We made it home

[subynut]

After a long 4000mile round trip we are home in one piece. We left Sunday afternoon after the morning rally cross (a blast, I must say! A shame there's no rally cross in southern AZ. ) Anyways, great show this year. Had a blast, got to hang out with the same guys/gals as last year and met some new ones. Really good job, guys! It was awesome!!:clap:

As I said, we left Sunday afternoon and ran down the coast on 101 to 22 then to Salem. Becky's roo hates the coast, soon after we got rolling, the idle went south and died every time she rolled into a parking lot or came to a stoplight. I kicked the idle up to about 2k to keep it running which wandered anyware from 1200 to 3k depending on the temp, humidity and elevation. David t-boned sombody turning onto highway 18, thankfully, he just bumped him, so both cars were driveable. We hit a serious traffic jam there, and somehow David didn't see the other guy. They exchanged insurance info and we continued. We got to Eugene that night without too many other issues. Continued the following day down i-5 and picked up 199 to California and ran down the coast again on 101. Stopped in Eureka for lunch then continued to highway 36 and headed east towards redding. Tell you what, I was kinda bummed out that I couldn't go to the dragon meet this year, but, those corners on 36 was close enough. What a drive! Nothing but corners from the coast to almost redding. The XT6 sliced through the corners like there was no tomarrow! I had to slow down a few times so my sister could catch up. I read about the hiway in road and track, they said it's a blast to drive and boy, were they not kidding. WEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:burnout: The speed limit is 55, but the corners are anyware from 15 to 45. It's intritsting how the XT6 handles the corners, full throttle understeers, but if you back out just a tad, the nose dives back in and zip right around the corners - zoom zoom!! We finnaly rolled into redding about midnight. After all that fun on highway 36, I noticed the typical CV click when I turned sharp; took a peek underneath and found the passenger outer boot was toast. Bummer; decided to continue on and take it easy the rest of the way. We continued on 44 the folowing morning and checked out the Lassen Volcanic National Park - very beautifull country! We stopped in Carson City for fuel and continued on, but that's when the fun started: I noticed my clicking was getting louder and Becky's roo also lost a CV boot. We decided to contine, but when we got to the NV/CA border, I suddenly got the shake-o-roma in the front + serious clicking going straight. GREAT. CV said "I've had enough!" So, we stopped and took a look and what was left of the gease had a very gritty feel to it. That won't work - not with 70mph + 100* heat comming up shortly. I cleaned out as much of the bad grease I could and stuffed some axle greese in there then turned around and limped the XT6 back to Carson City. At least, we had NV Zeno there and a larger city area to possibly find parts. Next morning, I headed out looking for a CV axle for both the XT6 and Becky's roo. Getting the ea82 axle was a snap - everybody had one in stock. The XT, on the otherhand, nobody had them in stock. I tried all the parts houses in the carson city/reno/lake tahoe area, and nobody had them. NOBODY. Not even the dealers. I called up NV Zeno and he sugested we try the pick-n-pull to find a used one to get us home. We went out there and found quite a few XTs and even a pair of XT6s. One was missing the entire front driveline and suspension, the other was a 5 speed and had axels. Now, when I was on the phone with the subaru dealers, they said the halfshafts are different between the AT and 5sp. But I decided to pull them anyway since it would have been monday before I could get a new one. Well, we tried to get the axle nuts off of the car, but they just would not move. I jumped on the breaker bar and my borther tried jumping on it. It just would not budge. Gave up after about an hour trying, pulled a few other pices off the engine, and moved on. Went back to the parts store and picked up a boot repair kit and went back to the motel. I again, cleaned out the CV as best as I could, used new cv grease and put the new boot on. David's car lost a u-joint on the driveshaft, so we picked up a used one of those while we were at the picknpull, and had a new halfshaft for Becky's car. There was an empty lot next to the motel that we used as a "garage" and had our very own wrench fest that afernoon. David tried to put the rear tires on the curb between the lot and the motel's lot, but missed and ended up stuck. I used the XT6 to give a little tug and he was back on solid ground and used the spare tire as a ramp instead. While he replaced his driveshaft, I fixed my CV boot, and Becky began the replacement of the halfshaft, then I finished her car when I was done with the XT6. We stayed overnight and moved on the next morning. I took it very easy, still had the click turning in parking lots, but the shake and click at highway speeds was gone. My guess is between the run on the beach on Fri and the rally cross Sun, they put a bit too much stress on that CV.

