PSA: power steering pump

[fishy]

Finally got the power steering sorted out in the 94 turbo lego. First it lost a pressure line and drained the fluid. The car the got driven for a day on a 12 year old power steering pump with no juice in it. The next week the pump screamed like a raped ape a few times and then started pissing fluid out. I suspect the first bout of no fluid is what finished off the old pump.

 

Fast forward to Monday: I run to the local crapyard to get a replacement pump and I get one off a 96 which shows up in all the searches I've done as interchangeable. I can now confidently assure you that this is NOT TRUE. I think that if I had the bracket off the 96 I could have made it work but no way no how was that 96 pump going into my 94 bracket.

 

Turns out the closest direct-fit replacement was an hour away so I took a vacation day and went to get that. Installed it, bled it, and test drove it. So for it seems okay. I hope that's all the time and money the old subaru wants for a while...

 

 

So lesson learned: the serial number on the pumps changed sometime between 95 and 96. even though the 96 pump looked the same it's dimensions had been fattened up by about 1/8th inch (thanks FHI).