1998 Subaru Forester S - DOWN BY THE RIVER!

Back from One Lap. Let's see if I can't get this off the lift. 

Clamping the bushing in the vise with a piece of old belt and prying did the trick. 

I put the rack back together but forgot to take pictures. It's all fairly straight forward. I hope. Still need to put the inner tie rods and boots back on. I'm trying to remember if I thought I needed new inners. Crap.
Then I modified the cross member so that I can get a regular nut with a wrench in place of the old captive nut. A bit ugly, but I think it will work. 

And new inner boots on. The passenger side axle would NOT come out of the hub so I just replaced the inner boot with it hanging from the hub. One of those "problem for another day" things. 

I'm glad you're back from running around all over so I can get a Scooby thread update.

Your picture of seal removal shows, down to the last detail, what I tried, and failed, to convey in my response a few pages back. Exactly. Clamp, prybar, thump, seal pops out.

Typically stuck axles in hubs are solved by using a bigger hammer.  All else fails I might have a knuckle that can be swapped in place.

If you have a drivers knuckle I might take you up on that even though it was the passenger knuckle that's stuck. The drivers one is the super crusty one that was replaced and is the source of the ABS not working. 

Who needs ABS when you have AWD! I really didn’t want to have to use that rusty knuckle, but was in pinch and needed car back on road and couldn’t wait days for a better one. I second BFH on axle, few good swings should break it loose

I did NOT want to work on cars this afternoon. No explanation other than I didn't feel like it and wanted to take a nap. I decided to buckle down and do the work to get the Subaru off the lift anyway. I should have taken more pictures, any pictures really, but just before it was time for me to come in and cook dinner I fired it up and backed it out. Success? 

Sort of a big problem when I cycled the steering. Something gave way and it vomited fluid out the ends of the rack. 

Not sure if it's something in the orbital part or more likely something wrong with a seal in the rack part. I should take it apart and check. I probably will. It looks like a rebuilt one is $300. Dammit. 

Seth,

I am faced with a puking rack on my Civic daily driver so rather than tear into it and get scope creep I decided to just get a reman. I hate A1 Cardone, who does almost all remans. They really do suck.

In the end I ordered from these guys....

Rack for your Scooby-Doo. Click here.

Rebuilt here in the USA. Good feedback. 140 bucks shipped with built in refundable core charge.

In reply to Cousin_Eddie :

I might just do that. Thanks. 

Back on the lift. Looks like it's leaking out both ends of the rack leading me to believe that I put the seals in backwards? Not sure I can get them out and reversed without destroying them. I'll sleep on it. 

I got up early and pulled the rack. The center piston thingy was crooked in the cylinder. 

I 'think' the rack overtravelled in one direction, the teeth on the piston part hit teh seal and it let go, the teeth pulling it all apart and letting things sit crooked. All of the teeth on both the piston and the orbital seem fine and everything meshed and ran smooth before I put it in.

What happened? Aren't there steering stops in the car that are supposed to prevent this sort of thing? Where are they? I don't want to buy a new rack and have this happen again. 

Between Cousin_Eddie's description and Mazdeuce-Seth's pix, I learned a better way to use my bench vise.

So I looked at it. The stops are internal and the teeth can't hit. That means that I damaged the seal on installation? Not sure if that answers why it all went crooked. Hmmmmmm..........

So now I think what happened is I knocked the seal on the way in and the spring for the seal got on the other side and that somehow got caught in the teeth and mushed everything sideways. Maybe. 

I'm going to order new seals and try again. For reference, the spring side is supposed to face in toward the pressure side, right? 

mazdeuce - Seth said:

So now I think what happened is I knocked the seal on the way in and the spring for the seal got on the other side and that somehow got caught in the teeth and mushed everything sideways. Maybe. 

I'm going to order new seals and try again. For reference, the spring side is supposed to face in toward the pressure side, right? 

