grimaceNMike

Does it click when you turn the key? Mine used to click, but not spin, I would whack it with a rubber mallet and it would work fine. I replaced the starter and didn't have the issue anymore.

Here is some info that was provided to me by some nice people. Hope it helps you too.

Thanks a bunch Stelcom! Yeah, I painted the wheels back in 2014 because they were scuffed up and terrible looking from parking too close to curbs. I thought they turned out pretty good too. I did about 5 coats of paint on top of a primer to fill in all the scratches that couldn't be buffed out with sandpaper. The car had absolutely no rust, the engine started up and ran like a champ, even with 289,450 miles on it. God I miss it. I also added a leather interior from a 2001 Outback, I had power seats and heat Insurance gave me $2200 for the car. It is gone forever now. :/

el_freddo, yeah part of me hopes it was a Subaru enthusiast that stole it and they are using it for strictly off-road use on their property out in the middle of nowhere. Hopefully they are being gentle with it, in all my years of ownership I never once did WOT in that car.

Final follow-up on Grimace: As some of you may have read, I replaced my original (285k mile) transmission that endured years or torque bind abuse with a junkyard-pulled transmission that I grabbed out of an old sedan. When I installed the "new" transmission back in July of 2019, I had issues with getting the car to move in "D" or "3", it would just rev like in neutral. When I put the car in "1" or "2" the car would set off at a slow speed but then slip out of gear and free rev if given more than 1/4 throttle. Being in school at the time, I parked the car and planned to replace the transmission again when a better one showed up at a junkyard. Fast forward to June of 2020, I finished school and free time so I decided to perform a fluid change on the transmission again, just in case that might help, before returning it under warranty. After doing the fluid change the transmission would go into "D" and I would feel a slight lurch, like the car wanted to move. When I pressed the accelerator though, the car just revved up in RPM's. And as the RPM's wound down the car would start to creep forward, but not with any torque, almost like a clutch slipping really badly. After playing around with different combinations, I found that if I had the shift lever in position "2" with the "Manual" button pressed on the shift lever the car would start in 2nd gear with no problem. Once I was going over 18 MPH I could shift the car into "D" and the rest of the drive would be fine. It would shift between 2nd, 3rd, and 4th with no issues once it got past 18-20 MPH. If I put it in "1" it would work fine too, but that gear has so little speed in it that I would just start in "2" to avoid having to shift so many times. After about a month of driving the car like this I replaced the 6-year-old battery and suddenly I could start the car in "D" like the engineers had designed. But intermittently the car would not like starting in "D" at a red light and I would have to shift it down to "2" to get up to speed again. I don't know if that's due to the battery being disconnected and resetting the trans computer, or what. Another idea I had was that I forgot to top off the torque convertor before I shoved it into the housing, and maybe I was low on fluid for a while. And as a final, and sad ending to this story, I will add the newest development... Apparently I got the car up and driving so well that someone else wanted it. That's right, Grimace was stolen from me. After almost 10 years of ownership, and many fun adventures, my car has been taken from me. Its been about 3 weeks since then, so insurance wrote it off as a total loss a couple days ago. Even if he is recovered, grimace is gone from my life. :/

Idosubaru, thank you for the advice. There is a large dent in the rear quarter panel where it looks like it was lightly t-boned. But the damage doesn't look extensive enough to total the car. There is also a rusted-out hole about 6 inches in diameter near the rear door frame. I am torn if the car was hit, parked, and then donated years later, or if the trans went and the owner pulled the engine and then donated the car?? Dang it I wish people wrote car history in magic marker under the hood before donating it!

Just to be clear, this is what the donor car looks like. It doesn't have an engine, or wheels. How do I test THAT transmission before I put it in?

This junkyard makes you do your own work, they will not pull parts for you. I asked them about replacing the dead transmission, and they said that I need to bring it in. Which means removing it from the car, which is not something I want to do unless I can find a replacement one first. I did not have time to put into this until this week, which is why I am addressing it now.

Okay, so the warranty is about to run out on the junk transmission I got last year, I went to the yard today because a donor car finally showed up. But it does not look promising. I dropped the oil pan on the transmission and it smelled pretty terrible, not burnt, but almost putrid. It looked black to my eyes, but in the photos I do see some red. It looks slightly better than the current transmission that I have. What are the chances of this thing working?? I hate to install another dead transmission, but I dont have many other options. Also, what would a transmission in "good condition" from 1993 look like? 245K miles on odometer Thanks!

I will be pulling the junkyard transmission out sometime this summer and bring it to the junkyard for an exchange. For now the car drives and moves on its own so I can move it around to avoid getting towed here the city. Grandma donated her car for me to use in the meantime, so the "emergency" is over and I can replace the trans with a better option when it arrives. The reason I bought that transmission originally was because on Memorial day at the junkyard they charge half price for everything, so i saved about $70. A couple years ago there would always be 3-6 1st gen legacy's at each junkyard, I was spoiled with options! As soon as I was looking for a specific car (wrecked in the rear, 93-94, low miles) I couldn't find anything! This was the only 94 Legacy in any junkyard within 150 miles of me on Memorial Day, so I bought it as a placeholder of sorts. I thought it was junk, but after the Subaru technician said "normal wear and tear" I opted to throw it in and see. I'll be collecting an assortment of solenoids if anyone needs one in the future! Thanks for the input everyone! Ill be posting more soon.

What kind of junk?? Like lots-of-work junk that I can drive for the summer, or unfix-able junk? If I cannot fix this issue, everyone in my life is insisting I donate the car to a yard, and I really don't want to buy another car.

Also, where the heck does this go?!? it fell out before i could see where it was seated.