deadletter

Here's an update: the newer transmission had a vin, the old one didn't. The newer one came from a 2002 Forester that was manufactured 12/17/01. I've ordered the flex plate that B&R auto wrecking says is a match - it comes from a later outback. So maybe mine had the wrong flex plate due to a wrong transmission swap a long time ago. The gear ratios are correct, says the dealer. NEW PROBLEM - the stub shafts on the new transmission are missing and apparently I can't use the old ones - so I had to order those too, $65 each with the circlips. But tomorrow the flex plate will arrive and I'll fine out if it's the right one, and Thurday, the stub shafts will arrive, and apparently I can use my old axles. I'll update as the new parts arrive.

So the code on the bell housing - and that's a sticker, I haven't looked to see if there's something stamped into it - both transaxles start with 'tz' and I haven't been able to find that code anywhere. Thoughts? Where can I look it up?

what does FDR mean?

So I bought a 2001 Legacy/outback (before they became separate body models, I believe) and it had a bad transmission. He sold me, with the car, a transmission. I have the engine out and was swapping the two transmissions when... the flex plate doesn't match the torque converter. 1) I haven't tried yet, but can I put the old torque converter on the new transmission (if it fits)? 2) Can I purchase the flex plate from a forester that would match the transmission I have? The transmission that I HAVE (the bad one) has a sticker that says tz1a3zs2aa-p4 The new one is tz1a3zc3aa-pm. I might have those backwards, I'm away from the shop right now. I'm not finding these in the lists of transaxles - and when I google it, the results are russian. Thoughts? for reference, when I bought it, the bad transaxle drove with a 'clunking' but not too bad. After a hard parallel park, it drove with a crazy heavy clunk back to the shop and was done.