Well I finally blew reverse tonite out wheeling after work.  Starting to see the weakness of the EJ25D.. They dont make enough torq to turn 29" tires with the stock 4.11 gearing.  I have having to sidestep the clutch @ 4500 RPMS to get moving tonite in 2-3 feet of hardpack snow.  I noticed the other weekend reverse was getting noisy and tonite finally did it in.  It got the point where I was stuck in reverse.

 

I'm not sure if I bent a shift fork, or my shift linkage enough that reverse wasnt fully engaging but it sure sounded like teeth missing on a gear to me.  

 

I have a 05 Outback 5MT at the shop that has bad bearings in it and I have a set of new bearings sitting in my toolbox.  I dont want to have to build the hybrid axles I did when I did the 05 to 01 5MT swap, so I figure I use my 4.11 front diff so I retain my external stub axles and then use the rest of the 05 tranny?  I have the $ to order the 4.44 R&P for the front diff so I'm figuring I'd install that and a welded center diff while I have it apart. 

 

I'm not familiar enough with the Phase 2 5MT so I figured I'd better check here before I get into a rats nest.   I know theres a few guys on here that have built these trannys using other year/make/model parts so what direction do I need to go?

 

 

you can use that 05 trans with out having to build custom axles, just get the axles stubs from an auto and axle seals for the older trans, the auto axle stubs just pop right in and you can use your old axles like stock. I've been running this set up for about 5 years now.

I Think thats the route im going to have to go.  I need to find a place online that sells gears and other various rebuild parts.. for my own offroading rigs, I cant afford to buy Subaru original every time.  If I remember right from when I pulled the tranny, it was the input bearing and the 4 bolt bearing that where making noise.  I dont think there was anything with the gears..  I'll check the syncros but since its an offroad rig, as long as I can shift from 1/2/3/R with a little noise I'm happy lol

we had problems with the reverse idler going to far and missing half the teeth i enginerd a reverse shim is a 1/4 thick and sits on the reverse idler shaft between the idler gear and the case to prevent it going past the reverse main gear. It works for all 5 speeds and make reverse 70 % stronger

got the tranny tore down earlier, it ended up being bad front diff bearings that were making the noise.  I have not ripped the tranny out of my outback yet, I think I'm going to just built this 05 tranny and use a Phase 1 Front diff and bearing caps.  

 

I can see what you are talking about ivan, it sounds like thats what mine did.  I still have SOME reverse but it sounds god awful like the edges or half the teeth are gone.   Thanks for the idea I'm def gonna look into it.

 

As for the phase 1 and phase 2 center diffs, I'm assuming the phase 2 is better?  or so I want to run my Phase 1 extension housing?