nelstomlinson

'96 Legacy wagon, 2.2L, automatic. I put the FWD fuse in, and took the guts out of the rear diff, just left the pinion in to hold up the drive line. I put it in drive while up on blocks, and I noticed the drive line is still turning a bit, and the pinion bearing isn't getting lube, of course. Is that drive line turning just a little bit, won't get faster at speed? Or am I going to have to take the drive line out entirely? It's probably going to get driven hundreds of miles before I get a different differential in it.

The little bit of oil that was left was black, but no sign of water. This thing has never been in more than a heavy dew since the last time I changed that oil.

That was the problem: with everything loose, and the two studs started, we couldn't get the four front bolts started at all. The angle was wrong and we couldn't keep the threads from hanging up on the edge of the holes. That is the worst possible design! My son is saying that next time we should yank that tunnel out, and weld some nuts on the top so we can just shove the diff into place and stick bolts up through. I think he's right - that'll be less trouble than going through this again. Also, on a separate issue, I suspect that the subframe crossmember the back studs go into was slightly warped, because the driver side bushing got pulled WAY out toward the diff when I tried to tighten those nuts afterward. Couldn't really see anything out of straight or out of square lying underneath, of course, but something isn't right.

The old, gutted rear diff is back in place, and that was amazingly hard to do! Is there an easy way to get it back in place and all the bolts back in? Those four that come through the front of it were about impossible to get started in the holes. The angles were all wrong. We were jacking and hammering and prying for hours.

I have one that should work under the parts car, just waiting for Breakup so I can get at it. -10F and 16" of snow is NOT ideal conditions for pulling parts.

The pinion bearing looks OK. Looks as if the driver side bearing went out, wiped out its seal, let the oil out, got totally chewed up, and broke its outer race and the cap that holds the race. Unless those caps are replaceable, I think that differential is done. On the other hand, the ring and pinion gears look undamaged. That's a surprise. Anyway, I'm going to replace the diff housing minus the ring, carrier, etc. and try to have this ready to drive out of the shop tomorrow as an FWD.

It turns out that the differential is structural! I'm going to have to put it back in there in order to be able to drive. I figure I can take the outer ends of the axles off to be able to hold the wheel bearings together. The outside boots are cracking, so they were going to have to be replaced anyway. I'll take the diff further apart, see if I can figure out what else went wrong, and what, if anything, is salvageable. Then it goes back in until after Breakup, when I can get at that parts car.

I got the differential out. The passenger side bearing looks OK. The driver side bearing is a pile of shavings in the bottom of the differential case. By the way, is there a way to remove a picture once it's been uploaded? Somehow I uploaded a 1meg pic that turned into almost 4megs, and it's taking up a 1/3 of my quota.

GeneralDisorder, looks as if that kit you linked will slip onto the end of the cat, probably need a ubolt to clamp it? There is a ridge around the cat's output pipe, and that's what I figure I can fab ears to grab. It looks as if that was how it worked originally.

Gonna guess that any old fuse will do, there isn't enough current to notice, it's just closing a dry contact?

On one of my '96s the clutch switch went out and the starter wouldn't turn the engine over. It was hard to get to, so I just ran a hot wire from the battery to a momentary contact button switch which I mounted near the key. Turn the key to on, then make sure it's in neutral and press the button. I like that better than the original arrangement.

That is very strange about the fuse. That thing I described sounds like the right one, right? I unplugged the connector from the bottom of it, couldn't see any way to lift the thing marked FWD off the top. I don't recall ever seeing an FWD light on the dash, and now that you mention it, I don't think there is one there now. Maybe that thing marked FWD is just a cover, and there is no fuse under it? I'll have to look closer tomorrow.

That is good news about the differentials having the same ratio! Thanks!

I think that was the info I needed. I looked on Rockauto and found this diagram: https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=2993826&cc=1269873&pt=5836 Looks as if the round gasket and the bolt kit will do it. The ears are rusted far beyond reuse, but I can fab them easily. In the mean time, the car has a mean sound with no muffler.

