Crunch

All is done... My only issue was getting engine separated from Gearbox, must of used up an hour or two. Those location pins were as tight as. Sprayed them with some release oil, had dinner and went back with a long bar and tapped away, popped right apart. I had the GB and engine lined up so well that the engine slid forward and right off. I had used a bolt on lifting chain to try and balance out for the angle (thanks a97obw) and must have got it right. Changed out everything and had engine back in the car by midnight. Did all the underneath bolts before bed. This morning attached everything. Filled with new antifreeze. Fired over and drove out of garage. Took a few minutes to adjust the 'hill-start' thingy. Cleaned the engine. Washed the car and had it parked out front by church time. Mother-in-law arrived from VA at 2pm, Garage was dry and all tools away. She did comment "Your eyes look a bit red. Must be the kids. I need to give you a break" Thanks for the help folks. As to my reason for post. ? Clutch Replacement- By separation of engine and transmission. Not engine removal. ! Answer you have to take engine out. Thanks everyone, a wealth of info to be found in here.

Thanks, I am setting up to remove engine. Minding the knee knockers while wife out shopping so not a lot being done. Got a hoist from next door. Car is on stands and all set to go. Thanks a97obw for image and advice on ac, lets me know what to expect... I have 24 hours to get this done and out of the garage before the mother-in-law arrives................

Thanks Nipper, I spent about an hour this evening and have most things I want off, off. Have undone a few wires, hoses I see as needed to be undone or slackened to let engine go forward 5 inches. Timming belt etc has all been done about 20k ago. This is a run around car. Ive pulled trees down with her, carried drywall till the tyres bulge, played in the snow, even made a little grader-blade out of some 2x8 to push some gravel up the driveway. Thinking about it this could be why I now need to do the clutch, Maybe my subs not as strong as I thought. So I am just wanting to do a 'quickie' and get back to work. This way I should not have to remove Air-conditioning, power steering etc. You maybe right. So close I may need/be best to remove engine. That's the good thing about this forum. You can ask and see if anyone has tried it before. Thinking.......

Hi, Have our 1992 legacy wagon up on ramps to do clutch which has been slipping off and more on over last few months. Read here where going in via engine removal seems best route. I am wondering though, can I replace the clutch without complete removal of the engine? With the radiator out I have 5 inches to move the engine forward, is this enough room to get in? Has anyone done it this way. This is a spare car I have been using so the least effort I spend on this job the better. My thought was drop exhaust off at heads. Remove engine mount bolts, lift the engine tranny a tad to clear engine mounts. Remove as few as possible pipes wires etc in getting engine to move forward. Get in between engine and tranny to change out plate and clutch. Thanks.

Timming belt changed at 110,000. Thinking on it the wobble at idle may have been engine speed got too low when I was sitting in drive with brake on! Rotated tyres twice. Yes at transaxles. There is no movement on the shaft between the axle and the splinned shaft as the roll pin holds it tigh. However the splined shaft that comes out of 'transaxle' has a bit of movement like the bearing that it runs on is a bit worn. I can grab the whole axle at the 'gearbox' end and riggle it in all directions maybe 1/32 inch, very small amount. I also wondered about (center universal joint and carrier bearings). That is why I was asking about what the fuse did. I did get my hand and a light up in there to have a look. Saw/felt nothing out of the ordinary. I agree some mass is out of balance or getting movement under load and I need to narrow it down. I read another forum about (duty c failure, torque bind) I am assuming my problem is not in this area? We have never had miss matched tyres on, run on a flat etc that I am aware of in 80,000 miles. What about torque converter or flexiplate, do they give problems? Thanks Kevin

Thanks mwatt and Dickensheets. Looked at engine mounts and mount at end of transmission and they seem fine. Jacked engine up and saw no movement in engine mounts. Levered rear mount and it had a bit more movement then front ones, but then it is smaller. Grabbed hold of drive-shaft and moved it wherever seemed fine. I looked at the other bushings in suspension arms etc, all seem OK. When you use the fuse to change to FWD where does that disengage things, in the transmission or at the rear axle? If it in the transmission and no load is then applied to drive shaft and rear end surly that would rule out rear end/drive-shaft problem? I do notice that where front axles goes onto shaft/spline at transfer box that there is a very small amount of movement up and down for that shaft. Should that be rock solid or is a small amount of movement normal? Thanks Kevin

I must have read 50 posts on this topic and tried a number of the solutions with no luck so far. History, 1999 Subaru Outback Wagon Auto with 125,000 miles. At 50,000 they replaced front axles due to a ‘gentle wobble’ feeling in steering. I feel like car has always had a very very slight shudder during takeoff. Last week had a CV front passenger side noise. - Degreased engine bay big time. Cleaned with foam and high-pressure water. - Replaced both front Axles with aftermarket ones. Cleaned up brakes. Take car for a drive and has this big time wobble/vibration/shudder somewhere in drive train during acceleration. I can feel just a hint of it cruising. I am thinking you got water in spark plugs, engine misfiring. It will clear on way to Subaru dealer to have auto serviced. Get auto serviced. ( I did axles, but auto fluid is a pain to deal with and they flush better than I could I am guessing, so use the dealer.) Drive home still there. Gentle acceleration equals gentle shudder. Hard acceleration equals greater shudder. At any speed up to 70 mph coasting has no vibration. Only there when applying power, more power greater the shudder. So thinking not engine misfire, time to visit USM and read up. You think he didn’t have this before axle change out, must be front axle, but I can’t feel this through steering it feels like center of wagon which is the reason I first thought it was a engine problem caused by too much water from my cleaning. It is not like the wobble we had through steering wheel at 50,000 miles. Check tire pressure, Ok and all 4 are same and half worn. Put fuse in, go front wheel driving. Still there, first time I ever spun the front wheels on my Subaru in the dry so I know fuse is working. This morning went out for another test. Still there. I stop on way home to talk to neighbor, stopped with car in drive, foot on brake, it feels like the wobble is there in the engine while I am stopped. Drive 100 yards home, stop in garage, leave in drive with foot on brake and the shake I just had in street is all but gone. Yippee, go for a drive still same… In park engine has a slight vibration at about 2000 rpm +/- 500 rpm, always has. Help where should I look next? Any other tests? Kevin

