wagonista's '96 BG7 [goodbye, old friend.]

[wentz912]

do you still need a transmission and what not?

[Wagonista]

Yeah, still need to do that. I have one lined up from a buddy. I'll be putting a low mileage 2.5RS transmission and matching VLSD in.

[Wagonista]

SO MUCH GRIIIPPP And finally have a full range of motion for my suspension travel again.

Excuse the washed out cell phone pictures. I'll get some proper ones after the car is washed.

[fwa2500]

That looks freaking awesome. I love how the wheels match the two-tone, and they are just the right size with the right amount of tyre.....mmmmmmmm......

[Muse]

Ooooh, straight up-and-down sidewalls... Seeexy.

[98legwag]

Very nice. Is there any rubbing? Or did you have the fenders rolled previously?

[Wagonista]

No rubbing. The rears were rolled with a rubber mallet when I had the XXRs.

Here's another pic, still from my cell phone but not all washed out at least. It's hard to capture, (at least on a phone camera, need a new battery for the SLR and left the point-and-shoot in the Crown wagon at JDM Legends) but I love the way these wheels catch the sunlight.



I'm guessing these will be like the 02-03 WRX wheels were in the late 2000s... On every other Subaru but the WRX. Already seeing them a lot on Foresters and GD WRXs.

[Wagonista]

Very excited to be exploring in this thing again. Found a new quiet place to drive. The canyons are always PACKED during the weekends, but this place was not. Feels good to be driving around without worrying about burning up my snow tires. Once I tweak a few more things and overhaul the drivetrain, this thing is going to be so solid. much excite.

[Wagonista]

Leaving this here for reference (mostly for myself)

3.545 / 2.111 / 1.448 / 1.088 / 0.871 / 4.111FD - Stock 96 Outback
3.545 / 1.947 / 1.366 / 0.972 / 0.780 / 4.111FD - 94 EJ18 Impreza
3.545 / 2.111 / 1.448 / 1.088 / 0.780 / 4.111FD - 2.5RS

For those that are curious, obviously the first one is what came in the car that I destroyed, the second is the transmission of questionable origins and mileage that's currently in the car, the third one is what will be going in shortly. Will also be putting in the matching R160.

[Suba_Steve]

I like seeing the variances. Good information there, and those wheels look perfect on your car!

[Former Owl]

I really like the choices you made! Plenty of form and function. Nothing is distracting from the overall look! Although I did notice Han Solo and Ol' Ben in one of the shots.

[Wagonista]

Thanks for the kind comments!

Started my new job. Time, energy and money are now less of an issue. Purchased the most expensive part of my new drivetrain setup on the way to work today: ACT XACT Streetlite flywheel. It's about 11 pounds. Just shaving a little bit of rotating mass.

[Wagonista]

Began surgery on the wagon yesterday. Thought I might be able to get it done in one day, but had a few hiccups.

Amassed all of my parts: a 99 2.5RS 4.111 Five-speed with only 120k on it, a new shift knuckle, a new oil separator plate, a new shift fork, and all the shift fork clips. And then the ACT Streetlite and an Exedy OEM 2.5RS clutch kit. Oh yeah, and 4 quarts of Subaru Extra-S. Liquid gold.



Of course, ten minutes into things, something already went wrong: One of my wheel lugs cross threaded on its way off and took some of the stud with it.





Those lug nuts were pretty damn expensive, so I'll see if I can salvage the nut with a thread chaser or tap. Will need to put in a new stud. May do a few, or all of the fronts. A number of them have rough threads.



That's a leaf katydid that was chilling with me under the wagon.

I got quite a bit done, removed the exhaust, driveshaft, and all the other misc items you have to get rid of on a tranny job. Removed the front struts, as I'll be putting the STi bits back on with the Prodrive springs I've had lying around all this time. Drained all the fluids, got the tranny off, replaced the oil separator, and installed the new flywheel and clutch. Ran out of light before I was able to get the new transmission on. That will come tomorrow night. Taking today off today to give it a rest. I also relocated the pivot for the shift fork and polished it up. (There are two spots for it, a low one and a high one. The high one is for the hydro clutch fork, the low one is for a cable fork.) Got the new shift fork installed, swapped over my newer boot, installed the new throwout bearing. I would love to change out the shift linkage while I'm in there, and update it to the newer style so I can install a short shifter. Couldn't source the right linkage, though.

Still to do on this job:

Swap over the shift knuckle (hooray for no more shifter that flops around like it's in neutral while in a gear!)
Swap over the vehicle speed sensor
Possibly swap over the other wiring
Possibly swap over the trans crossmember. (NOT reusing the Group N mount though. That thing is annoying.)
Pop in the new transmission
Put everything else back on the car
Replace Stud(s)
Get new lug nuts, or fix the damaged one
Refill engine and gear oil
Put the Prodrive springs and STi tophats back on the STi struts, reinstall them, see if I can get the camber alignment right.
Bed in the new clutch
Drive it.

