Power steering racks interchangeable?

[mjr07gtbwagon]

Ok brains trust,

I have a leaking power steering rack on my 02 outback. and i have a 09 forester parts car with a good rack with 200K on it, are they interchangeable?

regards

[bigBADbenny]

There’s a few generations of subaru steering racks, the differences between say 2000 & 2010 are mainly related to the rack mounts and the compatible subframes.

The passenger side uses a saddle type mount, a rounded loop under the rack.

The earlier racks have a square mount on the drivers side.

Late GD moves to rhs tabs that bolt to the subframe, and on bp/bl and gr plus the tabs are vertically offset.

So if you’re after a bolt on replacement it’s best to check the rhs mount and potentially any similar models/years will fit.

[bigBADbenny]

So let’s take a look on opposed forces site, find the gen2 rhd outback, aka a gen3 2.5i wagon.

http://opposedforces.com/parts/legacy/en_b12/type_28/

Find the steering gearbox in the steering section…

http://opposedforces.com/parts/legacy/e ... tration_5/

Click on the click part number for your year rack and we see under useage info that it’s specific to that model, probably because it’s a slow or variable rate rack,

This means you may want to source a working rack from a wreck, source a seal kit, or replace the rack with a more common item from a similar year range car.

To get a rough idea of what might fit, I looked at what the racks the related rack rebuild kit fits:
http://opposedforces.com/parts/info/34190AE080/, that’s any GX or RX…

Otherwise I use my local driveshaft shops here in Melbourne, Statewide and A1 driveshaft.

They (or your local) can rebuild and test steering racks.

[mjr07gtbwagon]

Thanks Benny,

Yep slid under the forester yesterday after work and the rhs bracket dos mount differently to outback. o well will have to order a seal kit.