GeneralDisorder

The tranny is shot. There is just no point in fixing those 3AT's - get yourself together the parts for the 5 speed swap and be on your way again. I've dealt with my share of bad 3AT's and if a new governor and/or modulator doesn't fix them it's time to throw them in the scrap heap. They are touchy transmissions as it is so there's not much point in fixing them. GD

It's messy, but I remove the bleeder screw completely and they often thread in easily that way. The reason they are difficult to thread in is because you are trying to force the fluid back into the reservoir - even loosening the bleeder screw is usually only a small help. Remove it though, and you can just thread the piston in by hand. I use a pair of needle nose pliers and stick the nose's of the pliers in the notches of the piston and turn them in. Never had one I couldn't turn in yet. Although the tool is nice as well, I find I do fewer and fewer EA calipers with the integrated parking brake - EJ's went to a drum parking brake in the rear - on the ID of the disc so both front and rear calipers don't require threading. GD

Lack of fuel due to the unbaffled tank can cause problems but my experience is that as soon as the SPFI pump sucks air the engine sputters and dies. It's not so much a lack of power as it is a total shutdown till the fuel sloshes back to the pickup in the tank. I've had to pull over and let it settle down as the car just dies. I think you should change the FI fuel filter if you haven't already, and check that cat to see if it's clogged. Either of those could cause some issues. It wouldn't be a bad idea to invest $15 or $20 in a fuel pressure gauge so you can check that you are at 21 psi. I would start there assuming you have no check engine light showing any codes. Also have you checked compression on this engine recently? Always good to know the engine is mechanically sound before you start troublshooing fuel and ignition as the cause of a low-power situation. GD

Best way, by far, is with a wide-band O2 sensor. If you mean how do you tune the thing without that level of sophistication - then you are limited to adjusting the idle speed, idle mixture, and timing. If you problem isn't at idle or transitioning from idle - then no amount of "tuning" will correct it - if that's the case then there is a problem and it needs to be "fixed" not tuned. GD

Subaru put out a technical service bulletin many years ago saying that cracks between the valves will not affect operation and are to be ignored. Further, a warped head can be milled flat again for $35. You were totally hosed by a shop that knows nothing about your engine but knows a lot about your wallet. GD

Taking a close look at it, and looking at the pressure plate friction surface as well - I conclude that the step on this one is from wear alone. It was definitely a 100% flat flywheel to begin with. I see a sharp ridge on the ID edge of the PP friction surface and a similar step to the flywheel on the OD. Also there is not just a single step on the flywheel - there are several smaller steps where the edges of the rivet holes are located in the disc (less wear from less friction disc surface). All this together with the testimony of all who have posted to this thread leads me to beleive it was not a stepped flywheel..... I'm going to have it machined as the cost is 1/2 that of a new one it looks like. Thanks for all the info guys. GD

Great that you fixed it. I have had similar issues with the actual gauges like the voltage and temp, etc. They are attached to the circuit board with small brass nuts and the copper on the board will corrode (especially as the car's get older and the window/door seals don't seal well) and you will get intermittant or poor operation of the gauges as well. GD

You may have to knock out the shift rod roll pin and thread the hole then replace the pin with a nut/bolt combo. This happens more to the 4 speed's but the 5's still have a similar roll pin setup - it's just not as prone to wearing out quickly like the 4's. GD

Tags are often not present on newer gen EJ diffs. I don't know if they stopped using them or if they more easily fall off due to inferior adhesives or what. And you can't gaurantee that every car in a wrecking yard will have a diff tag. Besides that - he has as much as said he isn't willing to track that info down without payment for his "time". I DO want to nit-pick as you call it. I want to know what is being sold. That is only fair considering the price he is asking for them. $200+ US just for the cost of the tranny's is high by US wrecking yard standards for used transmissions in unknown condition and I would get all the information I could want about those. I see no reason it should be different just because they are on another continent. I never slandered the man. I said I "am not conviced" that he isn't a scammer. HE claims he took it personally - which is his problem. These days you can't be too careful about such things and I'm not one to be scammed - even if it means I wait and see if the "first batch" of "customers" gets the rug pulled out from under them. GD

Respectfully, this thread is about the differences/value of D/R EJ transmissions from NZ and who/where to get them from. It is not a "for sale" thread nor was it started by a seller of such goods. Further, I never said I was not ready to buy one. I said I haven't heard/seen enough to be comfortable buying one from the recent purveyor of said goods. I am interested in buying one but thus far we can't get a straight answer as to what we are even buying. GD

You are being hosed. It doesn't need the heads replaced. I'll bet they told you the heads were cracked eh? The cracks between the valves are normal and if these guys don't know a belt from a chain.....RUN, don't just walk away from that place. GD

Those are the For Sale forum rules AFAIK. Being in the retro-fitting forum, and being a post regarding the differences/value of EJ D/R transmissions I just can't see how that rule applies here. Normally I would agree with you though. Without knowing the gear ratios's, how would you tell the difference between a 3.7, 3.9 and a 4.11? Those are all very close when you are talking about trying to count revolutions of shafts and such - and you don't know the gear ratio's for sure. 4th is close to 1:1 on most of them but there's no way to know for sure..... GD

If the tire size is 205/75R15 then the rims are 15" GD

You don't trust a three-way solenoid or you don't trust the two-way that you had? GD

If you just want rid of the code, then install a spark plug non-fouler between the second O2 and the cat. Your cat is probably bad. GD

So in the box is the solenoid I'm assuming? Did you use a three way? GD

Zinc plating has nothing to do with the grade of the bolt. The grade is a measure of the hardness of the steel. GD

