johnceggleston

i have exhausted my knowledge in this area, but i think you should put it together the right way, what ever that it .

the shaft on the torque converter, the large tube, is supposed to be longer. there is another piece to it that is supposed to be connected with a spring clip. ( the large shaft assembly actually turns the oil pump. the long thin shaft is the input for the trans. ) the only time i took one apart, the TC came out with both a longer oil pump shaft and the thinner input shaft still attached. so no, you did not break anything by wiggling the thinner shaft. but you may need to remove the second piece of the oil pump shaft and re-attach it to the TC with the spring clip. there was a recent thread about how to remove it by grossgary, i think.

there is a split ring seal , cleat or almost clear, i think, that rides on the large torque converter shaft. because it is not an actual ring, it has a split in it, it could have fallen off, or just be old. coolant yes, you have to drain that. you might consider catching it and then filtering it and re-using. hate to waste all of it. you probably will not catch all of it but some is better than none. i don't think you have to drain any engine oil or trans fluid.

or the trans fluid cooling lines?? you need to identify the fluid, trans or engine oil?? check the trans fluid level.

i'm not sure 04 struts will fit. at some point they changed the top mount design, i'm not sure when. but outback struts 96 - 98 will bolt right on and then you can run outback wheels with 205/70/15 tires. EDIT: your speedo will be slightly off, less power and maybe better fuel economy, assuming you can accurately figure out how many miles you have driven.

rear o2?

i've never done it but from what i here, it is harder to swap the oil pump than the front diff. so in theory you could put your front diff on the 95 trans and use your original TC. but if you are buying, why not buy the right one, not one you have to re-work. did you look here: http://www.car-part.com ? sort your search by distance. you will have to do separate searches one for for each , 96, 97-98 and if you look at foresters that will be separate yet again. but you will lots to look for. you might be able to find a wreck near you on craigslist for a few hundred.

the torque converter matches rthe flex plate so if you swap one you have to swap the other. but more to the point, the 98 outback has a different final drive ratio, 4.44 than the 95 outback, 4.11. so if you use the 95 trans you will also need the rear diff. you can use the original torque converter and the 4.11 rear diff w/ the 95 trans and you will be good to go. you will have better fuel economy and a little less "power" due to the different final drive. all in all, it would easier to get the right trans, but compare the price. you want an auto trans from any 2.5L car 96 - 98, outback is your first choice but GT or LSi or even a forester will work.

i thought the 97 - 99 'almost' all had egr regardless of trans, in the outbacks and GTs at least, otherwise the swap rule would be ''an engine from a like trans car'', not ''from an auto trans car since they have the egr''.

he wheels will bolt on but the tires are too big. swap in outback struts and they will fit. would the forester struts make them fit?

yes, if you use a dolly, you need to remove / disconnect the rear section of drive shaft or you will screw the trans. or just rent a car carrier trailer. the bad news is , it may cost 200$ to rent and fuel the 9 - 10 hour round trip depending on what you are towing with.

did you see this?? http://winstonsalem.craigslist.org/pts/1820964159.html

generally speaking the subaru 4eat auto trans is pretty hardy. but any used part is a risk. what is wrong with your trans.?? search this site , http://www.car-part.com , sort by distance. i'm not very familiar with impreza 1.8L trans, but they are very much like the legacy trans. that means any auto trans from a 90 - 97? impreza as long asit has the same final drive ratio which you can find at http://opposedforces.com/parts . the soft wear at the parts site may say that there is a difference between some years, but as long as the final drives are the same it will work. for that matter, a legacy trans will work as long as the the final drive matches.

it would be way easier if you swapped in a 95 - 99 ej22. but you might make it work if you swap over the intake, assuming it fits. BUT the lack of an EGR will throw a code and that might keep you from passing a safety inspection. the 95 - 96 from an auto trans car will have the egr, 97-99 almost any ej22 will have the egr (a very, very few did not). i would get a stethoscope from the parts store to try and locate the noise. it might be the tensioner on the t-belt. they can make a racket under load, i hear. and a t-belt job would give you another 100k assuming the bearings and rods are ok. but even if the engine failed soon thereafter you could still use the parts on the next engine. ps : if the belt fails you will have bent valves.

