2002 OBW - all the ebay kits are for manual transmission vehicles and the amazon kits are too ambiguous to trust for fitment or say "doesn't work" on my vehicle. 

 

Mine is an H6 but it appears the starter is the same across H4 and H6 says subaru parts. 

Looks like you can guess and probably get it right and most ebay listings right now are for manual trans and most amazon listings are for automatics - looks like two different length plungers between them.  

Anyway - i'm surprised that after a quarter century+ of production this isn't simpler. 

go to the amazon reviews, look for the search reviews box and try putting in 'automatic' or 'auto' and see if a reviewer has actually used the part in an auto.

 

this works well most of the time, but I admit, it may not for something with low sale or only a few reviews.

That's a good idea.bi didn't think about auto but I did search for Subaru and got only one hit of the guy with a manual trans and wrong length.

 

I ordered one so I'll try it out in a few days.

They're very generic parts and apply to a zillion various cars.

Try this site. If your starter is made by Nippondenso, they probably have what you need. I've bought from them. http://www.nationsautoelectric.com/densoparts.html

Great site BB thank you for posting.