TomRhere Posted April 5, 2009 Share Posted April 5, 2009 Spent time yesterday fixing issues on the BRAT. Had some good luck, then hit a wall... 1st off, and main issue was. While driving home last Monday, steering got real loose after making the left off US-12 onto Milnes Rd. Had about 1/4 turn of freeplay in the steering. Was just fine before that turn. Got home and had Son move the steering wheel as I looked over things. Seems I lost the rag joint on the steering rack. Had to do a road trip for the shop, so repairs would have to wait. BRAT be parked. NOPE!! Seems one of the bolts on the rack side of the connection broke. Okay, dug out spare rack, swapped on 'new" inner tie-rod ends, re-installed rack. New inners are really stiff, was "fun" trying to thread them into the outer joints. They're hard to rotate, and kept wanting to move off center as I turned them, but I got it. Still need to set toe. Only thing left to replace on the front suspension now is the strut rod bushings. Everything else is new or in good condition. 2nd issue, Had an exhaust leak from the Y-pipe for awhile, just hadn't had time to fix it. Thought it was that the PS pipe had cracked inside the shielding, as I could feel exhaust pulses from the "hot air" connection. NOPE!! Just had a blown gasket. But it wasn't until I cut the shielding off of the pipe that I found that. Didn't see any signs of a crack in the pipe, so I looked real close at the gasket, it be bad. Why I could feel exhaust pulses out of the "hot air" connection is beyond me. Gasket was blown on the backside. New gaskets, re-install Y-pipe, no leaks.... The wall,,, About 2 weeks ago, I noticed both front inner boots were spitting out that nasty yuck. These are GCK axles, about 28 months old. Thinking there was a pin-hole in them, as it wasn't alot of yuck, and I couldn't find any tears. Don't know why both were doing it though. Pull both axles to re-boot them, as the boots are now trashed. Ain't happening!!!!. Seems the inner joint on these are larger than stock axles, and that's what I have here for new boots. OEM Subaru boots. I have an assortment of used axles, some with bad outers, some with bad inners. Going to see if I can build me a couple of axles out of all the pieces. I'll also be calling AutoZone to see what they can do about replacing the GCK's. GCK is no longer in business, so no replacement from those guys. Maybe I can find boots for the GCK's. Maybe I can get some money off on some other axles. We'll see. More wrenching to be done.... Oh! The GCK's inner joint is a 3-legged inner unit with rollers on needle bearings, VS the OEM cage/race/ball bearing setup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomRhere Posted April 6, 2009 Author Share Posted April 6, 2009 Spent yesterday building me some axles. Dug out all of the used and abused ones I have here, and started tearing them apart for cleaning and inspection. Went thru a bunch of old T-shirts/now rags cleaning the yuck off. Managed to build 2 that feel pretty good flexing the joints by hand. Got them installed, and eyeballed the toe setting for the front tires after getting her back on all fours. Took her out for a 6 mile jaunt hitting 55 mph a couple times. No vibration, no shimmy, no pulling/drifting to either side. Seems we're good to go. Just in time too. Got dumped on with some white stuff overnight, calling for more today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rat fink Posted April 6, 2009 Share Posted April 6, 2009 pics? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ivantruckman Posted April 6, 2009 Share Posted April 6, 2009 Michigan rocks someone with a Subaru that isn't 2000 miles away, sounds like my weekend... I rebuilt my old rack and pinion , both boots were blown, (non power steering). lots of rusted bolts etc etc , i got most of my stuff off ebay. if you have time to wait. ...keep em runnin... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomRhere Posted April 7, 2009 Author Share Posted April 7, 2009 Sorry, no pics of the work done. I had thought of taking some, but really didn't want to get that yuck all over my camera. I try to keep parts on hand for future repairs, and get most of them thru rockauto or 1stsubaru. Hardest part about doing any of that work was no bench-vise. Had to use a C-clamp and a sawhorse to hold rack and axles. Plus not having any snap-ring pliers here, (all at work), made the axle job more fun. But a nail set punch and thin blade screwdriver worked for removing them. I know I didn't get the boot clamps tight enough on the axles. So those will be replaced today, (during lunch), with some zip-ties. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chef_tim Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 Hey Tom, I got stuck with a bad GCK axle from AZ too. They were real good about replacing it. Gave me a Duralast life time warrenty axle and some money back from the price difference. The Duralast clicks once in awhile, but it has done good for about a year so I'm okay with it. Later, Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomRhere Posted April 8, 2009 Author Share Posted April 8, 2009 I called AZ yesterday to see what they had to say. Seems they'll take the GCK's back on warranty, and sell me some Duralast axles. They have to order those in though, so I told them it'd be a bit before I'd do so. Thinking I'll try to find some new boots for the GCK's. Then again, maybe not. Just sucks that I can't get the GCK's replaced "free of charge". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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