i don't know where saluda is but you should consider this car, i emailed him and got this, price dropped to 200$. it doesn't get any better than this, i think i deserve a free beer now.

i rdeplaced a speedo needle needle on a 97 outback. i set it to 0 mph with the car off. when i powered up the car, it jumped to 20 mph. so i pulled it off again and reset it while going 65 mph per my gps. it works pretty good , it reads 1.5 mph too slow, not bad fir a do it yourselfer. if i were you i would fill up the car to the max, pul the needle, and with the car turned on reset the needle to fulll. let me know what happens.

ooops!!

someone posted recently that alignment are not rocket science. with a measuring tape you can reposition the new tie rod end close enough to avoid an alignment. maybe put some tape on the tie rod about 12" fromr the knuckle, measure across and place a mark at 12, and another at 12.5 just in case you were not perfect with the first one. thread of the old thread on the new and get the measurement right. milimeters may be more acurate but regardless set it up the way it was before you removed it. my hammer method is different and probably more dangerous. i was told to whack the side of the knuckle where the tie rod mates and the end will pop right out. i'm sure there is a down side to this method, but so far it has worked for me without issue. what i do not like about whacking the bolt with the nut protecting the threads is that the castle nut does not have the same integrity as a solid nut. if the whacks are not square you can booger the castle nut and then the tire rod end. of course, like the pickle fork method, it does not matter if you are throwing the tie rods end away. but if you are going to re-install it you will want good threads.

ooops!

if it hasn't overheated and the price quoted is good, i'd probably repair what you have. buying a used ej25 even if it is in the outback and you get the whole thing for 500$ is a crap shoot. regardless of what the seller says, you do not know what damage may have occurred because of the bad HGs and / or overheating. so if you replace go with a ej22, if you don't, put SUBARU head gaskets on what you have.

auto trans - my understanding is that 90 - 99, AWD have 2 and Fwd have only one. the ecu will uses th front one for info unless it dies and then it will use the rear. (i don't know how.) usually the rear is used to control the power transfer to the rear wheels. phase 2 auto trans (99? up) added speed sensors to the trans and wires to the harness which makes it difficult to swap phase 1 and phase 2 trans. there is also a limp home mode which i would think would kick in if the ecu wasn't getting any data at all, but i don't really know. generally speaking, if the car runs alright, i would suspect the front seed sensor or the speedo. but checking the wiring is free so do that first. i just do not see how the speedo is reading correctly? and the ecu has '0' unless it is a connection problem between the two. either the output from the speedo or an actual wire connection. i guess it could be the ecu, but that is pretty rare, i think.

Thermostat - ok, cheap fix Knock sensor - if you need it. Oil change (filter locally, oil as well.) - always a good idea. ATF flush/filter I did with the transmission swap so not needed. - check in 30k, do in 60k. 02 Sensors (front&rear.) front is more important than rear and should be subaru, rear can generic / cheap. Rear driver speed sensor (need to fix it, someone cut the damn cable!) - easy. Brakes (rotors/pads) this one I may toss off to a mechanic for sake of it being done right. - if you can the rest of this stuff you can do the brakes, pads are easy and rotors may not be needed, but only 2 bolts each side once you have open for the pads. get a haynes manual or a better one and read up on it. you can do this and save 200$.

from what i have learned swapping out a trans and a speedo, the data moves from the vss directly to the speedo, and then from there to the ecu. actually i do not know it moves from there to the ecu, but it gets to the ecu some how and i have seen no indication that is goes there first. especially considereng that the 94s had a speedo cable from the trans to the speedo. no way did the speed data go to the ecu before the speedo in 94. so trouble with the ecu speed is probably the speedo. the speedo jumping around, i think, is usually the vss but it could be either. re: the ecu speed, maybe the speedo outputs to the ecu are dirty. speedos and instrument clusters in general are a dime a dozen any legacy 95 - 98 will work. avoid the GT (and maybe LSi) if you can, that swap is a headache. outback will probably work, but lego L or LS is a sure thing.

http://www.car-part.com

in the correct timing position, the driver side will have tension on it , maybe try to spring to a different position. the passenger side will be relaxed. but if you rotate them each 180* they should feel the same, tight and loose. if one is loose all the time then yes pull the valve cover, there is some thing wrong.