stevetone

Thank you everyone for your help. I will grind smooth and continue. BTW, a Pitman Puller did a nice job on getting the bushings out of the control arms. I had rigged up a pipe and bolt solution on the first bushing, but ended up snapping the bolt. The Pitman was much easier. steve

That sounds like a good approach. You are much wiser than me...

It was a Chicago rental car in its previous life. They use a little salt on the roads there in the winter...You should see the outside of the brake drum! (Of course, Wisconsin, where I live, is not any better.) So smoothing it out a bit will not reduce the width enough to cause a problem? The other side I did a better job, so no touch-up would be needed there. Thanks everyone for your help! Hope to get to the actual project, replacing the bearing, sometime soon

Well, after wrestling with the lateral link bolt, aka "BAB," for 2 days, i went to Plan B--the reciprocating saw. All went well, taking only 15 minutes to make 2 cuts into the Grade 8 bolt. I had expected a much harder time of it, as I used some cheap blades I had laying around. *Only* went through 4 of them! Anyway, after feeling really good about that, I looked at the knuckle and noticed that I carved into it 1/16 - 1/8" or so. Photo attached. So my question is: If I grind that smooth, can I reuse the knuckle? Or am I just asking for trouble in alignment? So far, this *wheel bearing job* is more about battling rust than the actual bearing. I haven't even got to that part yet... steve 2003 Forester X

I wanted to report my experience with aftermarket axles since there is the occasional controversy regarding the use of non-Subaru axles. I just replaced both front axles with AutoZone Duralast Golds, part number 9330N. They were only about $60 each, which I thought was a reasonable amount to spend on my "ancient" Subaru. These are brand new axles, not remanufactered. Now I am a "hack" at best, but it took me less than 2 hours of real work to get the first side in. Much less on the second set. I disconnected the lower ball joint castle nut and the anti-sway link to get the hub to move enough to extract the axle. Used lots of PB Blaster before hand, as my 1995 Legacy LSi has seen over 162,000 miles of Midwest winters. But in the end, my new big-a breaker bar from Harbor Freight was no match for them, and everything went without too much drama. The only real difficulty I had was getting one of the roll pins to go in all the way. Mushroomed the end trying, then got wise and inserted it from the other side. Piece of cake. I am happy to report that after installation I have experienced no vibrations, and the front end feels much smoother than before. And, the dreaded "click" is gone. (Although, in the process I noticed that my steering rack boots were also torn, so yet another project on the list). BTW, I have two Subaru "cores" if anyone wants them for free. One is pretty trashed with a mangled joint, but the other is OK I think (however, I did not do a close inspection). Given the preference of some to use genuine Subaru axles and reboot, thought it might be useful to offer them if you can use them. I am in Wisconsin.

Our '95 just starting showing rust last year, after 16 years of winter road salt abuse. I'm pretty bummed about it, as it has performed nearly flawlessly over that time period. Our '03 Forester X shows no body rust, but the undercarriage is another story...

review what nipper said. my money's on his diagnosis

I think I saw pictures of your rig--was it a Stop sign? Where can I get an old sign, legally?

Son of a gun! On my first drive after removing the plastic belly pan I noticed a strange lack of rattling noise from the undercarriage. :-\ Could it have been the plastic belly tray all this time making such a racket? There still is a faint rattle from the exhaust heat shields, but perhaps I can secure that portion and be done with it.

Well, I took off the silly belly pan of my Forester for good, despite the dire warnings of half of USMB and other, less-worthy forums. Although I would love to put on a Primitive or Subtle skid plate, if they weren't $200+. Next project: exhaust shield rattles. Yes, I've read countless posts on this, and tried a half-dozen clamps, nails, screw, etc. After removal, any reason not to spend $25 and wrap the pipes with exhaust wrap? I am thinking that should calm any concerns about heat retention and the cats, floorboard hot spots, etc. steve

Thanks for the advice, eulogious. That sounds like a plan. steve

Thanks 3Pin, that's relatively close to me and worth a shot. What's not to like about Subaru Heaven...

Since I looks like may have to go with my alternative plan of installing a new(er) OEM power antenna, anyone have one laying around that they would like to sell? I'm in South Central Wisconsin (Stoughton).

In retrospect, it would have been much wiser to pull the plug and just keep it extended. But it was just going to be a 15 minute mast replacement...

Yeah, my fallback plan is a new(er) OEM power unit, but I want to explore all my options first. I definitely want to avoid any additional holes. Don't want to give rust monster any more footholds than it already has.

It's been a long time since I needed this board's advice--the subies have been pretty reliable. Anyway, I have a 1995 Legacy Wagon Lsi with a left rear power antenna that went kaput. I tried replacing just the mast, but it was frozen inside the motor unit, and I could not get it out without destroying the whole assembly (and even then it was still frozen in place). Don't want to spend a lot on the repair, so, I am looking to replace the power antenna with a manual one. Went shopping at Advance Auto for a standard generic manual antenna. But all of them seemed to assume a maximum 1" round hole for mounting. On the Lsi the hole in the rear quarter panel is a large oval of approximately 1" wide by 2.375" tall, too much to cover with a 1" mounting base. And it is oriented more or less vertically on the outside surface of the body. I wasn't able to mate the new antenna with the old grommet/antenna base. Any suggestions on where I can find a manual antenna with a base that will cover the hole in the fender? Thanx!

Uh...he has an automatic...do not use gear oil in an automatic transmission...the OP has a manual A warning about thread hijacking...you may get an unintended result...

When I did the "research" on this last year I couldn't find any off the shelf that were 2". I did read about people welding up their own, but that was too much work for me. I was looking to use it only to carry bikes on a hitch mounted rack. Ended up with a 1.25" and am dealing with it... Steve

Have we come to this in society that we can't even wait 2 seconds for the car to start? Come on...

+1 on the additives wearing out. It's the viscosity additives that wear out, according to the excellent articles at Motor Oil by AE Haas: "The downside of a mineral based multigrade oil is that this VI additive wears out over time and you end up with the original straight 10 weight oil. It will go back to being too thin when hot." There's a lot of good info there. It's quite a schooling on oil... Steve

Installed a Walker O2 Sensor on my '95 no problem. It only took an extra 10 minutes or so using the crimp connectors to attach to the existing plug-in. I think it's been about a year now and no worries. Steve

Did you replace the springs with OB springs, or reuse the legacy ones? Thinking about doing the same (lift) on my '95 this summer. Steve

Just finished an oil change (the second one since adding the Forester to the fleet). Tell me a GOOD reason not to take the silly plastic belly pan, and those engineering miracle thumbtacks that hold it all together, completely off my 2003 Forester? Yeah, I've done the search. The guys at the SFOF say keep it on for "aerodynamic" reason. Yeah, right. Like it just slips through the air with it on... OK, I feel better. Just needed to blow off some steam ("one word...plastics"). Steve

Excessive oil pressure as RPM goes up (as in actually driving, versus just idling on the rack) could blow by the gasket and cause the leak. Having said that, what could cause excessive oil pressure? Steve

This is a long-shot, but I got to thinking why you would have the same sound in two different cars. Are the back seats latched securely? Sometimes, when I have folded down the seat, I don't get it latched just right. Like I said, it's a long shot... Steve