[torxxx]

highly doubt its the crank pulley. its been replaced with a MY99 EJ251 crank pulley. I'll mark it just for ****s and giggles, but if it was slipping, my alternator wouldnt be charging either correct? When I broke the OEM pulley, power steering kept working, alternator wouldnt charge.

And trust me the system is flushed, I pulled the return line off before I replaced the pump and flushed about a gallon and a half of ATF through there.

Yes it did circulate when I put the new pump on, but once it blew the pressure side hose it was shut down immediately and the the hose was replaced. I have never been a fan of remanfactured crap because I've seen more reman stuff dead on arrival than I have complete failure of OEM Subaru stuff. OEM parts are limited, where I live because the stealership has their heads so far up their asses, they dont stock ANY common subaru parts. They didnt even have axle roll pins in stock (which IIRC fit EVERY year/make/model that Subaru ever built from 1980-2007)

Once the Outback is titled and insured this afternoon, I'm gonna put the car on some big jack stands and yank the rack out and put my 95 LSI rack in it.

Can someone explain to me how the LSL/LSI speed sensitive steering works? I doubt thats the problem, but the two wires going to the sensor in the pump are frayed down to a few strands of wire left so its got me wondering if thats the problem? One would assume that the sensor would the valve fully sitting still for full assist and then slowly close the valve as speeds increase for tighter/stiffer steering?