pontoontodd

More pictures of the carnage. You can see the flats worn in some of the rollers, at least one of them was sideways when I took it apart, not sure if it was really going around that way while it was together. You can see the wear on the pinion shaft too. You can also see the needle bearing got toasty. Here you can see where some RTV has plugged one of the oil holes. That has to be from my assembly, it was sealed up with gray stuff before and I used red stuff. Gear paint came in, so I checked the R&P mesh this morning. Here is where I started once I had good backlash and preload on the diff bearings: drive side coast side FSM seemed to indicate the pinion needed thicker shims, so I did that and re set the backlash. drive coast Seems pretty good now, if anything maybe it should have more backlash based on the mesh pattern but it is right in the middle of the spec in the FSM at .006". One half adjustment on both diff bearings brings it up to .008", which is over spec. Any experts out there have an opinion?

I'm guessing when it got assembled one time someone didn't line those up and tightened things down, pushing the pins almost flush and leaving marks on the bearing. Probably what cracked the one that broke. I got that hollow shaft polished out so the pinion shaft spins in it, then swapped around the washers on the small end to get the drag called out in the FSM. Next up is R&P mesh, going to try to get it close and then have to wait because I had to order gear paint, no one in town seemed to have it.

I did mark them with a Sharpie but since they were basically pushed down flush there was no feel. I'll get them sticking up a little. I made a bushing for my Impreza and I know what you mean. I just thought if I could get a new cross deal for reasonable it would save me some time, but the dealer wants $70. Next question, the big needle bearing next to that bearing that failed will not fit back in the hollow shaft that holds all the gears. The hollow shaft from the dual range measures a few thousandths smaller than the one from my old trans. Both pinion shafts measure the same and the bearings fit the same. I'm thinking I'll just polish out the hollow shaft, just wondering if it should be a press fit for some reason. I'd really prefer to use the gearstack that was in the dual range since it looks very good and has a little more overdrive in fifth.

Good to know. I can't imagine these bearings spinning but OK. These pins were pushed down almost flush. I think I can get them out and shim them up a bit.

Since that bearing just rides on the pinion shaft, which is worn about .010" now, I will probably just use a different used ring and pinion out of one of my other transmissions. Anybody know how important it is to really use those pins? I was thinking about just grinding them flush. Either that or I have to pull them out and space them up a bit so I can actually tell if they're lined up with the bearings. Also, I can't seem to find the shifter cross joint on the Subaru dealer site or Rock Auto. I know I've seen them for sale before, I think from the dealer for about $30. The bushings in this one are going out so I'd like to replace that while it's all apart.

Upper shaft had no wiggle. I decided to just pull the trans since I had most of the work done with everything disconnected. I think I discovered the source of the noise: I may not have had the pin lined up perfectly with the hole, but I could tell when I had it apart last time that it had been put together and not lined up before. Probably why the pins are pushed flush with the bearing saddles. So now for the fun of disassembling that shaft, replacing the bearing, and trying to set up the front R&P. Anyone know what year/model that bearing should fit? Like I said, the transfer gear bearings are different than the ones in my original 99 trans, so I'm wondering if this one is too.

You mean the one with the snapring on it? I can see it but I can't see any of the balls or anything to tell if it's failed. Also in these pictures you can see the high/low cable shift in place.

In the process of getting at the trans I took out the propshaft. Looks like it might have been rubbing a little, but who knows when. Might have been rubbing on the little bracket that bolts to the trans tunnel that holds the shifter brace/pivot so I hammered that up a little. Judging by how much rubbing and scraping I've heard, I think it would look a lot worse if had been the propshaft. This is after I cleaned up the middle. I cleaned up the whole thing and painted it so I can tell if it rubs again. Most of the Subaru trans experts I talked to suggested the noise was probably coming from the rear transfer gears, bearings, or center diff bearing. I took the back of the transmission apart. Didn't see any bearings noticeably sloppy or discolored. I did notice this one has tapered roller bearings for the upper rear shaft and a bolt on bearing for the lower rear shaft. The original trans in this car had normal ball bearings for all three. I probably should have listened to jf1sf5 and played with diff bearing adjustment first. All drive subaroo also said that was the most likely cause of the noise. So that will probably be next.

