E.J.'s Foz

Finally got my stock '99 Forester a little dirty today in my buddies dad's bumpy pasture. Got a few mods coming down the line but I figured it would be a good idea to have a before to compare to the after. I drove it pretty conservatively today but had enough fun bouncing around the rough field and through some muddy ruts laid down by some more "serious" off-road machines.

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I've got a Subtle Solutions 1" lift kit on the way. Also have a buddy making me a skidplate using Frogstars design. I know most folks would start with better tires but most of our OHV trails are closed January-March. I'll probably just be driving gravel/dirt roads until spring .
 
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Looks much better. Does it feel a bit nose down without the trailer? I like a bit of forward rake :monkeydance:

Couple of nice tracks there :biggrin:
 
Feels good without the trailer, just a little forward rake. Thrilled to ditch the saggy butt look that seems to get exaggerated with a lift.
 
E.J. said:
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Here are the HD axles installed, quite a bit beefier on the inner side. Just swapped out the front 2" blocks for 1" and dropped it off for alignment. Fingers crossed that this proves to be a reliable set up.
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Well that didn't last long, the passenger side inner joint just pulled apart on me on the highway:redface::confused::redface::cry:

I think theres something seriously stuffed with my transmission or something at this point. I'm about to give up on this one.
 
What ?

How did it happen ? I mean just driving on the highway and suddenly you heard a "clonk" and when you looked at it you had grease everywhere and the inner joint was in pieces ? Or did it break on the shaft ?

Well, thats no good news.
 
Yes, the car shook for a second then clonk buzzzzz, had to shift into first to get it off the highway. The inner joint separated. I'm pretty sure my car has something going on other than the driveline angle to cause this. It separated the same way that the first one (this round) did, and that one was a genuine subaru axle. I think something is screwed up with my trans.
 
Looks like you have a problem with the front differential. Is it an open diff (oem) or an LSD. Is your Forester a manual or automatic ?
 
You should maybe drain the front diff. I don't know much about the 4EAT but the front diff maybe has his own oil ? If so, check the oil and oil level.
 
It's at the shop that installed the axles, they changed the diff fluid when they installed the axles a month ago. 4eat front diffs have their own oil.
 
So you may have some teeth missing…did he find any metal parts when he changed the fluid ?

Can't see any other explanation…didn't break while offroading with wheel spin…bizarre !
 
Nothing of note in the diff fluid, lots of play on the stub. The trans shifts really hard from 4 to 3, I think it's beating the hell out of the axles. The plan now is to swap all of my off road goodies onto my wifes 2002. Planning on checking out a low milage SG for her on Saturday probably.
 
Mate that sucks. Can the axle be put back together? New car can be exciting though :)
 
Well crud, the SG got snapped up before we could check it out.:cry:
The dark side is calling me...going to test drive a FJZ80 tomorrow:iconwink:
 
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