How bad are these? Rack and pinion leak, front diff bad, egr bad
 

I am looking at an svx near my home for sale, and those are the problems that it has.

It is a 1992, not sure what trim model, USDM. AWD

(1) The rack leaks out of the boots, which in my experience says that the seals in the system are bad and usually requires a new rack and pinion. How much labor am I looking at to replace this?

(2) Owner says front diff has gone out. Car has to be nursed but will get up to 40 they say. I assume that means it needs a new tranny and therefore is a great canditate for an MT swap which I want anyway (if only I could afford the sti drivetrain :) ) Would it be possible to keep the front half axle ends mounted in the tranny, but remove the actual shafts from them and drive the car Rear wheel?

(3) Also has a bad EGR valve. Check engine light is on because of this. I don't have emissions where I am so that isn't a big deal but is it a hassle to replace should I choose to?

Thanks for helping the newbie on the scene.

You are probably looking at a minimum of 2k to fix this, if you do some work yourself, and swap parts instead of buying new. Cheapest would be to just pull the tranny yourself and fit a new dif, but I hear that is quite difficult.
I dunno about the egr valve. Can probably due with a simple cleaning.

Go all out and just hand it some some noobs in some shop, closer to 4-5k.

thanks for the response. i'm definately gonna be my wrench thats doing the turning. Rather break it myself then let some one else do it, ya know? I work at a parts store and I can get the rack and pinion for about $250 reman. Do you know how many work hours (approx of course) it might take to do the job? And how long would putting in a new automatic tranny take?

I'm new-ish to the SVX, but not new to cars. I would say that it had better be cheap with problems like that.

And welcome here if it hasn't been said before.

at least the cheap part is right. if i take it it will be in trade for a truck worth about $850 or so. i'm not sure yet what i'm going to do though. any other input? please?

My rack and pinion was supposedly replaced, but not by me. I'd tell ya how long it would be billed or but it's not on my service reciept. Swapping the tranny if you are staying auto should not take long at all. Few hours maybe. Half a day if you work slow like me.
If I had to guess, and I do have to guess, I'd say the rack has more "things" to unscrew and mess with so it might take longer.
New trans is gonna cost ya a few bucks, though. Now is the time to consider whether you want stock gears or not. Do you want to keep it a highway cruiser or give it some pep.

Replacing a steering rack isn't THAT big of a deal.
This info is just general, not SVX specific. There's usually 2-3 big bolts holding the rack to the body, 2 tie-rod ends, 2 fluid lines, and the column coupler. Measure the distance from the boots to the tie-rod ends carefully & put them back as close as possible after you install the new rack. You'll still need an alignment, but you won't chew the tires off driving it to the shop. One other thing, remember to start with the wheels dead straight ahead.

If the front diff is out, this isn't exactly a "shade tree" fix. It requires special tools like dial indicators ETC. If not done right, you'll be doing it again REALLY soon. My suggestion is a 5mt swap kit from AWD INC. (Toms SVX) If you're doing this yourself, there's TONS of info on this posted here. I'd allow about 3days to do it right, by yourself. A couple friends and your favorite adult beverage can get it done in a weekend though.:cool:

The EGR is usually a take it off & clean it out thing, but the diaphragm in the vacuum pot may be borked. Either way, it's likely not too expensive, or difficult to replace.

I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. I really would like to get an svx and chances of finding someone else who wants to trade for an lifted 85 Nissan 4x4 isn' likely, but I have another car that is my real pet project that im in the middle of and I don't really want to divert more money than necessary to get a decent running svx. that is the only thing that causes me to hesitate about doing the manual right now. I definately want to do the MT swap though. thanks for the advice, guys, keep it coming. oh yeah, and how much is toms swap kit?

Regarding labor to replace the steering rack, my mechanic charged $350 total labor to replace the rack and AC compressor, and align the car. I figure about $100 was for the compressor. Again that's ONLY labor; I provided the parts.

dcb

Ask your mechanic if you need new boots too...mine was replaced at my local favorite place. The rack came without boots from "World Pack" they reused the torn 15yr. old boots. When I got new boots from 1st Subaru(~$45) it cost me $200+ to install, 139 for 4 wheel alignment, 75 for 1 hour labor

The rack I bought (on-line from Meridian Auto Parts) included the boots (with a printed caution against twisting them during alignment), but from what I've read here, I paid a bit of a premium.

dcb