The one on the rear transfer gears? Or the one on the end of the input shaft? I'm working on taking the tailhousing off. Several people have suggested the rear transfer gears / bearings / rear center diff bearing are most likely to be causing the noise, and I figure I have to pull most of the same parts out of the way to check that in the car, if it's not obviously something back there, the whole trans will come back out.

Took the Outback to our friend's place and gave him a ride in the woods with the low range. We were both impressed with what it could do. You can creep up pretty steep obstacles at a walking pace. Then I got it high centered, partially because I was trying to go as slow as possible so I had no momentum. Fortunately with the electric jacks and recovery ramps we got off quickly and easily. I got some video but it's probably not very good. By the time I'd gotten out to his place (before offroading) the car was making some intermittent scraping noises, kind of like a brake dust shield rubbing or a dried out worn ball bearing. Definitely load and vehicle speed dependent, mainly makes noise when engine braking or coasting down. Sometimes it will make noise for a minute and then go quiet for a minute. He thought it was something out at the passenger front wheel. He noticed the RF IB CV boot was torn so I replaced that when I got home but didn't see anything out at the wheel rubbing or scraping. By the time I got home it was making some noise even in neutral when the car was stopped. I crawled under and the noise was definitely coming from the trans, not sure if from inside or the throwout bearing. When it does this and you push in the clutch the noise goes away. My wife and I went to central Illinois to go camping this weekend. Weather forecast turned out to be accurate and they had nice weather and it rained at home. Took the kayaks with us and had a good time. The relevant part of this story is that the trans continued to make the scraping noise intermittently, but never when under load, for the ~400 mile trip. The only other noise I noticed was a few times when we got back into town accelerating from a stop it would make a squealing noise, usually in second, kind of like when you first start up some cars and the belts squeal. This trans does have more overdrive than the stock Outback trans, which is nice, drops RPMs to about 3500 at 80mph in fifth. It can still accelerate up a grade into a headwind with the kayaks on the roof so it's not too much overdrive. If anybody else has transmission noise ideas I'd like to hear them.

Boy would I be happy with the backside of the gears being dirty and just needing to be run. Sounds like a good explanation!

Any idea what in the transmission would cause a gravelly noise while engine braking or coasting down?

You can get tires shaved, used to be a common thing for "stock" road racing classes. You could try to find a used tire with the same diameter as your worn tires. Since even the same brand, model, and size of tire can vary in size, that will be tough since you'd have to measure them inflated. One thing I've done a couple times is just to replace two tires, either diagonal or both on left or right side of car. Center diff is by far the most likely to go out.

Thanks for the heads up, I'm following them now. I'd like to see them really put that long travel car they built through its paces. If the 4.444 is that hard to get, I'd just stick with the 3.90 I guess. Hadn't really looked into it or asked around much yet, that's a ways off, just saw that it was offered in Japan. Also don't really have the patience or experience to set up spiral bevel gears. If they're not available, I did think about making a shorter first and probably second. I think in the 6MT the gear on the input shaft could be smaller. The one on the 5MT is already about as small as it can get.

I will try to use the low range as little as possible and try to go easy on it when I do. As you may have noticed, I'm not real big on driving slow. Considering I've already broken two transmissions and a rear diff, 60% more torque into the gears is scary. I dunno about the DCCD in this car. My medium term plan is to get a lower mileage H6 Outback for my wife and start modifying the 2002 OB H6 we have for off road use. No cage or fuel cell but definitely shocks and skidplates. Might have to put a 4.44 6MT with DCCD and R180 in that eventually.

