tforce Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 132,000 on the car. Tranny would slip/shutter sometimes when it was cold(run time, not air temp). Figured it was the clutch wearing out. Last night it started to shutter pulling out of the driveway and then it became a loud bang, bang, bang, bang. The drivetrain locked/unlocked several times and the car lurched to a halt. Was really hard to get the tranny out of gear and if I let the clutch out (even in neutral) something starts to engage...but it won't move. Engine runs and sounds great. The car rolls just fine as long as the clutch is in. Advice? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 someone else will chime in but i'm not 100% convinced that it's a trans failure. sounds pretty bad and it could be but i think the clutch needs checked out/discussed. maybe the clutch fork broke, clips failed, throw out bearing failed, clutch is oil soaked, etc. there are clutch failures that will cause it to "lock in gear". that you thought it previously needed a clutch makes me want to be hopeful it's just clutch related and not an actual trans issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davebugs Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 GG, I was waiting as well. I'm thinking the same as you. I'd put it this way. I wouldn't buy a new trans until AFTER I pulled things apart and had a look at all the moving parts. Clutch fork, TO bearing, clips, heck - even the slave cylinder. Trans failures are actually very rare in my exerience. ANd even then it's usually the diff it seems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 oh yeah, i forgot this is probably a hydraulic clutch then. slave and hose failures are rather common and those parts are replaced in tandem typically. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tforce Posted October 5, 2010 Author Share Posted October 5, 2010 I'm hoping it's clutch related too. Gonna pull it 1st and take a look for sure. The only thing that's makes me think it might not be the clutch is that if you hold the clutch in the car rolls free and smooth....so at least it's disengaging. But I don't know that much about how it all works so I'll take your word on that being a possibility. I'll post more once I get the thing out of there...gonna be a couple weeks at least. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbone Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 It sounds just like the 5spd Fulltime that was in my RX. If the clutch pack looks good, its most likely the front diff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted October 6, 2010 Share Posted October 6, 2010 If the clutch pack looks good, its most likely the front diff.right on, that happens, i've seen it too. the ones i've seen were accompanied by a long period of time with noises, whining or grinding. yours failed quick rob? good to know not to risk that. never seen one fail quickly but no doubt it happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairtax4me Posted October 6, 2010 Share Posted October 6, 2010 The only thing that's makes me think it might not be the clutch is that if you hold the clutch in the car rolls free and smooth....so at least it's disengaging. With the trans in neutral it doesn't matter if the clutch is engaged or disengaged the car will still roll. I'm gonna guess your clutch disc exploded. The anti rattle springs on the hub can crack and fall out. Then they bounce around between the disc and the flywheel/pressure plate, depending on which way they fall. This causes mass havoc and the rest of the clutch disc explodes soon after. (like a second after) You can end up with this: http://www.drummerdonnie.com/BossHoss/Clutch-Soup-2.jpg Or this: http://partsforclunkers.net/Images/gary%20clutch.jpg The front diff won't be moving with the trans in neutral if the car is sitting still, so unless you blew up some gears inside the trans (which is entirely possible) I'm gonna say clutch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tforce Posted October 6, 2010 Author Share Posted October 6, 2010 With the trans in neutral it doesn't matter if the clutch is engaged or disengaged the car will still roll. I didn't try moving the car with the tranny in neutral but I don't think it will move because if I let the clutch out while it's in neutral (engine running), the tranny tries to engage. The RPMs start dropping but the car won't move. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tforce Posted November 21, 2011 Author Share Posted November 21, 2011 Never really got anywhere on this before I got busy with other things. Starting to think about it again so I thought I'd try to revive the thread. The car rolled just fine with the clutch disengaged. Pulled it out of the car and the clutch is fine. No metal in the oil that I saw...nothing big and shiny anyhow. Really hard to move through the gears. Talked to the Subaru Guru in Seattle and he said ring and pinion failure before I even finished telling him what happened. Anyone torn one of these apart? I'm wondering if I can fix this thing myself. I can get a rebuilt for $1700 but it would be really tight on the bank to drop that right now. Junkyard tranny with decent miles is looking like $1000 - $1500. Maybe I could drop in a tranny from an older GT? I just want to get it running and sell it. It's killing my garage space and I really want to move onto finishing my EA2EJ project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairtax4me Posted November 22, 2011 Share Posted November 22, 2011 If it was the ring and pinion I think the oil coming out of the drain plug would have been extra chunky. The drain plug is directly below the differential, so anything falling off of the diff will end up right at the drain hole. The rest of the gears in the trans are sort of cordoned off from the front diff by walls inside the case, so if any of the other gears blew up you might not see the chunks. Honestly these transmissions aren't worth rebuilding. Its way too time consuming and way too expensive. You can get a good used transmission for way less than half the price of rebuilding the one you have, and all you have to do is put it in the car. Yank out the one that's in there and take a look at the clutch. If the clutch disc is in tact open up the trans (takes about 25 minutes to get it opened up) and take a peek inside to see what happened. