Mikevan10

Thanks for the comments fellows! I don't remember rhe name of the clutch manufacturer but I have the box at home and I will check tonight and report back. Yes, I replaced the release bearing clips. This is a cable operated clutch. No hydraulic fluid involved. There are about 240,000 miles on the car. There are probably about 2,000 miles on the new clutch. I did not examine the clutch fork carefully. Why? That sounds like a pretty good price for a clutch replacement, Fox.. I guess they only hit you about $300.00 for labor which I would guess is not bad. I have dealt with Wedde's for about 15 or 20 years now. Not so much anymore since they are pretty much out of the used parts business. It was much better before Craig took over. Don Wedde gave me some really fair deals on parts back in the day. I will also mention that I did not get the flywheel resurfaced when I replaced the clutch. There was no grooving on it at all. In fact, the clutch I replaced only had like 30,000 miles on it and the driven plate (aka clutch disc) had plenty of lining material left on it. Like I said, I did the job only because the release bearing had failed. Anyway, I needed to get the job done over the weekend so I did not get the flywheel machined. I just hit it with scotchbrite discs on a drill which removed any glaze.

I replaced the clutch in my wife's 1997 2.2 Legacy Wagon a couple of months ago. I replaced it because the release bearing had failed and in so doing put a deep groove in the transmission input shaft "snout". Luckily, the clutch kit (aftermarket) that I bought came with the snout repair sleeve and the associated larger i.d. release bearing. Well, the clutch has now developed a tendencey to judder when starting from a stop in first gear. I say "developed" because I don't remember it happening right after I did the clutch job and it seems, from listening to my wife, to be getting worse, although it does not judder every time she starts from a stop. Now, while I am not crazy about many of my wife's driving techniques, she does know how to drive a manual and never has had clutch judder issues in the past couple of decades of Subaru driving. What may cause this? I believe I have heard of oil on the clutch lining causing judder, but the old clutch did not judder and I did not notice any significant amount of oil/grime in the clutch/flywheel area when I did the clutch job. I was not totally impressed with the fit of the new release bearing on the repair sleeve. It seemed a little looser than I would have like it. Has there been any history of probelems in this area? Thanks for any and all comments! Mike V.

So you are saying that the deisign (daimeters, spacing, etc.) of all of the cam drive related components (idlers, water pump, sprockets, etc.) are identical on the 2.2 and the 2.5 so all you have to do is use a 2.2 timing belt?

I believe I fixed this yesterday. While I had the trans down for clutch work (see my Release Bearing thread), I ran a tap through the damaged captive nut. I was nervous doing it since if something went wrong I guess I would be cutting a hole in the floor to try to get at the nut. But it seemed to work like a charm although you can feel that the threads are a bit sloppy since metal was indeed removed. But I can thread the bolt all the way home with my fingers now and when I installed the trans and tightened up the mount it took good torque.

OK. I cleared the slush away from the car and made some progress yesterday. Normally I do this job single handedly but this time I had focused help from my 15 year old kid and it made a big difference. Not that the trans jumped right into place, but it did go in alot quicker and with less blood, sweat and drama than it does when flying solo. Anyway, the trans is re-mated to the back of the engine, strater back in, gear shifter reconnected, etc. Still a fair amount of work to do but we ran out of dalight yesterday so I will pick away at it evenings this week. I also re-tapped one of the front trans mount captive nuts which I had managed to mess up last time this transmission was out. Good to get that nagging worry off of my mind.

Nope.

