(Oops... should have said shifter cable in the subject. Wish I could edit those after the fact...)

 

Just put in a new shifter cable in my (new to me) 1997 Legacy LSI, 2.5l engine.  The PO drove the car for a very long time with the cable so loose that you could push the car into reverse without any kind of override. So, I don't trust that he did things 100% by the book and think the old nut may have fallen off and been replaced by a hack.

 

The question I have is about the nut that should be on the left in the red circle. I've looked through my manual and the parts diagram from Subaru and the pics are either too small, grainy or are missing this detail:

 

 

The PO had this nut on the end and it was very loose:

 

 

It has a built-in washer that spins and it spanned all the way across both parts of the fork in the top picture. It locked the end of the cable 100% to the fork -- no wiggle at all. This doesn't seem right to me in that cables generally have the ability to wiggle/rotate a bit, and it seems like it should be locked to the aluminum piece in the center of the fork instead. But... that would be aluminum wiggling against steel.

 

Here's the broken rod and the old nut that was on it:

 

 

BTW, The cable came from Subaru with just the cable and a new long nut.

 

So... anyone know what goes on the back end of the cable? The old washer from the PO? Another long nut that would lock the aluminum pivot between two long nuts (I have the old and the new.) Something else? As always, thanks for your help.

Edited April 16, 201510 yr by bendecker

I would use the old long nut with the new long nut that came with the cable, if you have two of them. That should work better than what was on there. Good Luck!

Put it all back together with the two long nuts and a lock nut as a backup. Working great! Thanks, again, for the help.