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tforce Posted November 29, 2011 Author Share Posted November 29, 2011 If it was the ring and pinion I think the oil coming out of the drain plug would have been extra chunky. The drain plug is directly below the differential, so anything falling off of the diff will end up right at the drain hole. The rest of the gears in the trans are sort of cordoned off from the front diff by walls inside the case, so if any of the other gears blew up you might not see the chunks. Honestly these transmissions aren't worth rebuilding. Its way too time consuming and way too expensive. You can get a good used transmission for way less than half the price of rebuilding the one you have, and all you have to do is put it in the car. Yank out the one that's in there and take a look at the clutch. If the clutch disc is in tact open up the trans (takes about 25 minutes to get it opened up) and take a peek inside to see what happened. The oil seemed fine. The clutch is good. Do I need any special tools to open up the tranny? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MilesFox Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 It may be more economical to find another used good trans. Or if you try to rebuld this one, good used parts (vs the cost of new) if you are proficiant with taking trans apart and back together, you could make custom transmissions with different gears and make your money that way. The front diff would have had to fail from some sort of neglect or lack of maintenance at one point in the car's life. I have never tried to disassemble a trans. I believe you take the tailhousing off first, then split the case. and the trans should be on one side so the parts don't fall out when you take off the other side. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WoodsWagon Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 With it slipping/clunking but still driving for a while before it completely locked up, I'd check the rear transfer gears. There's a big circlip that holds the viscous coupler pack into the center diff, and this clip sometimes pops out. It then gets run through the rear transfer gears and chips teeth. When the teeth get broken enough, they start skipping and then shatter the remaining teeth. Those chunks get caught between the gears and lock it up. Since you already have the trans out of the car, pull the rear housing cover off. You need the shift yoke off the shift rail, there's a roll pin inside a roll pin that lock it to the rail. Then 8 bolts or so and the rear housing cover comes off. That will let you get at the transfer gears and the center diff. They just drop out of the back of the transmission at that point. The rear transfer housing is kind of it's own compartment, so metal chunks from there don't tend to circulate into the main transmission. That may explain not seeing metal in the oil when you drained it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairtax4me Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 The oil seemed fine. The clutch is good. Do I need any special tools to open up the tranny? No special tools. This write-up will help you get acquainted with the process. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=90182 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tforce Posted June 30, 2012 Author Share Posted June 30, 2012 I know it's been awhile but I finally got the car fixed. I found a 03 Forester tranny at a shop in Bend, OR for $650. He got the tranny with torque bind and put a rear ext from another used tranny on it. The Forester has different inputs for the front driveaxles so the guy swapped the Forester inputs for the ones off my tranny and kept my old tranny for the work. There was nothing obviously broken in the old tranny but there was small flecks of metal scattered throughout the transmission....mainly in the teeth on some of the pieces in the rear ext. As far as we can tell the front driveaxle seals were leaking and the transmission got too hot. There were scorch marks in several spots. The most noticeable was on the areas between chambers where the carrier bearings sit. Car is driving great but there are two issues looming. 1. The speedo gear in the tranny is different then one on the Legacy my speedometer is reading 5mph higher than my actual speed. Anyone ever swapped one of these or know if can be swapped? I wouldn't care except I'm planning to sell the car. 2. Either my Master or Slave cylinder on the clutch system is failing but I don't know how to figure out which one it is. No leaks anywhere. No air in the system. The system randomly loses pressure slowly but can then be pumped up and then it's fine for awhile. I can push the plunger on the Slave cylinder by hand and recreate the pressure loss. Takes me about 30 secs to pump the system back to full pressure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairtax4me Posted July 1, 2012 Share Posted July 1, 2012 Bleeding the hydraulic system is difficult at best, most who have experience with it here recommend compressing the slave cylinder completely with a c clamp while bleeding the lines. The speedometer gears can't be swapped without opening the case. Much cheaper to buy a speedometer calibration box that will alter the output signal from the sensor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tforce Posted July 3, 2012 Author Share Posted July 3, 2012 Bleeding the hydraulic system is difficult at best, most who have experience with it here recommend compressing the slave cylinder completely with a c clamp while bleeding the lines. The speedometer gears can't be swapped without opening the case. Much cheaper to buy a speedometer calibration box that will alter the output signal from the sensor. Subaru recommended using a Vacu Bleeder.....never seen or heard of that but assuming it's a powered vacuum device of some sort. I just bled the system like you would a brake system. Only got a few small bubbles. Seems to fine working fine at the moment....weird. Can still push the slave cyl in by hand and pump the system back up to normal working pressure. Any recommendations on brand or place to buy a calibration box? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
torxxx Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 im interesting in this speedometer calibration box for my SVX since I went from 3.54s to 4.44 gearing. Where you guys getting them at? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairtax4me Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 There are a few out there. The Yellow Box is a simple to use unit with a few switches that you set a certain way to alter the output. Has a chart with settings and good instructions for how to use it. http://www.yellr.com/yb_home.htm There is also one called TrueSpeed which looks a bit more difficult to use IMO, and they advertise it only for trucks, but for the most part speed sensors work the same way regardless of what they're on. http://www.superlift.com/accessories/truspeed.asp Yellow Box is only about $100, the TrueSpeed is $200+. There are others out there as well. These are just the few that I know of off hand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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