When I pulled the drain plug out of the old trans, there was a gear tooth stuck to the magnet. I'm guessing that's related to the noise in first gear. Also the trans mount had sheared apart. Not a big deal, it's super soft anyways and the design keeps everything in place even though the rubber isn't attaching both halves. Had another one off another trans we put in (top). The whole engine and trans are pushed back in the car maybe 1/2", probably why this one eventually ripped apart. I got a control cable, clevis, and knob from McMaster. Had to drill out the hole in the clevis and my friend made a bracket for the cable on the trans. We thought it would be best to attach that end of the cable sheath to the trans so it didn't shift when the engine and trans move around. While he was doing that I replaced the radio. Old dirty broken trans vs clean functional dual range trans. I made a slotted hole next to the shifter for the other end of the cable to go through. We were limited on options by the length and stiffness of the cable but this worked out well. Seems to work as you'd expect, shifts smooth but positive. High/low has synchros so you can shift at speed. You can go really slow in low first with the six cylinder, like 500-700 RPM and it seems like you're barely moving. Second gear in low is basically the same as first gear in high. I'll probably test it out in the woods soon but I can tell it will be invaluable in certain situations.

Picture of my Impreza loaded up with an EJ25 and engine crane before we put it in my friend's Forester. This is the only way I could think of to remove the pin that holds the reverse idler shaft in place. Surrounded it with rags to prevent weld spatter from getting in the trans and welded the end of an old bolt to it. Then it pulled out easily. Obviously I cut that off and ground it flush when reassembling the trans. These pins seem like a semi posterior way of holding the shafts, I hope I got them lined up with the holes in the bearings but it was hard to tell. I turned up a brass spacer, seems like it should be about .800" ID x 1.56" OD x .25" thick. Made reverse gears line up much better. Could have made it out of aluminum. Thanks to ivans imports for this tip. Next step was to test assemble. Put everything in the left housing and bolted the input flange, pinion shaft flange, and center diff housing on. This made it clear there was some preload on the input shaft, which may have been what caused the death of the brass synchro ring and coloration of the needle bearing. I had looked for shims this size with no luck. I wound up using some ~1mm thick 8mm fender washers and cutting the edges so they sat flat. Then everything spun freely. I've got it all together now. Shifts through all the gears and hi/lo and turns freely. A couple of the bolts holding the center diff housing on are questionable, but other than that it seems good. Plan is to put it in on Saturday. Sometime after the V2R I noticed grease around the LR CV joint on the knuckle, probably coming from the wheel bearings. Hasn't been making noise but it was slightly loose. Planning on going on a long vacation with the car so figured I should replace that to be safe. I think when I put the rear wheel bearings in this summer I packed the area between the bearings and seals with grease, I'm thinking that blew out when they got hot during the V2R. So I took it apart. I am not sure if the spring on the outer seal broke before or during disassembly, but there's definitely grease all over the knuckle and hub. Also there's not really any grease around the rollers. Not sure if that's because they pushed it out or from getting hot, or not being packed properly. This time I put a little more grease in the middle of the bearing than they came with but didn't really put any between the bearing and seals.

You're probably right, I guess we'll find out. I think the rear is pretty well tied into the cage. The front could use a few more tubes, at a minimum that would require taking the dash out again and probably moving around some wiring and HVAC, none of which I can see happening. Planning on seam welding the other side when I get time. Really that V2R was just a lot harder on the car than anything else we've done. Half the suspension bolts were loose, body splitting apart, radio went bad, etc in just 150 miles. Not planning on doing that again, maybe a Texas race, but those seem much easier on the car. I think if we stick to trail riding it should last a while. I'm also looking forward to seeing what it can do with the dual range. We put the engine we just assembled in my friend's Forester and hooked everything up. Went pretty quick and easy. On the downside that means we've done a bunch of Subaru engine swaps now. His ECU seems to be dead, it was underwater for a while, he's going to get another one and see if he can get it running.

Thanks, All Drive Subaroo in Australia is shipping me a synchro ring and needle bearing. Hopefully it will be here in the next couple days and we'll put the trans in next weekend.

