i am working on the removal of the automatic transmission from my 2001 forester i have removed what i think are all of the bolts, i count 5 bolts and two nuts leaving two studs at approx the 4 and 8 o'clock positions. i removed 4 bolts from the torque converter mounting and the aft transmission mount is free.

 

i can not seem to get the engine and tranny to seperate i have tried everything i can think of. if i releave preassure on the tranny jack the whole engine pivots as one unit. there is no sign of seperation anywhere. HELP PLEASE!!!!

Seperating the engine from the transmission when removing the engine from my 1999 Outback was also quite difficult. The two dowl pins (pressed into the block) were frozen tight in the trans case from electrolysis. Penetrating oil and vulgar language did nothing to break it free. I finally lifted the tailshaft of the trans with a floor jack, creating a small gap between the trans and engine on each side. I CAREFULLY slid in a thin putty knife on each side of the gap and raised & lowered the jack repeadedly. Slowly I was able to insert the putty knives further and further in the growing gap between the engine & trans (use thicker scrapers as the gap widens). I spent a good 2-3 hours seperating the engine from the trans. CAUTION: you WILL break the transmission case or block if you apply enough uneven force! If you try this, make DARN SURE you've got all the engine to transmission bolts removed. Hopefully someone else will know a quicker & easier trick, if not, take your time and you'll get it.

Just wanted to post a quick thanks. We finally got the transmission off with a little bit of gentle prying and pulling. Of course once we got it off I found my problem was much worse than I had hoped:boohoo:

 

Oh well, on to find a used transmission.

 

Thanks again.

Get one from Az!

 

They are Dual Range down under!

 

For what it's worth,

Glenn

82 Hatch, has D/R tranny.

01 Forester, wants a D/R tranny.:madder:

WOW, a 99 and a 01 that have tranny issues? YIKES!!

The only reason my '01 has a trannie issue is because an oil change place partially drained my differential fluid when doing an oil change. Can't prove it but I'm pretty sure that's what happened. My guess is some kid started draining the diff fluid and stopped once he realized it wasn't oil. He probably then drained my engine oil and never topped off the diff. I then proceeded to drive ~800 miles towing a boat like that! Learned my lesson!