Matdaymon's DeForester MKII: The Ghost

Finally got my hands on another Forester!

It's an automatic 1997 SF5A T/TB (JDM) in two tone Green on Silver just like the first one. Sand/brown interior, just like the first one. And full of dog hair, just like the first one :lol:

Only differences between MkI and MkII is lack of rear spoiler, this one has factory Foz wheels and it doesn't have a passenger airbag.

Picked it up for $2k off TradeMe this morning.

Needs a hell of a cut and polish and a mega service to flush out whatever gunk the previous owner was scammed with (he was an admitted non-mechanically minded person). The coolant system will take a lot of effort and is #1 on the to do list.

So tomorrow I'm off to SCA to pick up some new spark plugs, oil, coolant, air filter, oil filter, roof basket and anything else that takes my fancy with the money I saved when I got it for less than asking price.

Will take some photos tomorrow of the process and how it looks at the start of the process.

The plan *currently* is to chuck in some KING springs to raise it up (if anyone has the part number for Forester SF springs I'd appreciate it), just them on SG struts front and rear and hopefully chuck on a set of all terrain tyres.

Hopefully it'll make a great beach basher for fishing trips and get me through my parents often flooded road in the coromandel.
 
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duncanm said:
if you fail WOF due to the indicators - look for some JDM indicator mirror covers. I know they exist for legacy/liberties... may also exist for the Foz.
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Aren't they the things surrounding the indicators already? My Foz is a JDM model.
 
My GV has the snorkel riveted into the a pillar on a monocoque chassis vehicle, and it passed a VTNZ WOF no questions asked here in Dunedin, so you should be fine.
As you said, a structural cut inside the bonnet would have made it far more likely to fail.
 
kiwifoz said:
My GV has the snorkel riveted into the a pillar on a monocoque chassis vehicle, and it passed a VTNZ WOF no questions asked here in Dunedin, so you should be fine.
As you said, a structural cut inside the bonnet would have made it far more likely to fail.
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Yeah took her to VTNZ on Friday after work and it failed, but not on the snorkel and not on the rust on the lip of the boot. Failed on my rear number plate lights both having blown bulbs and having too much play in the left side steering rack.

Have new steering rack bits on order which should show up in a couple of days which I should hopefully be able to swap in before Sunday when we start moving house.

Also have a brand new radiator on order - just a straight factory replacement as can't afford the added cost of an alloy and then having to sort out a trans cooler at the moment and if I'm lucky I'll swap this in before the big move next weekend too.
 
NachaLuva said:
While you're there, do both rack ends & tie rod ends, you'll love how much better the steering feels
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Have both sides for the rack ends. Tie rod ends will need to wait for another day. Should make a huge difference since there is no play at all in the new rack ends :cool:

Hopefully my radiator shows up tomorrow morning so I can tuck into it all tomorrow after work
 
So we now have a warrant of fitness, new steering rack end, and sadly numberplate lights (darn people will see my plate at night).

Random thing is now my steering wheel is off by about 90 degrees as apparently the steering rack was installed incorrectly.

I've got two options for getting my steering wheel to face the right way.
Option A. Take steering wheel off. Re-install right side facing up. Only problem is with it being an airbag unit this could end in disaster...
Option B. Take it into the shop and get them to pull the rack out and fit it properly. Only problem with this is tomorrow is my last day of work, the weekend I'm busy as ****, and Monday I start my new job 93 km away.

How hard is it to do option A without stuffing it up?
 
There's a better way, undo the bolts on the steering knuckle (both top & bottom) and slide the knuckle up towards the firewall until it comes off the rack output shaft. Then move the steering wheel to the correct position & slide the knuckle back on. Check the wheels are straight & steering wheel level, then do up the bolts. Done! :biggrin:
 
I like this idea!

Edit: It's pissing down with rain now so I might put up with the wheel as is for now and fix it when I move into my nice new house with double garage :cool:
 
Good luck with the move; I hope it goes well for you.
 