Some more gear pictures and questions. Guy I got the trans from showed me a picture on offroadingsubarus.com of an additional hole drilled in the input bearing sleeve. I don't see how it would do anything. In this picture you can see the hole between the bearings of the input shaft support. This picture shows how the ring gear would sling oil up onto a shelf and into a slot that aligns with that hole. On the left end of this picture you can see the pin that I assume holds the reverse idler shaft in. Does anyone know how to remove that? Then I assume the oil also goes in this hole to lube the needle bearing supporting the other half of the input shaft. Here you can see shifted all the way into reverse the idler gear is only about half in mesh with the gear on the shaft. If I can get that apart I'll make a spacer to get those gears to line up better. My old trans had a good snapring for the bearing behind fifth gear. It also had a good C plate but it has a different number stamped on it than this one. They do measure less than .010" difference in thickness. I see the dealer sells two different plates, I'm tempted to just order them both and use the one that matches the one that was in this trans. Other than that the main thing I need is that brass synchro / baulk ring for the low range. If anyone knows where to get one I'd love to hear it. Otherwise it looks like this one could be deburred and made to work for a while, but it's pretty beat.

I saw these in a magazine and thought it might be something worth trying to do on the Subarus: https://pacomotorsports.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/20170531_085400.jpg https://pacomotorsports.com/product/strong-arms/ The driver's side front corner light has just been electrical taped on since the V2R. Went to the local you pull it yard and they only had Outbacks / Legacies with one piece headlight/corner lights so I got a pair. I think the 95/96 had the one piece lights, in 97 they went to two piece, no idea why. As you can see the little tab that holds the corner light on breaks off anytime you hit the light very hard. I did find some over the weekend to replace this one. Eventually I'll put in the one piece headlights. The adjusters look better, they have levels, should be more robust, but they take a different headlight bulb. I can get HID bulbs that should plug in to fit them. My friend brought the heads and intake from his Forester EJ25 and we put them on the bottom end from my Outback's EJ25. Went fairly smooth, he had left a couple parts at home but it's mostly ready to put in his car, maybe we'll do that next weekend. The trans in the 99 Outback started making a clicking noise in first gear a couple weeks ago. I was hoping it was just a CV axle but only happens in first gear at any amount of throttle, no noise in other gears. Ran it on my friend's lift and he thought it sounded like a countershaft bearing. So that's been parked for a while. On the plus side, hopefully, I got a dual range trans with the right final drive ratio from another USMB user. He said it needed a baulk (brass synchro) ring so we took it apart. Also looks like that bearing inside the input shaft got toasty. I'm guessing the input shaft needs to be shimmed out. I contacted All Drive Subaru in Australia, it sounds like they might have some parts I need. Plate that goes behind fifth gear on the top shaft looks bent, and the snapring behind it should be replaced. Other than that the trans looks mint, synchro teeth look new. Of course just about any parts look mint compared to the stuff that's been on our cars any length of time. Anxious to see what the car will do with a low range. If anyone knows where I can get any of these parts, please let me know.

I would start with replacing the brake switch. Is it possible when you plug the connector in it's pulling on the wire and grounding/rubbing somewhere?

There are some small bulbs with leads on them that you might be able to plug in, I think some of them are size 97. The outside of a 1057 is the ground, but it doesn't matter for an incandescent bulb. If you had a bulb holder with the wires you could strip the ends of the wires and shove them in place of the fuse. I like the idea of unplugging the brake pedal switch and seeing if the fuse still blows, that would help narrow down the problem.

If the switch is working properly, it's open when the car is sitting there, so even if you had an intermittent short to ground after the switch it wouldn't blow the fuse when the car is parked. You can always use crimp splices, pull real hard when you're done to make sure it's a good connection.

hahhahaha you can probably just pull that wire from the back of the fusebox with a pliers, but I wouldn't recommend it! There might be a tab of some kind holding the wire in, if you can figure that out and pull the wire out easily, great. Otherwise you will probably have to cut and splice. Do you have a voltmeter? The wire that has continuity to ground probably goes to the brake lights. If the car just has the two bulbs for the brake lights, you could remove them and see if there is still continuity. More of a hassle if you have a half dozen bulbs for the CHMSL (center brake light). The other wire should have 12VDC compared to ground. You could remove the fuse and make sure it has 0V. Most likely this wire is grounding somewhere between the switch and the fuse, I assume it's what you're going to replace. If you can follow it, I'd see if I could find a spot where the insulation is worn through since there are probably other wires that have or will have the same issue. Might as well double check that the switch is working with your continuity tester while you're there.