The '96 is a 2.2L automatic. The '99 is a 2.5L DOHC manual. I don't think I've ever changed the rear axles on this '96, though I know I've done it on one of them. This one is on its second or third pair of new rear struts. The rear suspension bushings are still in decent shape; I don't think there is a lot of slop back there. It's probably been a couple of years since I changed out the oil in that rear differential. Nearly as I can make out the axles are still in place, but if I wobble one up, the other goes down. That sounds like serious damage inside the gear box. Speaking of "remove the fuse," there is a little fuse-looking thing marked FWD at the top, back, passenger side of the engine compartment. That has always been plugged in since we bought this in '97. I unplugged that when I backed it out of the shop just now. I'm guessing that disconnects the rear drive shaft? I have some other things I need to get done in the shop, so I'll have to get back onto this next week. At least it moves under its own power still.

Assuming the engine starts and runs ... start it with the radiator cap off. Let it idle a few minutes, and look for bubbles of exhaust in the radiator. If you're getting exhaust into the coolant, that can cause it to get hot, and it will pressurize the cooling system. If you don't see any burping or bubbling, the level just rises smoothly as it warms up, you probably don't have a bad head gasket. '99 Outback means 2.5L DOCH, right? They had a lot of head gasket problems. I have one of those as a parts car, because it had head gasket problems and overheated. The previous owner fixed that, then it developed a bad rod knock and he gave it to the mechanic who passed it on to me.

'96 Legacy, 2.2L automatic. The exhaust pipe was loose on the end of the catalyst. This is the joint where there are two bolts with springs to hold it together. It looks as if the bolts were connected to two ears or a collar or something on the back of the cat, but whatever they connected to is almost entirely rusted away. Also, was there a gasket in there? I picked some crud out, but not sure if it was old gasket or just mud and carbon. What was this? What do I ask for at the parts store? Is there a workaround?

I started hearing alarming clunking from underneath. Turns out the rear differential is all screwed up! The two rear axles wobble about loosely. Can I remove the FWD fuse and the two rear axles and drive it as a front wheel drive for a while, 'till I get it sorted out? Other than lousy traction, that should work, right? I have two parts vehicles: a '99 Legacy outback, manual, 2.5L DOHC and an '01 Impreza automatic. Would either of those rear differentials fit, and is either one likely to have to correct gear ratio? How do I find the gear ratio of the rear end? Is it on the door tag or stamped on the diff, or do I just have to open them up and count teeth?

That's my son's car, and he had been downshifting to slow down, to save his brake linings. Now he knows that brakes are a lot easier than clutches. It broke in a parking lot as he was creeping along, but he had made a habit of stressing it by downshifting.

This was a rush job, needed to get it back on the road, and really needed to free up the shop space, so we didn't get the flywheel surfaced or transmission shaft nose checked. The nearest machine shop is over 100 miles away, and they're good, so they're busy. Oh, well, it'll probably last a while, and if we have to do it again it'll go a lot quicker. Found that the friction disk had broken, the center had come lose from the outer ring. I'd never seen that failure mode before.

Here's an update with what may be the final solution: when we changed the clutch on this, we noticed that one of the pins on the engine-to-car connectors was pushed halfway out, and had obviously not been making a secure contact. That was one of the pins for the TPS! We couldn't get the pin to go back into the connector, so we pulled it out of the connector housing on both sides, and plugged it together outside the housing. A little shrink tubing and it works again!

Thanks, Ido. It is EJ22, and cable. I've found a couple of youtube engine pull videos, and I do have a Haynes and the 95-'96 factory manuals.

This weekend we are going to have to replace the clutch on one of the '96s. I do have a gantry crane, don't have a lift so I figure we'll have to pull the engine. Can anyone recommend any good videos of the process?

1 Lucky, not sure what happened. The engine was put in by a flaky mechanic I bought the car from, and I'm not at all sure he was competent. I wouldn't rule out him just putting it in wrong. The crank seal and other cam seal were looking good, so if there was high pressure, it wasn't bad in those places.

The angle iron u-bolted onto the pulley.