rkrenicki's 1992 Subaru Sambar SDX - 2021-05-07 - Stirring from slumber...

[thenines']

Will/is Connecticut trying to ban Kei trucks? That would suck!!

[rkrenicki]

Will/is Connecticut trying to ban Kei trucks? That would suck!!

There have been no rumblings of it here, and I know of nobody who has had any issues. Also, mine has been registered for over 7 years now, I think it is well and truly grandfathered in at this point.

[thenines']

[rkrenicki]

I would love to add power steering to my Sambar but I'm not entirely sure where to find this or what to look for. Do you happen to have any info or part #'s that would point me in the right direction?

Honestly, I would not bother. The only thing it really helps with is doing 3-point turns when you need to change steering direction at a dead stop. All of the rest of the time, the unassisted steering is already very light. The power steering gear is a little expensive to buy, expensive to ship from Japan, and complicated to install. In addition, the capacitors inside of the steering computers are all drying out and will require replacement soon if not already.

I am not upset that I did the mod, but if I were to do it again, I would skip it.

Speaking of skipping it. I also removed the Akabou fender mirror the other day, because it is of very limited use when I already had a Dias mirror on the passenger side. I'd either need to remove the Dias mirror, or keep it folded in all of the time to make proper use of the Akabou mirror. If I still had truck mirrors installed, it would be nobrainer to remove the passenger side mirror and use the Akabou one instead.. I will sell it on eBay at some point, once I take the bumper off to get the matching fender swapped out.

[rkrenicki]

As noted in the other threads, Sammie got a radio upgrade to add Wireless Carplay. I had never really been in love with the Sony unit that I had, and I am perfectly fine with it going away with the Forester. I still need to fine-tune the radio bracket a bit to have the radio properly align with the trim ring I have, but it is otherwise installed and working. I did find that some of the wires had pulled out of my wiring harness for the driver side speaker, which explains why it randomly stopped working. I sorted that out and touched up the contacts with a little solder to keep them from pulling out again.

I would have preferred a unit with physical volume buttons (which is why I picked the Sony to start with), but that would mean I need to bump up to the Kenwood DMX9708S (this years version of the radio I already had in the Forester), which was $150 more than the unit I went with. The minor inconvenience of soft volume buttons is not worth a ~30% price increase.

[Pop Alexandra]

Looking good. All those updates really count when you add them up.
_________________
Alexandra

[rkrenicki]

For the record, 1 yard of gravel is far too much for a Sambar. I did make it home, but it turned out to be very dangerous and I do not recommend trying this.


The gravel was for a small parking space in the front of my house originally for my Daughters car, but she is now parking in the back with the rest of us.. so it is now for guests. This uses a plastic mesh that holds the gravel in place, and it came out great. This spot would get extremely muddy in the rain, and it was developing deep ruts. This will help keep the ground intact and provide some drainage as well.

[thenines']

Did it lift the front wheels off the ground?

[rkrenicki]

Did it lift the front wheels off the ground?

It was doing a Carolina Squat for sure, hah.