Fairtax4me

A bad TOB will make noise based on engine speed. Either a grumbly whine or a rattle sound. TOB will make noise with the car sitting still. Center diff and transfer gears will only make noise when the car is moving. Engaging/disengaging the clutch while moving changes how much load is applied to the coast and drive faces of the gears. When coasting in neutral there is little or no load since there is no power input from the engine. The gears will be lightly riding on the coast face. When changing gear, there will initially be deceleration load on the coast face of the gears, which then changes to load on the drive face of the gear as you roll into the throttle. The load will also shift from coast face to drive face with light changes in throttle while driving as you cruise. There is also thrust loading of the bearings taking place due to the helical cut of the transfer gears. Thrust loading causes the gear to try to push fore/aft as the load on the transfer gears changes. If one of the bearings is making the noise it can change depending on the thrust load being applied to it.

NGK wires? The cheap parts store wires don't play well with the 2.5 engines. How about other maintenance? Filters and such? All recent?

What was the failure mode of the diff? Pinion bearing? I'm just trying to think why the front output shaft would be shoved back hard enough to cause this. Was the front diff repaired? What, if anything, else was removed from the trans to do that repair?

KYB struts. They make the OE struts. The bulbs in the HVAC unit burn out all the time on the older cars. Pretty easy to replace with bulbs from radio shack, or they can be replaced with LEDs. There are a few DIY writeups out there with info and pictures. (Or at least there used to be)

Somewhere out there in Googleland I'm sure these an FSM with info on this trans. I have an FSM that covers 2000 but it doesn't have any info on the VDC trans. It seems to me there should be a certain amount of clearance there, though its probably not hugely critical since they didnt put a thrust bearing or thrust washer there. Was there any play in the bearing?

1 & 4 isn't a coil problem. What kind of plugs are in it? How old are they? How old are the plug wires?

Generally you don't get to drive on it for too long when it starts making noise. The snap ring that holds the center diff carrier together pops out or part of it pops out and gets jammed up in the transfer gears. When the transfer gears shred they put a bunch of metal chunks everywhere, but the big stuff doesn't really make it into the main part of the trans. But it will get into the center diff, transfer and tailshaft bearings and cause damage to those. Eventually they will shred and the tailshaft will start wobbling around like an out of balance wheel. Then the tailshaft housing explodes from the momentum of the rear driveshaft flopping around. With the snap ring gone the center diff housing can pop apart. Then the center diff will chew itself up. Then you go nowhere. Either way, it spells bad.

Look up Primitive Racing and see if they have King Springs for that year. They may have sway bars for it too.

Are the wire colors on the coil all three the same as the harness? What was wrong with the old coil?

It can be done, and yes it will lower compression due to the larger combustion chamber in the phase 2 heads. I've seen it suggested that compression ratio would be between 8.5 and 9.0:1 with that setup, depending on which block you have and how thick of a head gasket you use. Compare that to 9.5:1 compression of the stock setup for that block. The wiring will be tricky. You'll probably want to get the intake manifold, wiring, and ECU for a 99 Legacy EJ22 to keep things as simple as possible for matching up wires in the harness. You could also run an aftermarket engine management system like megasquirt which will make the wiring easier, and provide more tuning ability for a turbo setup.

The early phase 2 transmissions had some problems with the center differential and transfer gears. Pull the tailhousing off and I bet you find a chewed up snap ring and a tooth missing or chipped on one of the transfer gears. Usually does NOT affect the rest of the trans. Pop a new center diff and transfer gear set in there and you should be good to go.

Nope. Pretty easy, especially with the trans already out. Pull the tail housing off and the first thing you see is the transfer clutch drum. Usually the groves are worn into the drum. A little work with a file and you can put it all right back without any new parts except maybe the o-ring seal on the Duty C solenoid.

I wish it was something that simple! I would have kicked myself and not posted anything about it! As far as I can tell (without putting a $500 brake system pressure guage set on it), its working normally. It's just making noise while its compressing. The sound hasn't changed any in the last two days. But it only happens if I really jam on the pedal now. Gonna pull the lines off it this weekend and see if a bunch of crud comes out of it.

