Could not get the 10mm headed bolt to come out because the head was well weathered. Thought I'd try the cold chisel method but whacked too bluntly after thinking I'd just seen it turn a hair outward.

 

The area I'm talking about is the rear-most sensor on a '99 Legacy 4EAT. This is in an effort to swap out the dreaded speed sensor harness which has a total of 4 harnesses in one. Three are metal cylinder type and this is one of them.

 

If you are unfamiliar with what I'm talking about it's just a small raised part of the case to accept the bolt which holds the sensor in. It's located on the drivers side as the entire harness goes to 4 points on that side.

 

The sensor is still in but freed up now. Just have to drop the tranny some to get it out because it's so damn tight inside the tunnel. Looks like the sensor seat is not affected. My day got wet , dark , and frustrating real fast so I can't say I took the best of looks at it but I really think I might be able to salvage this. I saved the small chunk that blew out.

Also , there was no room or lack of patience to get a vice grip on it , etc.

 

Thinking back of course I'd rather have been more patient and bought a narrow vice grip etc etc etc ,,,, but let's not discuss that matter please.

 

So , you think one of those JB's will hold that bolt in? I guess they have several types now. Any one best for that alloy?? those tranny cases are made of?

 

Thanks for any help.

Pretty sure they make a JB for aluminum. Should work fine. Build up a layer or three all around the part that broke off.

I've layered JB weld with small strips of fiberglass cloth to add strength to it. Have considered wire screen for the same reason.

that sounds like a very benign bolt.  sounds like it should easily hold even with JB Weld which is a low grade repair.

 

i've repaired lots of threads and found JB weld to be a poor long term option.  i've had it fail on stripped out/broken off chunks of bosses for bolts before.   i avoid it unless there's no other choice.

 

another possibility, if it looks like there are any deeper threads, use a longer bolt with some locktite.  almost every bolt hole in the vehicle is deeper than the original bolt and using a longer bolt accesses clean/unused threads.  use a thin screw driver to approximate depth, get a longer bolt, if it bottoms out use washers...etc, really simple.

Thanks Gary , I might try that or a small strap with two small screws tapped in.

 

Mostly need to get through emissions and I'll be all set. We won't have this car for more than the two years emissions , I'm pretty sure.

 

Looks like I'll be dropping that tranny way down now.Going to turn into one of those extreme headache jobs I can tell.

O-ring does al the sealing, just need to keep it from falling out.

Yes , I know , thanks. The quest is to hold that sensor in place well enough to at least get thru emissions test. I will try the best I can and probably add a wedge of pine to be sure it doesn't back out and fail. Once past emmisions I could care less as long as it doesn't affect anything for driving.

 

I still haven't researched what that particular sensor's function is. It's the rearmost lower. Neutral? Reverse?

Maybe you could tie a bale wire or similar around it to keep it tight to the trans if the bolt will keep it aligned properly. OR some kind of strap, perhaps. The wire would be more discreet

Thanks. That's another good idea. First thing we thought of here was a huge wire tie. Looks shouldn't matter. They just need to plug in the OBD and have no codes at all. The original problem was the speed sensor. I'm hoping this isn't that sensor.

 

Having to drop the pan for all the electrical connectors is a pain in itself while working at ground level. This ordeal just adds more "pleasure" to it all.

The last sensor on the drivers side is the rear vehicle speed sensor.

Lovely ......

 

 

thanks

Ahh......I'd say even just slapping some RTV around the sensor and sticking it in would work fine. Not like there is any force on the sensor anyway.

And for some reason I thought this was on your FWD car....you have to many Legacys!

 

Because you can technically just change the one sensor in the harness that is bad. You can't buy it separately but you can unpin it from the main harness plug and not have to drop the pan or mess with other sensors that are ok........sorry I just realized what you were talking about. Lol.

Yeah , and I had that thought AFTER I began surgery.

My loss of time , my gain of pain. Double

Story of my life ....

My brother's legacy , or his daughters , soon to be ours. Probably going to flip it come fall.

 

Also , this pan has a gasket! But of course the dealer shows it doesn't , so I'm using the old one which came out pretty good. Will goop it up some too.

Update 2015 ****

 

This job turned out well because of our man Subafreak. Turns out I had done a good enough job of JB welding the wrong sensor in the right spot. So Jesse swapped the pins on the connector and now all reads as it should.

 

So the lesson here is that the new harness has to travel along the top of the tranny and the very last sensor is the lower one with the white insulating jacket. Info you'll want should you swap in a new transmission harness.