lostinthe202

Gary, Ma Man! Thanks for the response. I know I haven't been around much lately, but things out here are going great as I hope they are for you! Will-

HI all, I need to replace the passenger's side steering knuckle on a '99 Forester with ABS, vin number JF1SF655XXG709153 I'm headed to the yard tomorrow and wanted to know what flavors of Subs I can look under. Thanks!

Thanks Fairtax, good to see you around too. How's the weather out there? We were back in Catlett in January for my G-pa's 86th and man do I miss the Va country. We did a nice hike up Old Rag, found a late 1800's graveyard. Good to hear that there's some wiggle on the stubs. I really couldn't remember if that was supposed the be the case or not. I'm actually not that experienced in wheel bearing failures as I've never had any in any of the subs I've owned. Well, I guess I'll tear into the right front hub and see what I get. I'm pretty confident of the left being good since I was just in there and didn't see anything amiss. I suppose to be thorough I should jack up the rear, but the noise and grinding vibration/sensation really seems to be coming from the front. Will-

1999 Forester 200,xxx miles Original trans This all started with, what I thought, was a bad wheel bearing. "wub wub wub" noise on left turns indicating the front right bearing, shimmy while breaking at highway speeds (brakes and rotors all around done about 2 months ago) When I first noticed the noise, I jacked the car up and spun both front wheels as well as rocking them at 6 & 9 but I got no noise or movement. Couldn't hear anything from either knuckle with a long screwdriver to the ear. So I decided to wait a bit for it to get worse so I could identify it. The sound is so bad now that I hear it driving straight, left and right, but turning to the left remains the loudest. Last weekend I jacked the car up and took another look. Still no movement in either wheel, no indication that the seals have gone bad, but I did spot a torn boot on the DOJ on the driver's side. I grabbed the axle shaft and it had a lot of play. I compared to the passenger's side which also had some play, but the driver's side had substantially more play. At this point I figured since I didn't have any other new info, and that axle would need to be changed regardless of the wheel bearing issue, I decided to change it. I pulled the axle and while I had it off I rocked the stub axle and it has some wiggle. I don't know if these should have any wiggle in them, seems to me that if they are under preload that they really shouldn't. I didn't pull the passenger's side axle, but it has some play at the DOJ too. I put everything back together with a new axle and tested the play in the axle shaft again and it seemed to match up with the play in the passenger's side. I went for a test drive and the noise is unchanged. I'm worried that I have some bad bearings in my trans. So my questions are, when the diff carrier bearings go bad, is there play on both sides? If so, then are they both bad? If not, then how do I determine which one is bad? and lastly, and I'm not holding my breath here, are these bearings I can get to without tearing the trans apart? I have not yet changed the trans fluid to look for metal shavings as I ran out of light/energy, but that's first on the list tomorrow. Thoughts opinions? Thanks! Will-

Ditto!

where's the fun in that?

hehe, not really. One of my various hobbies involves working at a welding/machine shop in a dodgy part of town. I know the delay is only a few seconds, but I don't like being exposed like that when I get in the car and I don't like the lights staying on as I walk away. I know that I could just turn off the light, but I don't want that either. Hmm, maybe I'll pop out the light and see if I see anything attached to the wiring. Thanks!!

'99 Forester, You know, that 10 second (or whatever) delay for the interior lights to turn off. Is there a way to disable that? anyone know what causes it? maybe I could just bypass the responsible component? Thanks, and happy Halloween!!!

Welcome to the board! Just so you know, posting in an old thread like this won't get you much attention. Rick (Superior Soobie & Import) is fantastic. He's been a member of this board for over a decade and knows all the flavors of Subaru, old and new, inside and out. He's helped me on many occasions. If he's in your area I strongly recommend that you let him take a look. Good luck! Will-

Well, 10 bucks for an extra cut really is pretty good, assuming it's right of course. He may be banking that you, like most of his customers, have no way of checking to see if that step is actually .005 which is about a .001" above the thickness of a human hair for those readers wondering just what kind scale we're talking here. I gotta say I agree on those pins, when I cut that flywheel at work that I mentioned, there was one I couldn't get out when I was at home working on it and managed to mangle it pretty good. I tried heat and fluids etc, but what it came down to is that I had no way to get a decent pull there at home. What I really needed, and what I ended up using when I brought it in to work, was a drill press. Took a scribe with a nice sharp point, a small drill bit, like 1/16th would work, put it in the chuck and eyeballed the center of the pin, took the scribe out and then clamped the chuck around the pin. Clamped the flywheel down then pulled the pin out. Mechanical advantage is a friend for those who have, well mechanical advantage at their disposal I guess.

Ha! Yeah, that's us shifty machinist for ya. My shop's rate, which I won't divulge here, is staggering.

Good deal, wow $50 bucks! I'm almost certain I only paid $12 for mine from the dealer, but I could be remembering that wrong, it was about 4 years ago. or maybe prices just went up that far, I just paid almost 10 bucks for those two stupid TOB clips from the dealer. I don't remember wow much they were the last time I bought them, but I know it wasn't that much. Anyway, hope it all works out for ya. Will-