Just an update: Removed the cluth cover (pressure late) tonight. Looks in good shape. Very little wear on the disc, but this was expected since it only has about 30,000 miles on it. Some wear on the "fingers" of the diaphragm spring, which would be expected since the release bearing had been coming apart. Not bad though and it probably is perfectly serviceable but since I bought the clutch kit, I am replacing everything. There is a major goove machined into the input snout on the trans, caused by the disintegrating release bearing. About 1/4" wide and maybe 3/16" deep. Good thing the clutch kit came with a repair sleeve and a release bearing with an i.d. to suit! I removed the flywheel. The surface was fine. Just discolered a bit. I touched it up with a 2" dia. scotch brite pad on a drill (Thanks dave bugs). It cleaned right up and left a grippy finish. One thing I forgot to do was to mark the flywhell and crank to make sue it went back on in the same place. But, heck, the clutch cover is not balanced either... I replaced the pilot bearing. The old one was oretty notchy when you spun it. A bit mystifying since, again, there is only 30K miles on it. I remounted the flywheel and installed the clutch. Torqued to spec. That will be it probably until Sunday since we are supposed to get 4-8 inches of snow tomorrow and I am working in the driveway. Supposed to be around 40 F on Sunday and dry so I'll try to finish up then.

Thought I would resurrect this old thread since I plan to soon attempt the fix I mentioned two years ago! Yes, I have been driving the car with one of the trans mount bolts not quite tight. That is, the bolt is very "tight" but it got tight before it had fully pulled the trans bracket up into contact with the chassis/floor pan. Anyway, I thought I'd ask if anyone has experienced/dealt with this problem before. Please refer to the details in my original post (below). Thanks, Mike V.

Thanks for the kind offer, hohieu. I was in Philly this past Saturday and probably won't be back down for a month or so. Yeah, I normally end up with THREE jacks in use: One under the front of the engine to tilt it back, one under the belly of the transaxle, and one at the tail end of the trans to control its angle. Quite the operation!

Ok, thanks, hohieu, for confirming my theory on the snout sleeve. Thanks also for the encouragement, but my experience is that the real hard part of this job is aligning and mating the trans back up to the engine. That alignment has to be damn near perfect plus the splines must be ptroperly indexed. I find this very difficult to do since the transaxle is so darn heavy and I am working with just regular floor jacks (i.e. not a real "transmission jack"). It's quite a process balncing all that weight on the cup of a floor jack and trying to align it and then slide it forward on a not so smoothe driveway. That, my friend, is what I call the hard part! And I was thinking the same exact thing about cleaning up and anti-seizing the dowel pins before reassembly. I resorted to heat when I was trying to get the trans loose. This seemed to help. Mike V.

Just a quick update (since I know I have everyone on the edge of their seats): Altrhough I have dropped the trans out of this (and several other) Subarus, I had a heck of a time yesterday. It took me 5-1/2 hours just to get the transmission out and on the ground. The release bearing came out in about 5 pieces. The clips were nowhere to be found. One thing that I find strange is that the release bearing in the clutch kit that I bought includes a sleeve that you slip onto the "horn" that the old release bearing rode directly on. You install this sleeve and the new release bearing rides on it. Anyone else seen a setup like this? Why would they do this? Is it because they noticed that the "horn" would wear and you would end up with a sloppy fit so now the bearings come with sleeves (and a slightly larger i.d.)? Anyway, by the time I had the trans out I was a bit worn out and beat up (getting too old for this stuff I guess) so I called it quits. Probably won't reassemble until Saturday.

As far as I know, the release bearing clips are a "dealer only" item, meaning you can only get them from an actual Subaru dealer. But the clips are a common item and I would think most any dealer would havethem on the shelf.

OK. Home late last night so not so early start this morning. I did pick up some 2 inch. diameter Scotch Brite discs. We'll see what the flywheel looks like when I get there and make the decision whether to suffer the delay of getting it machined. Temp not so bad. Mid 40s. I work out in the driveway so it makes a difference... It will get cold tonight, I am sure. Now, let me get a cup of coffee and get to work. Wnder how many surprises (i.e. unforseen prblems) await me! Mike V. Just realized I did not rent a slide hammer to pull the pilot bearing. Any way around this???