Kevin said:
Good luck with the move; I hope it goes well for you.
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Thanks Kevin. We went and picked up the keys today and I test parked the foz in the garage. She fits! :monkeydance:
Good thing too. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to dick around with the steering a fair bit.

From wheels straight to left lock is 1.5 turns. From straight to the right is 2! really!! I know the new inner tie rod was slightly different but I have no idea how this got so ****ed up all of a sudden. It's fine to drive about, but doing tight turns it turns to the right so much that the wheels hit the chassis.

I'm thinking I might do as Nachaluva said as a temporary fix, but might actually have to pay someone to sort this rack out properly :evil:
 
Well holy **** things have been busy!

Firstly I managed to get the steering fixed (thank dog!). I ended up taking it down the road from my new work to an alignment specialist who re-aligned it and checked it all out. Apart from probably needing to replace the bushings and swaybar links in the near future my steering is now fine, so the bloke who did the alignment after the rack end replacement cocked it up and tried to BS his way out of it. Anyway that's sorted and she was driving well...

That is until a strange sound appeared out of nowhere, kinda like a flat tyre or something going on with the diff. I pulled over and checked the tyres, they were fine so confused I took it gently for the rest of the drive and rode a motorbike home (perks of the job). At first I thought it must be the diff since I jacked it up and had no play in any of the wheels, so I thought I'd ruled out a bad wheel bearing. $150 later and a replacement R160 LSD found its way into the car but didn't fix the problem. I then checked out the left rear CVs and although one of them had grease that looked more like runny poo it wasn't stuffed. I regreased both since I was at it but still the problem remained...



At my wits end I took it to the mechanic next door who diagnosed (correctly) a wheel bearing failure.



Since I couldn't see him for a week and my 150km daily commute was getting a bit too dodgy for my liking, I ordered a replacement hub from the wreckers and with the help of a friend swapped it out. The bearing was ****ED so I'm glad I DIY'd it and didn't drive it any longer than I had to.

Since then I've had no problems with it, though I'm quite wary of the 150k round trip commute causing it to wear out fast.



Since I now have a spare diff, I'm going to start working on some remote breathers for the original diff, as well as replacing all the gaskets in it and giving it a general once over. Nachaluva has a good how to floating around so I'll probably start collecting the bits before getting stuck in at a later date..
 
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That CV looks like water got in & emulsified the grease. Good thing you did it now before it stuffed the joint.

Ah, the fun of wheel bearings lol. Was it a front or rear, the rears have the additional joy of the handbrake drum brakes to reassemble :lol:

When you do the breathers, try to find a 2 part brass fitting to go in. A 1/4" BSP male/female fitting with a 1/4" BSP male/female elbow will alow you to attach a hose without having to drill a hole in the crossmember. It will also allow fitting the diff to be muuuuch easier, as it's tricky getting the hose through the hole as you lift the diff & slide it back
 
NachaLuva said:
That CV looks like water got in & emulsified the grease. Good thing you did it now before it stuffed the joint.

Ah, the fun of wheel bearings lol. Was it a front or rear, the rears have the additional joy of the handbrake drum brakes to reassemble :lol:

When you do the breathers, try to find a 2 part brass fitting to go in. A 1/4" BSP male/female fitting with a 1/4" BSP male/female elbow will alow you to attach a hose without having to drill a hole in the crossmember. It will also allow fitting the diff to be muuuuch easier, as it's tricky getting the hose through the hole as you lift the diff & slide it back
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Yeah that's the theory my mate Ben who drove up from Whakatane to help me swap over the hub said (incidentally he is the same legend who drove up to Auckland for a 8hour thrash to convert DeForester #1 to manual too). It was the rear left hub but thankfully Ben knows his stuff and the only challenge we had was the tricky little clips in the drum and finding the Burgerfuel in Hamilton to get lunch! :biggrin:

Edit: would getting a straight 90degree elbow like this do the same job as what you mentioned in terms of ease of install?
 