Will be very worth it... It'll be like having a whole new car. The thing has been awful to drive. I have been doing a 30-45 minute commute with sometimes-awful stop and go traffic. 4th gear stopped working a while ago, and the constant misalignment of the synchros from skipping from 3rd to 5th and back has caused 3rd to start popping out, and a LOT of grinding. Hopefully, will have the thing running like a champ before the fall colors are in full bloom up the canyons.

[Wagonista]

Transmission is in. Will bolt up the last few remaining items tonight, put in the new stud, and it should be good to go. Need to go get some spring compressors, the Prodrive springs are too stiff to bolt up with the ghetto method. That or my tiny air compressor isn't strong enough to do it.

[Wagonista]

Only took a week, but I finally got the car running again on Saturday!
Had a few hiccups, like the clutch cable bracket not fitting on a phase II transmission case (belt grinder made short work of it) and one of the bolts that mount said bracket to the transmission case completely rounding off (had to squeeze an angle grinder down to the transmission through the engine bay to grind it off). I also had only a few hours to work on it each night.

First impressions:
- It started right up and drove the first time! The only thing I forgot was the pitch stop.
- Man, the car is super quiet without the weird (phase I?) solid steel pitch stop, and without the Group N transmission mount. I need to go grab a normal plastic pitch stop. I am so tired of NVH.
- The power delivery is super smooth with the lightweight flywheel. Also, no CEL from running both a flywheel and billet crank pulley.
It takes almost zero throttle to launch the car now.
- Running the A/C makes zero difference on how the car runs now. It used to make it idle higher and drained engine power like crazy.
-So glad to have the STi struts back on. The prodrive springs don't appear to be any lower, but they have a lot more preload, and a whole extra coil.
-Understeer appears to be greatly reduced.

[Hinyo]

Wow great impressions. Sorry you had to swap the tranny again. Well the dont call it a project car if you dont have a project to work on. Hopefully this fix wil last a bit longer. The wrx wheels look good. any other plans for her?

[Wagonista]

Yeah, the car seriously drives like a dream. Need to go back and re-adjust the clutch cable, but it is the least broken it has been in the past 3ish years.

At this point? Not much. It's a relatively fun-to-drive, practical, great all-around car. Haven't had ABS in nearing two years, so I'd like to source another junkyard ABS sensor. I also saw an actual non-shattered-intact fog light at the junkyard the other day. I'll probably go snag that too. I'll probably also throw on the side skirts I have laying around, and mend the broken rain guard. Other than that? I just want to drive it. I'm probably going to minimize hard-use as much as possible from this point on. I don't plan on going any lower, it's just not worth it to me with the long wheelbase and steep driveways here. I'm really over slammed cars at this point too. I like where it sits now. It's functional. It looks pretty good. It's still fairly practical.

In the long run, my main goal for this car is to hit 300,000 miles. I'd also like to repaint the car at some point. The clear coat is starting to go. That would be after I buy a house and a garage though.

[Muse]

What program did you use for this? I'd like to figure out my ideal shift points.

Also, are they ideal for power or for economy?

[Wagonista]

http://www.teammfactory.com/gear-calculator
Shift points should be for power. There are other calculators out there, which if you have a dyno chart that tells you your power at different RPMs will be a lot more accurate.

[Wagonista]

It never ends.



Got rear-ended... AGAIN.

The good news is, I walked out of a store today and noticed that my car does actually have the slight suspension rake I was going for. So here's an actual picture of the car's current suspension setup. (04 STi struts/tophats, front Prodrive P1 springs, rear STi springs, saggy butt spacers)


When the insurance pays out, I'll probably just replace the bumper and keep the hatch. I'll see if the dent can be pulled out for cheap.

[fwa2500]

Oh ffs. You get rear ended again and Reuben blows up again. It has not been a good week....

[Wagonista]

Oh ffs. You get rear ended again and Reuben blows up again. It has not been a good week....

You spoke too soon... THE SUBARU GODS ARE NOT PLEASED WITH US.

[Reuben]

Blew up both cars btw, Blighters headgasket went proper the night before I killed Beast...

Yeah, shitty week And damn muppet drivers!

[Wagonista]

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.5879184 ... phRfkw!2e0

AWWW YISSS

[Muse]

Sexy-looking car. Looks like yours, but it can't be. That guy's face is all blurry, and yours isn't.

[Wagonista]

No real updates (I haven't even replaced the rear bumper!), but I did spend a lot of money on giving the wagons a new home.

[KNaph]

Congrats on the new place! Must be an exciting change for you!

[Wagonista]

Thanks! Lots more changes here. I have two new babies, now. One human, and one is a 40-year-old Toyota.

[foohfooh]

Re - upping this thread. Bump for updates. Homie had ganadors on an outback. Re examing photos now. Rad.

[fwa2500]

Well, there are updates but I'll let Alex post them.