Shoot! I forgot about that. Normally I do get the flywheel machined. Scotch brite "discs"? You mean that go on a drill? Thanks. Mike

Thanks for the comments. As far as I can tell, it feels like either the release bearing has come disconnected from the fork or the release bearing is coming apart. So I have faced up to the fact that I will be dropping the transmission... Since I need to get this car (it is my wife's) back on the road ASAP, I bought a clutch kit from a local independent shop for $153.00 plus tax and bought two clips from the local rip off Subaru dealer. Have to go to Philly today so will not start the job until tomorrow. Not looking forward to it. Last time it took me a total of 8 hours to remove and relpace a transmission on this car At least this time the temps should be above freezing.... I will be in tuoch. Mike V.

1997 Legacy 2.2 Tonight my clutch suddenly failed to release upon depression of the clutch pedal. I did have some warning I guess. Over the past month or so there was a rattling with the cluth pedal out. If you rested your foot lightly on the pedal the rattling stopped. I assumed I could probably fix that by a quick adustment of the cable. Well, tonight the rattling seemed a little louder, then the pedal felt kind of funny for a coule of gear changes, then it stopped working. If you depress the pedal you feel a a pretty harsh vibration in your foot, hear noise (a louder rattling I guess you would call it), and the clutch does not release. I took a quick look at the cable end where it attaches to the release lever and it looked ok at a glance. I did not have someone push the pedal in while I watched the operation. I will do that tomorrow. But my guess is that there is a problem with the release bearing. What are your thoughts? Anyone ever experienced anything similar? Thanks, Mike V.

I just finished replacing the fuel pump. Not too bad a job. The hardest part was removing the hoses and there was a wire running right over the top of the cover plate which had to be "stretched" out of the way... Anyway, the new Bosch pump is in and all seems to operate just fine. Oh yeah, the gasket is rubber and is in fine shape so no problem there. I am 99% sure the problem was the fuel pump itself but I'll let you know if it turns out otherwise. And you be careful Fuzzy! Gasoline must be respected. I disconnected the battery before I started the disassembly today. A liitle spark can result in catastorphe! All the best, Mike V.

Thanks for the word of caution Fuzpile. I will not follow a similar procedure.

Now you tell me! Is the gasket a "dealer only" item? Perhaps I can make one.

I just picked up a new Bosch fuel pump at a local foreign car parts store. Cost me $160.00. Not clear how this will mount up. Hopefully all will be obvious once I remove the access cover from the fuel tank. I will make sure to keep you all updated Mike V.

OK, do I take it that it is consensus that my fuel pump is "bad" and that it is not practical to repair it? So I need to replace it. Subrat84 sugeested a 96-99 2.5 DOHC pump. Is that a better pump than the original 1997 2.2 SOHC pump? And what about a pump from an even later model? I am leaning towards going the used pump route so any additional guidance as far as what year and model pumps will fit/work and what pumps might be "better" than others would be gratefully received. Thanks again, Mike V.

OK guys, sorry to interupt your highjack, but I got a chance to troubleshoot today: With a voltmeter across the fuel pump connector pins, I get 12 volts for about 2 seconds EVERY time the key is switched from off to on. If I connect the plug back to the fuel pump, it USUALLY does not come on when you turn the key from off to on. However, if I tap on the fuel pump access cover and then turn the key on, it often will run the pump. Sounds like a dodgy pump to me. What do you think? Does this definitely mean replacement or is there anything that I can "repair" on the pump itself? If I have to replace the pump, is there a recomended replacement unit? Searching online, it looks like there are many options... Thanks! Mike V.

Found it! Page 31 of section 2-7. I need to get more familiar with navigating these manuals... I will keep you advised of my progress. Very busy now and it gets dark (and cold) so early these days. May not get to it until the weekend. Thanks!! Mike V.

I also have a dumb(er) question: What is the "TCU"? Thanks again.

Thanks again. I do have a factory manual but I did not find where they tell/show you physically where the relay is. The only thing I found (so far) is the wiring harness layout drawing which suggests it is near the "Main Relay" which I know I can access without removing or disassembling anything. Should I find the fuel pump relay in the same vicinity?