CNY_Dave

Having scrutinized the cutaway when doing mine, the inner race of the outboard bearing must fetch up against a ledge or something, so if you get it wrong it would be pulled into place when torquing the axle nut, no? Anyone have a pic of a hub free and clear?

Does this critter have an 'accident' switch that kills the fuel pump if it thinks the car has been in an accident? Had a car once that used the oil pressure sensor for that... other cars have an impact sensor, might be the little bit the pump runs when the key is 1st turned on supplies enough pressure to idle for 10 seconds or so, but the pump never keeps running.

Hydraulic or linkage or cable type? The fork itself could cracked or may have a hole in it where the fulcrum (ball) seats.

Make the other vehicle an audi or volvo all-wheel-drive...

Took most of what my 20 ton press was capable of mustering to press out the outer race from the knuckle... sometimes they are tight, sometimes they are damn tight!

If you are going to do a lot of freeway driving or higher-speed driving it's worth seeking one out. It is geared differently from a H4 outback (bit lower revs on the freeway, 4.11 final gearing instead of 4.44).

Well I've put darn near 100k on the replacement so I'd say the factory grease is just fine.

The bearings from subaru are greased. It looks like cheesy grease and not a lot of it, but has been holding up fine on mine, lotsa 75mph highway driving (with some 100+ tossed in) and bombing on/off ramps (left-side was replaced).

The FWD fuse is designed to isolate the front and rear wheels, but is only expecting the speed difference to be small, so there is a possibility it could generate enough heat to cause it to grab. You'd probably get away with it a few times. Will be dramatic if it binds up.

So when torquing the axle nut were there a bunch of fairly difficult turns, followed by a very sudden increase in turning torque and then hitting the torque setpoint almost immediately? On mine it took a bunch of turns to fully draw the 2 inner races together, was wondering what the heck was going on. Once they met it hit max torque in less than a 1/4 turn.

For access can you simply drop the diff?

When I pressed mine out I was very careful to give the area just outside the race good evenly-distributed support, after seeing how hard I was to press it out a) I have wondered if even the real $300 OTC tool could handle the task for one stuck in tight yeah, you could bend the knuckle if you can't support it evenly.

Only 180,000 on my '03.

Could also be pad deposition on the rotor, or could be crud between rotor and hub, or even crud between wheel and rotor.

Did you put any weight on the wheel bearing before torquing the axle nut?

I snapped one of those suckers (same job but in the trans ) on my '80 celica (during a non-police car chase, yes I still got away), was locked in 3rd gear. Didn't have a replacement the next day (a sunday) and absolutely had to fix it- brazed that sucker in place. I would try to get the same type of pin, the load capacity of all spring/roll pins is not equal. Dave

OK, here's another topic that has cropped up in the week after a car-talk caller with the same issue. I think this makes 3? 4?

Could it be a sealing washer that goes between the timing cover and block & heads? Dave

I just put the halfshaft in the vice and tugged on the CV joint- came right apart. The pipe trick doesn't look like it will hurt anything. After the halfshaft is out, you turn the cage (as though turning a corner but much further) until a ball is clear of the joint, then you can pop out a ball.

Apart is easy, you just rotate the end (the thing the axle goes into) to one extreme and then pop out the ball that presents itself with anything that's softer than the cage or the ball. (after you remove the axle shaft, of course) Putting together, now that I have never even tried. Now what is the 'pipe trick'? Never heard of it.

It's mostly cleaning and selecting the correct size balls, I think, unless they are actually re-grinding the ball races.

Stiff is fine. Notchy, now, might be an issue.

Classic AWD binding symptoms. Auto or manual? If an auto put in the FWD fuse to disable the rear wheels and see if the problem goes away.

Could even be clapped-out sway links/bushings.

My bearings and seals from subaru came pre-greased, and have lasted over 100,000 miles without having added grease. The bearings did look under-greased, but were properly greased with appropriate grease. bearings from elsewhere, who knows. Dave