Hi & thanks to all with there input. Finished the car this afternoon, Sunday. Total time, a few hours on Friday night to see where I was going, most of Saturday till 6pm, then a few hours today to flush and fill radiator. A few items I had problems with. Getting crank pulley off. It was varnished on well. Left hand cam pulleys just loved to jump out of position and scare the life out of me in doing so. Looking at the wrong timing mark delayed me a few hours. Did the following; Timing Belt, Other belts, Water Pump, Thermostat, Radiator cap, Sparkplugs & flushed the radiator. No leaks and started first turn of the key so finished off by giving the engine bay a clean. So I hope my wife has another 60,000 miles with no problems. Of course the $500.00 savings still in our pockets feels good. Time to sign off and get ready to watch ‘24 Hours’

Thanks Imdew, Saw several of those marks on back plate as turning crank so that threw me off...... Showed wife images and said you pick Shes' great, smiled gave me a kiss and said take your time. Of course it could be she thinking he saving me $500.00 doing it himself, when I get the car back I can go to the mall... Crunch

Hi Helpers, Its Sat morning and about to continue replacing timing belt when I am confronted with the pullys don't line up. I can get all 4 cam pullys to line up but crank is always sitting at about 2-3 o'clock. Turn crank 2 turns and same thing, cam pullys line up but not crank. If I understand it it won't matter how many times I rotate crank every two time it will be the same?? . I am sure nothing moved taking crank pully off.. but then we all know things happen. Any advice. Do I line up cam pullys and then move crank to where manual says it should be and put on new belt. Edit - Just noticed the mark on the plate behind belt - is that the line up? Saw several of them and only one mark on crank pully so thought it must be front one...... CRUNCH

Hi, Sorry 'Commuter' you were right DOHC. Wife’s car and I assumed it was single. Brokechump.. you saying I can do water pump without removing pullys and back cover? Its 11.50pm Friday night and I just got crankshaft pulley off, took 30 + minutes as it seemed to be varnished on. Took 3 covers off and set to go in the morning..... All looks fine in behind covers so still looking at doing all the belts and water pump. Two questions- First, and I seem a bit silly asking this but is there a correct way to take the old belt off! Do you just leaver it off, cut it, loosen a certain bolt?? Also I notice on the tensioner that there is a hole made in the housing at about 8o'clock from the bolt that holds it on. Question - once I get belt to where it should be can I put a rod in that hole and lever against the bolt to compress the tensioner and put the pin in to hold it? I set it up and think I can do it but was not game to put pressure on till I ran it past some of you. If this works it would save me having to go off and use a press to reset the tensioner.

Thanks BC It is a 2.5 SOHC. The manual (Service Procedure Water Pump MSA5TCD99L72) says I need to do the following and I have seen some posts where step # 14 can be difficult. Also it doesn’t tell me how difficult #13 will be? 11) Remove automatic belt tension adjuster. 12) Remove belt idler No. 2. 13) Remove camshaft position sensor. <Ref. to 2-7 [W10A0].> 14) Remove left-hand camshaft sprocket by using ST. ST 499207100 CAMSHAFT SPROCKET WRENCH 15)Remove left-hand belt cover No. 2. 16) Remove tensioner bracket. 17) Remove tensioner bracket. 18) Disconnect heater hose from water pump. 19) Remove water pump. I saw you had written HG and I thought what’s that 'headgasket'! Ouch I really don't want to go there if I don’t have to. Surely if its served 115,000 I should leave it. While I don’t mind doing a bit of preventive maintenance I think the old "if arn’t broke don't fix it" might apply. If the engine 'spits the dummy' on me latter then yeah I will get into it. Any comments of difficulty in getting some of these pulleys off with a Wal-Mart box full of tools. Thanks.

Hi, Great site. We have ; #1 a Subaru 1992 with 167,000 which we got at 75,000. Dealer did timing belt on that at 80,000 and it has had only oil changes and one set of break pads in its life. It runs like a Swiss watch. #2 a 1999 Outback 115,000 miles. We got it at 45,000. We have had one dealer service at 60,000 and oil changes at 3-5,000 by me. Car has not missed a beat. Regularly, about once a month does a 303 mile trip at 60-80 mph. So time to do a service. Goto local Subaru dealer, for timing belt, water pump and I think he said a 35,000 or there about service US$950. So will do service myself. Thanks to the posts here have got just about everything set. However dealer said I should do water pump while it was apart... It looks like the timing belt will be easy to do, but that water pump requires a whole lot more to come off to get at it. So do I touch something that’s not giving me a problem? If I had not read the posts here of others woes I would have believed our Subaru’s were invincible. Hence the question. Really, do I need to go do the water pump? I was going to give it a new set of plugs, the other belts and coolant as a present. Thanks in advance.