Man, you're a soldier! I've followed your recent posts as I've been having clutch trouble myself recently, you must have had that trans out like 5 times by now! I don't remember the year of your car, my '96 had a steel pivot ball. I thought of making one out of brass for it's inherent lubricating properties, but chickened out thinking that it might get deformed prematurely or something. Didn't think to check the material of my '99 forester's pivot ball which I just did the clutch in. I know it didn't look like brass so if it was it must have been plated. As to your problem, I've got to go with 987687's answer, get a new clutch fork. I got mine for twelve bucks from the sub dealer. with a proper fork what 987687 says is true, if the top part of the fork is moving the proper distance, so is the bottom of the fork. But if the fork geometry is screwed up, like from a split that has allowed some bend in the material or a welded one that maybe contracted from heat or was welded in a way that the working surfaces don't have the same relation to each other as they did as new, then you may wind up with the top part of the fork not moving the lower part of the fork to the desired location. The amount of motion is the same, that's geometry, but if the starting location of the bottom of the fork is not as intended, then the neither will the ending location. Remember that we're talking about pretty small movements on the clutch side of the fork. The pivot is located just about an inch or an inch and half from the centerline of the trans input shaft. but the cable engagement is maybe 3 or 4 inches above that. So 1" of travel up top would equal something well below that at the TOB. Anyway, the point of this diatribe is that yes, replace your fork. You've replaced everything else in the system so that's the last piece (again assuming that you've made sure your input shaft is free of burrs and is not hanging up the friction disc) in the equation, might as well knock that out. Good luck!

No kiddin? a .005" step? I had a '96 and I took that flywheel into work with me and turned it. I thought it was flat, at least it looked and felt flat. But it never occurred to me to check for so tiny a step so I could have easily missed it. I was looking for something like the EA step which only someone with a severe astigmatism could miss. That flywheel didn't have the bow this one did, just heat spots. I took .040 off to clean up and put about 40k on it after that without chatter or any other problems. Well, next time I have the components accessible, I'll see if I can't figure out what is the necessary clearance between the non-friction components of the friction disc and the flywheel.

If the '00 Forester is the same as the '99, which I think it is, there's not step in the flywheel. I just did a clutch job and my flywheel engagement surface had a decent bow to it, I'd say at least .010" if not more. I had it ground at a local shop for $30 and I've had no problems. I don't know the maximum amount of material you can take off, The limiting factors I see are how far the engagement surface is above the bolts that hold the flywheel to the crank and how deep the holes are for the pressure plate bolts. But I'm sure there's a spec out there sompeplace, maybe somebody with a FSM (Factory Service Manual) will be kind enough to post.

Hmm, I think I see what you're saying. I don't do clutch dumps, not my thing, but I probably do lug the engine more than I should. I don't usually do it so deeply as to feel it in your bones or anything, but if I'm cruising to a stop on an uphill grade, I'll lug the engine a bit rather than downshift just to come to a stop in a short distance, things like that. I dunno, I probably shouldn't over-think this. I'm getting good life out of my clutches so I suppose I should just shut up and be happy I'm not only getting 60k like my neighbor gets :cool:

That makes sense. I was also thinking, I remember reading someplace that the flatness call-out for the flywheel is something like +/- .001" which is presumably so you have even contact along the entire friction surface. Any variation out of that range will force the disc to conform. Both my flywheel and PP were pretty badly dished. I didn't indicate them, but I'd guess by about 5 or 10 thou at least. I could see how the disc was having to flex quite a bit to do it's job and it just eventually couldn't take it anymore. Will-

'99 Forester, 180k miles, original clutch My clutch recently went south, broke a spring out of the hub, I'm happy with 180k of service out of the clutch, that's about what I've come to expect from my clutches as every vehicle I've owned that had a verifiable OEM clutch has gone between 170-200k. But I've noticed that every clutch in every vehicle that I've owned since I started driving that I've needed to replace has never gone out because they were slipping, it's always because something breaks. It's not the same thing breaking either, or at least not consecutively. I've had broken PP fingers, fried TO bearing, split shift fork, and worn out input shaft bearings. Not all of the above examples are Subarus, but my question I suppose is towards driving style. I feel comfortable that my driving style doesn't burn out clutches which is why they never go because of slipping, but I wonder if I'm being too hard on them in some other way that is causing stuff to break prematurely. I'm not one of those types that just HAS to achieve the given speed limit in the shortest amount of time possible, I feel I'm pretty easy on my cars in general. But I thought I'd put it up to the board to see what ya'll think. So what ya'll think?? Thanks! Will-

Reassembled and functioning normally. Went pretty smoothly, smoothest one yet in fact. I guess practices DOES make perfect eh? I have some questions about the clutch failure, but I'll start another thread for that. Thanks to all the contributors! Will-

Yikes! Yeah, mine was making sounds like a large window being sprayed with a hose. I never had any shifting problems or gear popping problems, not a single one, but there was no way I could ignore the fact that something was horribly wrong inside the trans. The sucky part was that the noise didn't start in earnest until 2 months after I did my clutch

Yeah, the guy at the shop said he'd look it up. I doubt he had to take more that .05 off so I'm sure it will be fine. I got it back today and after I bolt it up to the car tomorrow I'll set up my .0005 indicator and see if I got my flat within +/- .001 that Subaru (unrealistically?) calls for

Hot Damn, that's some good carnage! At least they give you LOTS of warning before they go and seize up on you eh?

Thanks for the reminder, no way I'd miss that. Last subaru clutch I did was because that was completely dry and the fork split in two at the pivot. Got my flywheel today, $30 for a regrind, looks pretty good. I might do some tonight, but probably wait for the weekend. Will-

A couple of things not in that write up that will help out with reassembly, Put a hose clamp on the shift arm to keep it at the correct height for when you're dropping the tail housing on. You can measure the correct distance and set it that way, Some pics from when I did this job to illustrate the point, Here was my bearing. Not as bad as fairtaxes' but bad enough!

Ha! thanks. I do feel good once I'm on the other side of my automotive shenanigans, though sometimes I feel like I could use a bit less zen in my life! Got the clutch kit (Exedy,) picked up the clips from the dealer today (F'ing $8.59 for two bent pieces of wire!!!!) and I'm dropping off the flywheel for grinding today after work. Should have things buttoned up by Saturday. Will-