redeem himself. So he went for the biggest mud hole in the place and promptly sunk it to the headlights. Truck died and would not even attempt to start when it was pulled out. I guess he showed me:D .

 

Gotta love this stuff - keep it going people:D

[Subaru_dude]

went wheeling on a mantainance trail in Knoxville yesterday... MAN IT WAS AWESOME!!!! MUDHOLES UP TO MY BUMPER!!!! and the funny thing is, didn't even come close to getting stuck once even though i have street tires. I can't imagine what I could do with a welded rear end, a lift, and some mud tires. dear mother... I don't think there's even any terrain around here extreme enough for such a vehicle... lol. it's behind a kole's store... one day I saw some jeeps coming around the building covered in mud, so me and my mom (in her camry) pulled around the back and saw the road, so I walked a ways down it while she shopped... too bad some of it was closed off with logs laying across the road, those areas had some STEEP hill climbs... ended at some abandoned train station I think. boy... I gotta get me a lifted wagon

[dsrt4x4]

Don't know if this fits the story...

 

I returned from Kuwait this summer after a 10 month Navy deployment:banana: . I brought my 86 4WD carb'd wagon to Guam, knowing I would need a "boonie car". I can't say enough about this car, with 220,000 miles, I got home, hooked the battery back up, put a little air in the tires, and she started right up, like I never left. I have done the regular maintenance that it requires, timing belts, seals, clutch, driveline, oil/filter, etc... since my Dad gave it to me, and it doesn't miss a beat:headbang: . Thanks Dad.. On Guam, there is a bad habit of just junking cars on the side of the road, they will eventually be overtaken by the jungle, as the gov't here doesn't do to well about cleaning it up. On a mo'cycle ride one Sunday a couple weeks ago, I caught a glimpse of a wagon out of the corner of my eye, resting in the jungle. I needed a headlight assy, so I went back, and sure enough, it was a pretty clean, partially wrecked and stripped wagon. I got my "new" headlight. I love my Subaru...and of course with how well it runs, I now have friends trying to find themselves one. Go Subaru. And when I leave this little piece of tropical island, I will buy a STI, as there are no Subaru dealers here...

[homestar]

I picked up my '87 GL from a local junkyard. I swapped a new fuel pump in it, and drove it home. After changing the rear wheel cylinder that was leaking & bleeding the brakes, it was in good shape. A week later, I took it & 3 other people (plus tools/spare battery/etc) out to West Virginia (from Iowa) to look at an RX-7 that needed some work. The plan was to drive both back... didn't happen, but the Subaru made it without a problem over 1600 miles round trip. Some highlights included, "Uh... is there anything special about driving up the mountains?" "No, just keep your foot on the floor & downshift to 4th if needed." "Oh." Literally minutes on end of wide open throttle climbing the hills, and it didn't complain a bit. One of the guys riding asked if I knew of any other old gens for sale, he was so impressed.

 

After purchasing that wagon, Russ and I threw a new water pump in it, swapped out the rear brakes, and I drove it from Russ's place in Iowa to visit my girlfriend in minnesota, then back to Chicago where I live and it handled it like a champ.

[Twitch de la Brat]

Oooooold thread, but its better than starting a new one

 

 

Pix speak for themselves.

 

Twitch

[superbrat84]

 

yes that is my subaru

[gbianchi]

while diagnosing intermitant spark recently I disconnected three wires out of four, placing a new plug in one and laying it on the block cranked it over and the darn brat started....ran on one cylinder for 20 seconds or so and threw nice sparks off the one on the block, conclusion I don't need a new distsy:banana:...........G

[Virrdog]

Long time ago in my young and dumb days... went into off-road park on my lunch break from work, alone.

 

Had never been in the park after the snow melted in spring time. Well went through a "puddle" I had been through many times before. But this time there was a little bit more water than I was expecting and the water started to come over the hood of my Brat! Then I felt the tires starting to barely claw at the rocks below as the Brat started floating. Kept the throttle open and my momentum going and made it through.

 

Now mind you, this was the way in and out. So I had to go through the whole ordeal again just to make it back to work. The water would come up and stop about 6 inches away from the back edge of the hood!

[987687]

I drowned my car a while ago... Used a come-along to get it out of the hole. Engine completely hydrolocked. Used the starter to crank water past the rings. Another few minutes of cranking, it was purring along like nothing ever happened...