Gnuman

Snowman, he is driving a Subaru. Who needs roads?

I'm with John in KY, a trip to your local machine shop seems to be in order. has to be a lot cheaper than a new arm. . .

Is this a desk contest? my desk is a shop bench. Finally clean after being cluttered up with parts for an EJ250 (phaze 1 2.5L) that had a cracked exaust valve, among other problems. . .

Conga-Rats on the score! I'm in your area and have a 92 wagon that i use for Touring myself. I'd love to see what yours looks like, etc. Perhaps I could even help with the tranny problem. (putting a tranny in really is a two man job, unless you have a lot of tools. Send me a PM or an email (click on my name to gain access)

No, not at all. That pilot berring is definitly blown, and could easily have caused enough play to account for some leakage. I'd have to look at the seal to see if it can be replaced without tearing down the tranny. IIRC Quantum500 just did something like this. Perhaps he will cime in with advice on that seal. . .

You replace the pilot berring anyway, so I would not sweat the snouth too much unless there is a discernable difference in thickness. Not all of the snout goes into the pilot berring, so if the pilot siezed up that would be where the wear came from. The oil seperator should be replaced with a metal one (get one from an early model EJ22, it is an exact match, only metal) as the plastic ones have a tendancy to fail. Yours is suspect. what color is the rear main seal? if is black, it should be replaced with the brown one. Likewise if it has any nicks in it. where is the oil most heavily concentrated? there should be no oil in this area. I would get the flywheel machined to remove all chance that it has been contaminated by the oil, and to give you a good surface for the clutch to "bite" onto. If the oil is in the transmission side, I would be concerned about the input shaft seal, if it is on the engine side then the source is likely the oil seperator ir the rear main seal.

You do know that that pinch bolt will have to be extracted and replaced, right? That is a safety issue.

That indication has moved to the "AT Oil Temp" light now. If there is a code, it will flash 16 times, and you need to ground the diagnistics pin under the kickplate to get the code to flash.

Tunered, the solenoids control the operation of clutchpacks in order to gain control over the trannys shifting. the 3-4 solenoid that you mentioned controls a clutchpack that drives that part of the tranny. All_talk is saying that he believes that the clutch disks inside the clutchpack controled by the 3-4 solenoid are worn and slipping. That may be, or the solenoid (or perhaps one of the fluid lines) is gummed up and not allowing the fluid to flow freely. Either scenario calls for a rebuild. That tranny is likely gone at this point, until it gets rebuilt.

Get the car. if you have to get a rebuilt tranny you are still ahead. Getting a rebuilt will be easier than rebuilding this one, which may be needed. I vote for getting a rebuilt tranny and *maybe* rebuilding this one as a spare. The other option, which will give you a bit quicker car, is to go with the 5MT swap. If you are famillar with the 5MT, then this may be the way to go as the 5MT is much more robust than the 4EAT. When the trans fluid gets cooked (as yours is), it gumms up the internals big time. Changing the fluid often solves the problems that happen, but it sounds like things are a mess inside that tranny, and a full rebuild is in order if you plan on keeping it. The rest of the car sounds to be in fine shape, and will likely give you at least annother 100K miles of good service. Congrats on getting such a fine car.

There are 4 bolts in the flexplate on that car. The hardest part is getting at the lower left (drivers side) nut. The transmission cooler lines are in the way as well as the heater lines. Oh, and he did not mention the throttle cables, fuel lines, or coolant connectors. The 4 bolts to the transmission are at the corners of the bell housing. THe ones on the right side are easy to get to. the top left also holds the starter motor in. removing the nut that holds the bottom in will allow removing the starter motor, giving you a bit more room to work with when tackling the bottom nut. the top two connectors for the tranny are bolts, the bottom two are nuts on studs. I recomend draining the transmission and removing the radiator to give yourself more room. mark the location of the fuel hoses to make reassembly easier. The bolts for the flexplate are accessable through a hard rubber "plug" on the top right side of the engine, next to the throttle body. the bolts will either be 10mm heads or 12mm. Clearance is tight here, but a bit of perseverance will be rewarded. Turn the engine by hand using a 22mm socket on the bolt that holds the crank pully on. This will allow you to rotate the next flexplate bolt under the opening so you can get a wrench on it. You have nuts holding your exaust manifold on as well. Remove the A/C compressor from the engine so you do not have to disconnect the refrigerant lines. pulling the Power steering pump off to the side is also less messy than trying to disconnect it. (three bolts on the front of the pump, 12mm, accessable from the holes in the pully, and two on the side if the intake plenum, 10mm) there are a few vacume lines as well, but they will be fairly obvious. As stated above, go slow and check your work. I have pulled many of these engines and it is really not all that hard to do. Removing the "dogbone" anti-pitch brace allows the transmission to move up and down, so the engine can be lifted with it to clear the motor mounts from the crossmember.

Actually, with the engine out of the car (as he stated) you can "scootch" the tranny over to the other side a bit and the halfshaft will just clear the stub. I have done this several times, myself.

Would that ban and fine also cover driving with your High Beams on? I see so many folks doing that, often because the driver doing it has poor night vision, and wants to be able to see to operate his vehicle.

the bottom sleve also moves. the passenger side is an example of the correct operation (providing that both sleves move smoothly and easily). You need to take that driver's side caliper back off and clean then grease the sleeve so it moves easily before putting it back on.

There are several places that they attach. That is why they are so great. I'll see if I can get a few shots of the one we have in the shop tomorrow.

I don't see any snow in that last one Nice wagon. Just highlites the massive overall capability of the Legacy. They handle great on the pavement, are still quite capable offroad, and last forever. . .

Sell, I plan on some quality time with Emily in the nearish future. When she hits 200K, I'll be tearing down the engine, and may dive into the tranny as well, to have a look at how everything is wearing. How many seals are we talking about here? I may just replace all of them and go to synthetic lubricant while I'm at it. . . Have you noticed any significant wear points on the 5MT (where do they wear out fastest)?

Yeah, Emily is a beauty, particularly on the inside. That is where it counts anyway. Take a look at my photo galery and see the seats and other stuff I have added.

Which simply means that they do not fail enough to inspire anyone to investigate it. . .

No, that is just a convienient place to look up easily findable information. 1stsubaruparts.com did not give a part # but they charge $4.50 or so for it. When I drop into an AutoZone, I grab a Bosch 3310 filter which is also the one for your car.

I suspect your eyes are better than mine if you can see that far. . .

I know the feeling. Emily was given to me because my stepdaughter got a quote on the price to fix the bad clutch, and ball joints. She said I can have it as I can fix it cheap, but she cannot afford to. The labor charges on balljoints is insane. . .

Not that one. The stereo is from a '91. Notice teh AUX jack. '91 was the last year they offered them. and the CD player is from an SVX (the 91 player head had the display die on me. . . ).

Hmmm, Automatic is it? If so, this sound could easily be the shift lockout (the car will not shift out of park without the ignition on), or a relay going to some other safety equipment. I have heard this quite often in Automatic transmission cars, but have not noticed it in manuals.

Quantum500, You have just discovered the secret of Subarus reliability. Compared to just about anything else out there, they are simply the easiest to fix if anything goes wrong. Given that they also perform quite well, they are also well worth the effort of fixing. The parts that should be easy to get it are very easy, and the parts that whould be well supported are held together quite firmly. Very well designed vehicles.