meddler

I thought about that, but I'd rather not. The synchro in third gear doesn't work all that well most of the time and the pilot shaft bearing whines. I only paid $100 dollars for it, so I'm not complaining. Wrestling that thing back into place when I swapped it before was less than fun, too...

I did a little googling and according to this - http://www.subaruforester.org/vbulletin/f89/center-diffs-how-replace-them-46979/ - the center diffs aren't the same in my 99 and 98 Oh well, it shouldn't be too hard to source a used one.

It's been awhile since I've posted here, but you guys have always been able to help me out in the past. A few weeks ago, I picked up a 99 Legacy Outback with 130,000 miles to replace my 98 Legacy Outback, which rotted out with 230,000 miles on it. The new car is going great and I'm excited about my second Subaru, but I've noticed it shudders when making a hard turn in any direction, fowards or reverse. After doing a little research, I'm thinking I probably need to replace the center diff for the following reasons: 1. The problem only occurs when the car is hot. I drove it to a parking lot within a couple miles of my house and the car was fine making tight turns for 10 minutes or so, until it warmed up. The problem got progressively worse from there on, as I continued driving in circles. 2. I jacked up a front wheel on the car yesterday, and it was very difficult to turn with the car in neutral (I could do this on my other Subaru just fine). I looked under the car while I was doing this, and I could see the rear drive shaft trying to turn with the front wheel. I then jacked up the other front wheel and same story. Does this sound like it is the center diff? If I do need to replace it, can I swap the one from the 98 Outback? The transmission was replaced about a year ago, and has about 140,000 miles on it and I know the center diff is good. I remember reading somewhere though, that the 99 may be phase II, which means a different center diff. Thanks!

Can someone give me some more information on this rear separator plate - I can't seem to find anything about it in my service manuals. Maybe that means this car doesn't have one?

I should also mention that I have a lift and transmission jack available - if that makes anything any easier.

I've got to do a clutch job sometime in the near future on my 1998 Legacy Outback (2.5, 180,000 miles) and have read several times that it can be easier to pull the motor instead of the transmission. I'm just looking for some opinions on this. The motor option is starting to look appealing - I can avoid pulling most of my crusty exhaust system and I've heard that getting the tranny back in can be difficult. Anyone done it both ways?

I called the dealer with the VIN - the car was made in May. Thanks.

I went to order a clutch kit for my 98 Legacy Outback (2.5, 180,000 miles) and was informed that two different kits exist for the 98, depending on the month it was manufactured. The problem is, the sticker on my driver's side door pillar that is should tell me this is gone. One kit was $160 and the other was $220 (they both contained pressure plate, clutch, and throwout bearing) so there's an obvious difference here. Anyone got any ideas or information on what the difference is? Or maybe I'm just missing the sticker...

With my 1998 Legacy Outback (2.5, 5speed, 177,000 miles) I've been getting 25-28 City Driving in the Summer and 22-24 City Driving in the winter (probably due to 10 minutes of letting the car warm up everyday).

I crawled under the car yesterday and noticed a small antifreeze leak around where the lower radiator hose connects to the thermostat housing - that would explain the decreasing antifreeze levels. The PCV valve was new about 10 months ago, so that's probably ruled out. However, my daily driving consists of two trips of about 10 miles. Here in Maine, it's been cold and damp and I haven't been letting the car warm up too much - I could see this creating condensation especially because I drive short distances. I'm just going to keep an eye on it and see if/how quickly the slime reforms. Thank you everyone for your quick and informative responses.

In the process of doing an oil change today on my 98 Legacy Outback (2.5, MT - 177,000 miles), I noticed a white slime in my oil fill cap and down the fill neck. - indicating that antifreeze is mixing with the oil. Could this be anything other than a head gasket? I'd think that if that were the case I'd have overheating issues and bubbles in my antifreeze overflow tank as well. Also, the oil i drained out looked normal, it was just around the filler cap.

I've driven 60 miles after making the adjustment without any problem. I'm hoping that because there is presumably some wear due to the car's mileage, my minor adjustment will only have compensated for that.

From what I've read on other threads, it looks like i did adjust the backlash adjustment. It seems like this may have been a bad move... But would three notches be enough to cause a problem?

Would you care to elaborate?

I posted a little while ago about a noise that appeared to be coming from the transmission area of my 1998 Legacy Outback (178,000 miles, 2.5, 5 speed). I took a peek under the car today and happened to notice that my left front half-shaft had about 3/8" play up and down - where it meets the splined shaft coming out of the transmission. It appeared like the transmission had an adjustment for this, so I removed the lock and was able to turn the adjuster in several teeth. I wasn't able to get rid of all of the play, but the noise was reduced on my test drive afterwards. Is there a special tool for making this adjustment - it was difficult to do because the teeth on the adjuster are aluminum and the only method I had of turning it was using a punch and hammer. Does anybody know what's behind the adjuster - maybe there is there a bearing or bushing I should be replacing rather than simply tightening it?