So you refuse to ascertain the details on what is inside these transmissions either by tracking down the documention or by opening them and counting some gear teeth unless you are paid for your time? Yet you are donating a much greater share of time to quoteing, packaging, shipping, and communication with this board on these transmissions....why? Because you are just that good of a person? The dicotomy here is astounding. I do not beleive for an instant that the same person that wouldn't lift a telephone receiver to find out the gear ratios of a transmission he is purchasing from a wrecker would do all the quoteing, packaging, shipping, and posting here on this board for a big fat "thanks pal". I just don't have that much faith in humanity. And I never said I "would" pay $700 for one - I said I would *rather* pay $700 to someone else that is willing to go through it. You have already burned that bridge by your attitude. Without knowing at least the final drive of the things, we have no idea what rear differential to use with them. Which means NO ONE here can use them without first opening them up and finding out what's inside. Why the hell would I pay $350 for a transmission I have to tear into? And that single point invalidates your supposition that people here "might want the use them as is without alteration". We simply can't without knowing what the hell is inside them. Thus if you NEED to be paid for that information gathering it should have been figured into the price of the transmissions..... oh wait! then you would be making money on the deal wouldn't you? GD

Could you do it if you rewired the manifold on the 96-98 Phase II's to match the 99+ vehicle harness? Or are there major differences in sensor outputs etc? I guess what I'm asking is are the differences largely a matter of wireing or actual incompatibilities with components? GD

I agree 100%. A high mileage transmission without the gearing/center diff setup I want is worth NOTHING to me - let alone $350. There is going to at least have to be enough info gathered to determine both what year/model/mileage each transmission came from, and what those years/models had for gearing and options. Without that it's a shipping container full of boat anchors. Opening each one up is probably overkill, but at *least* the information on where they came from and what they *most likely* have inside them should be obtained. Obviously since they were NZ native models that information should be availible at the Subaru dealer's in NZ - we in the US don't have access to it. I recognize that you aren't getting the money till the tranny's are received here in Seattle, but not a single one will have been tested or even opened up and inspected by that time - what's to prevent a load of dud transmissions (obviously you have access as you claim to have a trans shop) being packaged and sent here - you are then sent the money and dissapear..... Of course there is a certain amount of risk, but the amount of "rushing" you are doing seems excessive and you seem unwilling to do even the small amount of legwork required to ascertain what these transmissions *should* have inside them. And I don't know a single wrecker that sells transmissions that doesn't at least record EXACTLY what year/model/mileage is on each of them. Especially not for $200 US. I can buy tranny's with a 90 day warantee for that much here in the states. I can buy one's with at 30 day gaurantee from the self-service yards for $120 US. GD

84 would be solid lifters if it's a manual transmission - hydro lifters if it's an automatic. As for the indicators - do the actual signals work? If so you have either bad bulbs in the cluster or a wireing/connection issue behind the cluster. I've never heard of or seen a failure like that before so I think you'll have to dig out the DMM and the wiring diagrams. GD

Me and another guy (two different guys in fact) recently moved an EJ22 with all acc. into and out of a pickup bed. No problem at all. GD

Well - you may *think* it's personal, but it isn't. You have less than 50 posts - I have 12,400. You live many, many thousands of miles away - I have met a LOT of members here face-to-face. My name is Rick and most of the folks around here know that. Some of them don't like me - but that comes with the territory and I probably don't like them either. The simple fact that you are unwilling to endure my questioning and scepticism reinforces the supposition that you are not being entirely honest. Perhaps you are a scammer - perhaps you really *are* making money on these transmissions - maybe you are planning to send us a pile of junk tranny's - perhaps you are entirely above-board. What doesn't make sense though is your willingness to do this out of the kindness of your heart for all us Subaru fans in the US - and at the same time you are a total a$$-hole when it comes to answering questions and calming nerves. Regardless, your actions thus far are not building confidence - attacking me gains you nothing here and only reinforces my posistion that you aren't worth dealing with. I only hope that the people who do put money down on a transmission from you aren't dissapointed - unfortunately if they are there will be no recourse as internet scams from outside the US are rarely prosecuted. Rest-assured I could afford half a dozen of these if I wanted them. And it doesn't sound like a bad idea to get a couple. But not from you - not this time around anyway. As for them commanding $700 or $800 in the US after they get here - unlikely. The crowd that's into these things isn't "in the money" if you get my drift. Lots of folks that want them (or think they do) - very few that have the money to put down (as you are seeing). No - if you ship 10 of them there will be several for sale within a year for about what they paid you for them - maybe less if someone is really hurting. Happens all the time. Old Subaru parts depreciate - they are not a wise investment. GD

After a good buffing with a brown abrasive pad in my die-grinder it looks ok. The rivets only hit the pressure plate fortunately. It did still drive although it was slipping like crazy. The transmission had a blown 2nd gear and it may have been that way for a while causing them to go from 1st to 3rd - the extra clutch riding that came with the gear skip may have been it's undoing. At least that's the current theory. The step in the flywheel for the disc is negative - IE, it's deeper than the pressure plate mounting surface by maybe .005" (haven't taken an exact measurement - that's just an eyeball). I'm going to run the VIN at my local dealer and see if they have any reccords on the car at all - perhaps it got a new engine under warantee or something. Maybe they could tell me what the critieria for Phase I/II would have been.... they are pretty cool and I buy a lot of parts from them so if they know they will help me I'm sure. GD

Have you tried the EA81 auxilery electric fan used on models equipped with AC? GD