JM3

Ok, I am am probably going down the route of swapping my tranny for a JY tranny and paying for the HG work. What do I need to know about transmission compatability for my car? Is there a summary of it? I know I need to know my diff ratios - how do I find those out? Thanks

Thanks for the advice. Grossgary- where did you get those price quotes from for used trannys? Just how common is the bearing problem in my style manual tranny? Are we talking 50-50 that any used tranny I swap in would have the same problem? It does sound like I may be better off splitng my effors - having a indi subi shop do the HG and swapping in a used tranny. Thanks!

Hi all- I'm a noob on this forum and did searches on both the classic HG and trans failures. Tons of good detailed info out there but none that seem to answer my question... I have a 2001 outback 5 speed 4cyl with 180K miles that has both an external HG leak and a worn input shaft and or synchros. Basically the car won't stay in 4th gear at all and has now started popping out of 3rd as well. I took it to a few shops here in seattle and they all had pretty much the same story and around the same prices - 1800 for the HG+ timing belt etc and around 2500 for a junkyard tranny or a rebuild. I'm debating actually forking over the 4K for the tranny and HG fix or just junking it and cutting my losses. What other issues can I expect to encounter as the car gets older? am I setting myself up for a being able to use this car for a while or setting myself up for even more costs down the road if I get this done? I am thinking of doing it myself - the tranny swap dosn't seem too hard but if its a common failure I don't want to replacing mine with another crappy trans. Is there a way to tell if the trans is good before buying a used one? The HG issue seems so well documented I feel somewhat comfortable giving it a shot, but I've never pulled an engine before. Thx. John