MaineSubaruPeople

Thank you for all of those suggestions. When I bought the second transmission after the first one didn't work out, the person I talked to also mentioned driveshaft. Will pass that along to the mechanic. We did some searching and found out that the 37.6 stamp on the ring gear of the differential that came out of our car (before he put the wrong 3.9 diff in) is for the 4.11 And the ring gears with 39.11 stamp are the 3.9 differentials. So the claims that the retired former shop owner was making that we drove for over a year (50,000 miles of driving) with the wrong differential before we went in to have the repair done is BS. I think they just assumed we needed 3.9 final drive trans because our 96 OB is a 2.2, and so here we are with this domino effect of awfulness. Our car has been there for nearly a month. It took us a while to figure out what trans we needed to order for it after the first one didn't work with our 4.11 diff.

The clutch is new. He replaced it when he put in the first transmission. It worked perfectly in the 20 minutes I got to drive it before differential started making a bunch of noise. It was like driving a completely different (better) car but then all hell broke loose.

We went back today. They are going to put the 4.11 in. Hoping it magically fixes the other problem, too. The 81 year old former shop owner showed us a differential that he claims was our original, and on the wheel thing with the teeth inside of the differential, it said 37.9. He's trying to claim that number means our car originally had a 3.9 differential in it. This seems like BS to me. 37.9 and 3.9 are completely different numbers. He's trying to claim we put 50,000 miles on our car with a 4.11 trans and 3.9 differential. I don't see how this could be possible if we burnt out our diff with only 20 minutes of driving with the wrong trans they'd put in. When they took the original transmission out of our car, they left it outside the garage. The code on the transmission (transmission type number) matched the number on the door of the car, and on the vin plate under the hood, and also on the subaru trans list that I linked to in my other thread. So car was on original trans not a replacement at that point.

I didn't know subaru outbacks have both front and rear differentials. I will have to look into that. My mechanic installed wrong transmission with the incorrect final drive (3.9) which broke our rear differential. We needed a transmission with a 4.11 final drive. After the first transmission was put in we didn't know our differential had been broken due to wrong transmission replacement. Mechanic assumed noise was coming from bad (used) transmission he had just put in. We ordered new transmission because our mechanic told us transmission he put in was bad. He put in new transmission and the sound didn't go away, then he realized differential was broken. So, he replaced the differential but didn't realize still, at that point that we needed a 4.11 differential put in, not a 3.9. We could have gone with the 3.9 differential with the first transmission he put in, the one that ended up being wrong for our original 4.11 differential. So where we are standing now : we have a 4.11 final drive transmission in our car (trans ends in VACCA, see the post I linked to in the original post in this thread linked above.) but he just put in a 3.9 differential which is wrong for the second transmission he put in.

It would have been great to just put the 3.9 differential in after the first time they put the trans in, but they were under the impression that the first transmission that he put in,which was 3.9 final drive and wrong for our car, was bad. They checked the differential and didn't see any problems. Now they they put a transmission in a second time, this time with the 4.11 final drive, they replaced the differential that went bad when they put the first wrong transmission in. But, they didn't realize the second transmission they put in was the 4.11 the car needed and still thought the car needed a 3.9. So now we have mismatched transmission and differential again.

Please reference my previous thread about transmission replacement for my 96 outback, seen here: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/156474-1996-and-1997-outback-manual-transmission-questions-time-sensitive/ The wrong transmission was put in the first time. They put in a transmission with a 3.9 final drive and and we needed a 4.11 as written above. They told us the transmission was bad so we ended up ordering a second. Then they put in the 4.11 transmission that we bought and had shipped there and they realized the differential was blown as the sound didn't go away. They assumed it was because we'd been driving the car with a transmission that was going for over a year. (However there was no issue with it when we brought the car in. The car was still driving fine, but it was hard to shift and popping out of 4th gear when driving.) He told us he'd put a replacement (used) differential in this morning. It dawned on me this afternoon that they probably had put the wrong transmission in the first time and then were still assuming that we needed a 3.9 differential. So we drove up and sure enough they put a 3.9 differential in. We also went and checked the first transmission they put in and it was the wrong final drive (3.9) So here we are now with the right transmission in but wrong differential. And he told us it is now making a clunking sound when engaging the clutch. (It didn't do this when I drove it for the 20 minutes I drove it after the first transmission replacement.) We also had a clutch put in when he did the transmission replacement (the first time) because he said it was pretty worn around the edges. He told us we might have to scrap the car!!!!! I explained to him that we make very little money, it's our only car, etc. He said he would look tomorrow for a 4.11 differential and put the correct one in. The original owner of the garage, who is now 81 years old, was the one who consulted his book and told him what (incorrect) transmission to put in. He still lives on the property but has signed the farm and garage over to the mechanic who has been only fixing Subarus for years at that shop. We tried to explain the mistake to the elderly guy (he sold us the original transmission) and he immediately started screaming at us and threatened to call the police. So, what could be causing the clutch clunking noise? Something not installed correctly with the second transmission installation? Something else? I am confident that once they get the correct differential back in the car all will be well with that, but any suggestions on clutch clunking problems after clutch and transmission replacement would be great. Scrapping the car is NOT an option for us. We have no means to get a different car. We are very low income, have kids, and barely keep our heads above water as it is. We can't eat the money from this repair, we also don't have the money to get a different car. So please, really good suggestions we can give him on the new clutch clunking issue. Thanks

Ok, that's what I thought! The one we just bought has the exact same final drive and gear ratios so it should be fine.

Just joined the forum and hoping to get some answers to replacement tranny questions! Our 1996 Outback, 2.2L AWD 250k miles manual needs a transmission replacement. The transmission type code is TY752VABCA MFG Date of our car is 5/96 Our Subaru mechanic also has a salvage yard and they had a replacement. We got about 20 minues down the road after the repair and the transmission was howling, car shook a little, etc. We took it back and they checked it all over and said the new (used) tranny was bad. So then began the search for another transmission, as they don't have any others that will work in our car. We weren't able to find a tranny with the exact code mentioned above, after looking locally and online. We ended up buying one from a used parts broker out of New Hampshire. Based on our VIN (4S3BG4855T6985313) they said we needed one that had come out of a 1997 2.5 Outback with trans type: TY752VACCA I checked this chart http://home.gci.net/~cowdookey/818/TransmissionIDChart_Public.pdf the ones I'm talking about are on page 6 of the chart, our original (VABCA) is the 4th one from the top, the replacement (VACCA) IS 7th from the top. our original tranny (TY752VABCA) and the replacement TY752VACCA have the exact same gear ratios and final drive. I read on a forum (maybe this one) that as long as the final drive matches a tranny should work. However our mechanic told us that the placement tranny (we ended up ordering it and having it shipped there) might be from a 4wd 97 subaru. I didn't even know these existed and I can't find much info online about it. So, anyone know, will our new transmission work as a replacement? Thanks!