duncanm

Bennie - think your diagnosis is correct.

I note there's no noise when low range selector is in 'neutral'... so its not the input bearing.

Bennie - may not be the input shaft bearing exposed at the bellhousing, but definitely on the input side of the gears. maybe somewhere further down the main shaft.

I don't know enough about gearboxes to say where, but your point about LR is interesting.

- noise rises with engine speed, not road speed

- quieter/different when in low range.

- possibly worse in 3rd/4th. Maybe this indicates which of the other bearings it may be.

Bennie,

the foz box has a slightly higher 5th (0.780 vs. 0.825). That's a good thing.

All the other ratios including low range are the same as the outback box.

I realise fixing the bearings probably isn't that hard - just can't be f'd messing around with my only car off the road for any length of time. I'd rather just knock off the box change over a weekend.

cheers for the confirmation - have gone for an SG9 box and a couple of new inner CV joints to put on my existing axles. 

You're right -- my hub-mount ABS would easily work with a hacked shaft-mount ABS with the ring knocked off.

Barbs,

I won't be removing the shafts from my existing box, so no need to split it.

Thanks for the axles info - didn't know which ones were the right length, plus I've got the added complication of that one or two years weirdness of early ABS tone ring location before they standardised.