I recently totaled my 95' Legacy. I'm okay ,thankfully, but my subie went to car heaven.

 

So I bought an 86' GL wagon off my dad for $200. The Car is in excellent condition with a newly rebuilt motor. However, it has transmission problems. It won't go in reverse or shift out of first gear(it's an automatic).

 

So I went today to a junkyard to look for a new transmission. I found about 7-8 Subaru's that were all approximately the same year as mine. Some were automatic some were manual.

 

So heres my questions:

 

1: Can I convert to manual?

2: If so, how hard would it be?

3: What models could I take the tranny out of and use in my 86 GL.

May want to check the vacuum line to the modulator before swapping transmissions.

1. yes

2. all bolt on

3. they are all the same

 

you need everything from the flywheel to the rear diff. this includes the driveshaft and trans mount, and its bolts.

 

turbo trans will require you to get larger axles.

 

any non turbo 5spd will be the same regardless of model(except for xt6)

Thanks, that really helped. I'll keep you guys posted on how things are going.

Ok, so heres a little update. I checked the transmission fluid and it was almost empty. So I filled it up with fluid and it didn't help. Then I checked the vacuum line, there were no holes and it wasn't stopped up. So, I assume it's a bad transmission.

 

Today, I removed the left front axle and will remove the right side as soon as I can. I'll then drop the transmission and replace it with a manual one along with everything else associated with the manual transmission.

You have prolly already thought of this,but if you can get a whole parts cars with the drivetrain you want,you'd be miles ahead. Much better than running back and forth to the wrecking yard.

You have prolly already thought of this,but if you can get a whole parts cars with the drivetrain you want,you'd be miles ahead. Much better than running back and forth to the wrecking yard.

 

Yeah, I've already got one picked out. I just gotta go pick it up sometime. I really hit it lucky because it's the same car and same year with a manual transmission and a turbo:)

Before you even start getting your pretty little head wraped around the idea of adding a turbo on your car im going to say NO. Trust me, i mean really im not jerkin ya around. Its way to complicated to swap over and even if you do the gain is very limited. You are on your way buy swaping the tranny over to manual but please for got sake leave the engine alone until you can upgrade to ej22. Then youve got something there. Has more power then the turbo and loads more reliable (hence you can beat on it more and not worry about it having catastrophic failure). Sorry GD i had to beat you to the punch.

 

Ben

Before you even start getting your pretty little head wraped around the idea of adding a turbo on your car im going to say NO. Trust me, i mean really im not jerkin ya around. Its way to complicated to swap over and even if you do the gain is very limited. You are on your way buy swaping the tranny over to manual but please for got sake leave the engine alone until you can upgrade to ej22. Then youve got something there. Has more power then the turbo and loads more reliable (hence you can beat on it more and not worry about it having catastrophic failure). Sorry GD i had to beat you to the punch.

 

Ben

 

Ok