We continued on down 395 back into california picked up 120 then to us6 back into nevada where we picked up 95 and down to tonapah where we fueled up. That run is higher elevation and much cooler than taking 95 out of Fallon. Stopped in Vegas for dinner and made it to Kingman that night. Fri morning we headed down 93 through wickenburg where we had lunch. Unfurtunately, we hit the phoenix area in mid afternoon (hottest part of the day) cooked through the traffic but made it though. Gila Bend was 116, acording to the trip computer:eek: Boy, was it hot there. So hot, in fact, that we only did 65 on I-8 and I-10 because 75 would put the engine temps too close to the max of the "safe zone". We had to drop to 55 in order to keep the engine temps down while climbing the grades out there. Once we got to Tucson, things started cooling down, but they closed eastbound I-10 for the construction, so, we crawled through tucson on the frontage road, stopped, had dinner and zipped on home.

That's about it for our run home. We are tired, but had a good time. We are thankfull that we were able to get things fixed in Carson City and many thanks for the info on the picknpull, NV Zeno!! I would have posted this this morning, but, I had to go to work today.:-\ Fortuantely, it was a quiet day today, so, I didn't have to work too hard.

Again, thanks for another great show, guys! :banana:

 

I'll have pics posted tomarrow since my internet is on the fritz, right now.

[subynut]

Wow, that has got to be the longest post I have ever written!

[TheSubaruJunkie]

Glad to hear you guys made it without having to be towed home this year!

 

NV_Zeno & I also took 101 down, but we did the entire ORegon coast. THen hit highway 36. 36 leads from Eureka to Red Bluff, about 120 miles of twists, turns, ups and downs. Was great fun, wish the car wasn't loaded down... but was still a great drive.

 

Glad you guys had fun. I know I did. And yeah, my CV is starting to click alittle louder than usual. Im wondering if the beach drive was worth it.....

 

 

 

 

 

...DAMN RIGHT IT WAS!!

 

Cant wait till next year!

-Brian

[NV Zeno]

Sheesh Ted, what an adventure. Even with all the "extras" along the way you had, it sounds like you'll be back for next year's show:) .

 

Right after we talked, I went into work, a couple of very busy days. The next was 7a~7p:horse: . Wish I could've helped you more.

 

Glad you found some XT6 parts, I was also doubtful about the on-hand supply. EA82 stuff is everywhere.

 

During several runs for work, I saw your cars parked all over town, but just the wagons-not the XT. I figured you were using it to chase down parts and had to run over to South Tahoe or some such (IIRC it has AC:cool: ).

 

The route you took was beautiful..not the shortest, but wasn't it worth it at least once?

 

My carbed beast was also affected by the low elevation along the coast, but not as severely as Becky's. Guess our cars like the high elevations, eh? It certainly was worth driving that way, much cooler and scenic (read GREENER).

 

After TSJ and crew and I parted in Red Bluff, I continued west on 36 and turned south on 89 at Lake Almanor. Very nice and green. Had to take 70 to drop some stuff off in Reno, and after a delightful chat with Jibs' mom, it was 395 etc. home. No breakdowns or issues, but I didn't have as much "fun" with my rig this year as you did, or as I have at past WCSSes.:-\

[Qman]

I love reading your adventures to and from the show. Thanks so much for coming so far. Hope to see you guys again next year.

[subynut]

Yeah, we left the XT at the motel since there was no reason to kill the CV any more than necessary. Good thing we took both wagons; with all the stuff we bought at the picknpull, we would've had a hard time fitting us and the stuff in one car.

Sounds like you had a nice run home too, Dave.