On 8/6/2018 at 12:20 AM, 1 Lucky Texan said:

surprised in doesn't bind doing tight circles.

all 4 tires same brand/model/size/wear? any chance a trans or rear diff have been swapped?

sometimes, fresh trans fluid can help. 3 drain/fill cycles get you over 80% new fluid.

put in the FWD fuse and you can drive indefinitely.

 

On 8/6/2018 at 12:20 AM, 1 Lucky Texan said:

 

All 4 tires are new when I picked it up. Not sure if anything was swapped but highly doubtful since previous owners had it for 10+ years and never mentioned it (they are very trustworthy so I feel like they would remember that).

I actually did the trans drain and fill and added limited slip additive to it and it completely went away after 20 or so miles!!!

 

 

On 8/6/2018 at 11:14 AM, idosubaru said:

That's a common indication that the steering column ujoint should be checked.  the ujoint gets notchy and catches are very specific points in the steering wheel arc.  And you never answered my question to verify the ujoint:

It doesn't seem like you took it off to inspect it?  

But...maybe you don't need to with the new info...

That's definitely telling but i wouldn't necessarily condemn it immediately based on what's typed in this thread so far. 

1. repair it - new Duty C and clutches.  Very roughly $1,000. 

2. drive it with the FWD fuse indefinitely, taking it out when the roads are bad. 

3. install a switch so you can flip between FWD and "locked" or just nominal AWD.  I've done this to numerous subarus.  It's advantageous to be able to "lock" it at will and it's an easy work around for torque bind, or other issues, in automatics.   

it's really easy - involves one wire and very simple wiring of a basic switch. 

So I flushed the trans and added limited slip additive to it. no more bind! 

Perhaps it wasnt very bad to begin with...not sure but its driving great now. 

 

A question about the fwd switch....This is something I would be interested in doing....kinda for fun but also to see if it would save gas!

Got a link to the mod?