Yes

Talked to the previous previous owner last weekend at rallycross. He was VERY upset that his cousin sold the car without offering it back, until he found out that it went to me, then he was happy. He also offered to buy it back from me whenever I feel like letting it go. This means that I need to E36 M3 or get off the pot. Slammo dropped off a bunch of parts right before summer including a rack that's more likely to work than the one I pulled out. That mostly went back in today. I need a couple more bolts because I'm having a terrible time keeping threads clean on the Subaru ones. I need to get this car off the lift. 

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

World is wayy to small. Ran into Nate couple hours ago and he was complaining about me selling the Forester.. then come home get on site and see this!

Sigh...

How quickly a $450 dollar car can become a $1000 car.....

I always figure every used car I buy has one nasty surprise hidden in it, over and above what I think I knew about said heap.

Is this a solid car EXCEPT for the rack? If so , maybe your rack of unknown origin (spare) dropped off to you will work.

Or tell yourself, this $450 car was really a $650 car....and get a rebuilt from RA

https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/subaru,1998,forester,2.5l+h4,1305469,steering,rack+and+pinion,7388

As opposed to getting worn out on an un-fun problem area.

THEN you can blow it up with the turbo...

In reply to Agent98 :

I've been trying to keep things suuuuuper cheap becase there was always a chance that this could be a challenge car, but no more! Money that needs to be spent gets spent. 

Start with this little bit of corrosion. I suppose that's why it wouldn't start when I got it all buttoned up and lowered down. $150 later and I have a new battery (I've been fighting with this one since I bought it) and a new terminal) 

Starts up great. Runs great. AC wasn't working so I put the gauges on it and then threw in a can. It works now and I suppose I'll have to trace the leak at some point. The big win here is that it's back on the ground and I drove it back and forth on the driveway about 50 times. I forgot that I really like this car. 

It still needs tires, probably brakes (though they work fine) alignment, front sway put back on, the drivers front hub changed so I get ABS back, lots of stuff, but it purrs like a kitten and the new rack doesn't seem to leak. Going to spend money where it's necessary to spend money. Berk it. Not being able to drive it because I'm too cheap doesn't do me or kid#2 and favors. 

For now I need to clean up the work bay, scrub the ATF off the floor and just get things back to a state of clean so that I can start projects in here again. 

Disassembled the hubs that Slammo dropped off because both of the ones on the car have issues. Lots of parts incoming. 

Speaking of parts, replaced the shifter knuckle today. I was thankful for my delicate fingers. 

And these tires, they're going to be awesome, I can already tell. My first time ordering suuuuuuper cheap tires off Amazon. 

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Thunderer!

...er

...ererer

...errrrrrrrrrr!!!1!1!!

Pete Gossett said:

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Thunderer!

...er

...ererer

...errrrrrrrrrr!!!1!1!!

Uggg ... you beat me to it!   I was thinking along the same lines.

I like my new tire guy. $48 for all four tires. Pull the old ones, dispose of them, mount and balance the new ones. That's cheaper than anybody around here and his nephews have both been on Mrs. Deuce's soccer teams and are good kids. 

Spray bombed the first of the front hubs. This isn't supposed to be any great finish, but more of a keep the rust at bay sort of thing. Considering it's Texas, that shouldn't be hard. 

I've been fighting with getting the passenger front driveshaft out of the upright. It WILL NOT come out. Much advice was given here. Still won't come out. Time for destruction. 
For some reason I decided that I wanted to salvage as much as I could. Started by pressing out the studs. 

I unbolted the tone ring and cut off most of the hub face so I could pull it and the dust shield off in one piece. 

Then I cut as much as I could without damaging the axle or the upright and put it back in the press. No good. 

At this point I noticed that I had already bent a brake mounting ear so I might as well start cutting the upright and try to save the axle. I got about this far before I ran out of my last disk. I'm optimistic. More tomorrow. 

So, how much is a new axle?  Just saying....

In reply to docwyte :

$37 at Rock Auto. This is about general principle at this point. I hate being defeated by corrosion. 

Just for GP purposes, put a wedge/chisel into said slot, and merrily beat the beejeezus out of it.  It WILL succumb to your will.