Sure it's not the brakes? The u-joints can be replaced but you need to do some drilling/cutting/grinding to remove the staking that holds the bearing cups in. TheUJointstore.com carries replacements that install with an inner snap ring.

Both should have electronic speed sensors. They should be the same but if not they'll be able to figure that out.

Depends on which cars the two came from. Different models could have different front differential final drive ratios. This needs to match the rear differential ratio or you'll get torque bind and damage the limited slip unit in the center differential. Other than that. They'll both bolt up fine. You may need to tap the lower starter bolt hole to put a bolt or stud in to hold the starter. I've done this by tapping the hole in the trans to M12x1.75 and using a 1/2" drill bit to widen the hole in the starter, then got a M12x1.75 x 30mm bolt and 12mm lock washer from the hardware store. Check the shift linkage knuckle to make sure its the same, or just swap yours onto the new trans. Very easy to do with the transmission out.

If it still has oil in it, yes look at the condition. The best thing is to take a 10mm wrench or socket with you and pull one of the valve covers off. Timing belt could be a big deal depending on what year the engine is. There is a VIN stamped into the block on the lower rear corner of the bell housing. 10th digit is the year. Take a VIN-year chart with you. You can also google the VIN and usually get a Vehicle history report of some kind that may tell you the mileage of the vehicle the engine came from, and may help determine how long the engine has been sitting.

Pull up the trim piece around the shifter and press the shift lock release button.

It'll handle the same with the lift if you keep the factory alignment specs. Going negative camber will eat the tires and just make it squirrely and unpredictable on pavement. You can get almost 1.5 degrees negative with the factory cam bolts. Spec is about 0.15 degrees positive. If you go any more than -0.05 you'll start eating tires. The wagons benefit the most in the handling department with a larger rear sway bar.

Pull the timing covers, bolt the crank pulley back on and start the engine, then poke around with a stethoscope to verify the source of the noise. You put a new timing belt on it right? Was it a Subaru belt?

Remove the cable and switch, and move the selector on the transmission all the way forward and back and make sure it goes all the way into the park position. Make sure the detent pin/notch in the switch is lined up properly with the selector shaft on the trans. Then install the switch. Move the selector in the car all the way to the park position. Adjust the cable sheath at the transmission. If there were parts different for the selector switch, make sure the bracket that the cable mounts to is the same as the old one.

It's a 1995. CarFax won't tell you jack for a car that old. If you like it, buy it.

No stress. This is easy. Can almost gurantee it. Checked all of the fuses under the hood? Even the giant ones? Checked the fusible link? Checked fuses in the dash? Does anything else not work? Lights, windows, lighter sockets, etc.?

They've been in use in some cars since the early 90's, but weren't very common. Subaru started using them as early as 97 from what I can tell, though again, not very common. Late 90's and early 2000's they became much more popular. Anything made in the mid to late 2000's almost certainly has wide-band sensors for the front sensors. When Subaru went to the 5 sensor setup on the 2.5 engines in 05, they used wide-band front sensors. As far as I know all Subaru models after that also use wide-band sensors for at least the front sensors. They're kind of mix 'n match in the years before that. Many manufacturers were working on fine-tuning new emissions control systems in order to keep up with changing regulations. Two same model and year vehicles could have two entirely different emissions systems, yet outwardly appear no different. Most of the time in the late 90's to early 2000's if a car had wide-band sensors it would be labeled as having CA emissions specs, but not always. And this is where carefully checking the sensor connector becomes important.

Rod bearings are in the block. They're in the connecting rods that make the pistons move up and down. Overheating thins out the oil and scores the bearings. When those go bad, things go boom, and you end up sitting on the side of the road with a hole in the block. There's no good way to tell of they're damaged without disassembling the block. You can send a sample of oil for analysis to find out if there are high amounts of metal in the oil, but this may not be conclusive if the engine can not be started in order to circulate the oil before taking the sample.