A good lunch is key to doing any mechanical repairs! :lol:

matdaymon said:
Y
Edit: would getting a straight 90degree elbow like this do the same job as what you mentioned in terms of ease of install?
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That's what you want to end up with but the elbow won't clear the diff housing.

I made a mistake, it should be a 1/4" BSP male/female elbow (this screws into the backing plate) with a 1/4" BSP male/barbed fitting (one end screws into the elbow & the hose attaches to the other)
 
Wow it's been a long time since I've given you guys a proper update on the DeForester.

I suppose I'd better fill you in.

Well in July a couple of friends I met years ago through a local Subaru Club (ClubSub.org.nz) walked me through a cambelt and waterpump change on the Foz's nasty old '20G. Though to be honest I doubt I'll be able to do it again on my lonesome down here in Cambridge.

Not long after moving down to Cambridge the left rear wheel bearing gave up the ghost, which I think I've already gone through in here. TLDR; After a lot of trouble shooting, including buying a spare diff and re-greasing the rear CV joints, another mate drove up from Whakatane and helped me swap the rear hub over.


Anyway, not too much has really happened since then - apart from getting married on the 16th of December!



On the day for our wedding cars we borrowed my now brother-in-law's BLE and I cleaned up the Foz to the shiniest it's ever been (and is likely to ever get) in my ownership, chucked on a couple of ribbons and rolled through Whangamata with my lovely wife.

After the wedding we left the ribbon on the Foz for a couple of days just to see the weird looks people were giving it. We even heard a couple of guys say outside a burger bar in town 'who the **** would do that?' :rotfl: It was GOLD!

Anyway it didn't take too long to get it filthy again, especially with the Wentworth Valley road (where my parents live in Whangamata) being one of the dustiest roads I know.



Fun fact: I also managed to get my groomsman Matt ( who helped me do the cambelt) to not only agree to be a groomsman (who did a bang up job of keeping me reasonably level on the day), but also wear a tie for the first time ever.

Fun fun fact: Both my groomsman were called Matt, and both are electricians :lolz:

So since the wedding I've noticed a couple of things. Firstly I need to get myself some cam seals since there is quite clearly oil leaking out from that general direction under the plastic covers at the front of the engine.

I also think I'll do the rocker cover gaskets at the same time since the foz is about to hit the 200k mark. I also need to suss myself out a spare wheel and tyre since the space saver was so much smaller than what I'm running it would almost certainly kill my center diff if I put it on.



Anyway, thanks for stopping by :bananatoast:
 
Congrats!!! :bananatoast:

Nice to hear everyone scrubbed up well, incl the Foz lol :lol:

When you do the cam seals, I'd use genuine and be sure to push them in level & to the same depth as the ones you take out
 
Congrats on getting married! Pretty cool (unusual?) wedding cars!

If you ever need to swap a tyre, put the space-saver on the back, and a full size on the front. Then pull out the 4wd fuse - this makes it front drive only and will save the centre diff. Might stuff your rear diff if it's a vLSD though.
 
matdaymon said:
So we now have a warrant of fitness, new steering rack end, and sadly numberplate lights (darn people will see my plate at night).

Random thing is now my steering wheel is off by about 90 degrees as apparently the steering rack was installed incorrectly.

I've got two options for getting my steering wheel to face the right way.
Option A. Take steering wheel off. Re-install right side facing up. Only problem is with it being an airbag unit this could end in disaster...
Option B. Take it into the shop and get them to pull the rack out and fit it properly. Only problem with this is tomorrow is my last day of work, the weekend I'm busy as ****, and Monday I start my new job 93 km away.

How hard is it to do option A without stuffing it up?
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I'd definitely make sure the rack is in the right spot -- I can't see how it can be wrong, actually; but the easiest way to straighten your steering wheel is option C.

Undo both ends of the the steering knuckle which clamp the splined shafts (one on the rack, one to the steering column) and it'll slide up enough that you can realign the wheel.

The 'turns more left than right and fouls the fender) definitely sounds like the rack is wrong.. crawl under and see if the rack clamps (which sit on two bushes) are aligned between the bumps in the rack.
 
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