Legacy release bearing?

[Mikevan10]

1997 Legacy 2.2

 

Tonight my clutch suddenly failed to release upon depression of the clutch pedal. I did have some warning I guess. Over the past month or so there was a rattling with the cluth pedal out. If you rested your foot lightly on the pedal the rattling stopped. I assumed I could probably fix that by a quick adustment of the cable. Well, tonight the rattling seemed a little louder, then the pedal felt kind of funny for a coule of gear changes, then it stopped working. If you depress the pedal you feel a a pretty harsh vibration in your foot, hear noise (a louder rattling I guess you would call it), and the clutch does not release. I took a quick look at the cable end where it attaches to the release lever and it looked ok at a glance. I did not have someone push the pedal in while I watched the operation. I will do that tomorrow. But my guess is that there is a problem with the release bearing.

 

What are your thoughts? Anyone ever experienced anything similar?

 

Thanks,

 

Mike V.

[lmdew]

Yes, they can and do fail. There are two (subaru part only) spring clips that hold the bearing to the clutch fork.

 

I've also seen the clutch for fail at the pivot point.

 

Get a new Grip Force clutch kit off Ebay and change it all.

 

If the fork is damaged you will need it and the spring clips as well.

[MilesFox]

maybe a spring fell out of the clutch disc itself.

[Gnuman]

I had a release bearing fail in my 92 wagon. Drove it for 4 months with the clutch cable disconnected as it had also taken out the pressure plate with it (bearing had seized and ripped itself to shrapnel, then ground down the fingers on the pressure plate until they all bent in around the bearing). Had to get a whole clutch kit and put it in there. When I could finally afford one I fixed it up right and all was well.

 

If you are wondering how I drove it: put the gearbox into neutral whenever you have to stop, then start the car in first gear and shift by matching the revs of the engine to the revs of the transmission. with the clutch cable released the pedal goes to the floor and you can start the car in gear. Yes, it was ugly, but it worked and I *needed* the car. . .

Edited October 21, 2011 by Gnuman

[Mikevan10]

Thanks for the comments. As far as I can tell, it feels like either the release bearing has come disconnected from the fork or the release bearing is coming apart. So I have faced up to the fact that I will be dropping the transmission... Since I need to get this car (it is my wife's) back on the road ASAP, I bought a clutch kit from a local independent shop for $153.00 plus tax and bought two clips from the local rip off Subaru dealer.

 

Have to go to Philly today so will not start the job until tomorrow. Not looking forward to it. Last time it took me a total of 8 hours to remove and relpace a transmission on this car At least this time the temps should be above freezing....

 

I will be in tuoch.

 

Mike V.

[davebugs]

If not getting it serviced grab some sctoch brite discs to touch up the flywheel too.

[Mikevan10]

Shoot! I forgot about that. Normally I do get the flywheel machined.

 

Scotch brite "discs"? You mean that go on a drill?

 

Thanks.

 

Mike

[Mikevan10]

OK. Home late last night so not so early start this morning. I did pick up some 2 inch. diameter Scotch Brite discs. We'll see what the flywheel looks like when I get there and make the decision whether to suffer the delay of getting it machined.

 

Temp not so bad. Mid 40s. I work out in the driveway so it makes a difference... It will get cold tonight, I am sure. Now, let me get a cup of coffee and get to work. Wnder how many surprises (i.e. unforseen prblems) await me!

 

Mike V.

 

Just realized I did not rent a slide hammer to pull the pilot bearing. Any way around this???

[davebugs]

I've never needed a slide hammer to remove a pilot bearing.

 

Buy yea - the scothbrite pads you got are what can be used on the flywheel. ALthough I almost always have it machined myself.

 

A spurt of warmth heading your way, cold again tonight.

 

Froze here overnight (first real frost) and coming again tonight.

[hohieu]

I just finished up with my clutch the other night, and it was cold. I have just a couple of thoughts:

 

My shift linkage bushings were disintegrated upon removal. I didn't feel like making the long drive out to the dealership but found this great thread from Imdew:

 

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=114508&highlight=shift+linkage+bushing

 

I found the bushings at the local Lowes and bored them out to fit the OEM shoulder bolt.

 

Also, you might need exhaust manifold gaskets and the exhaust donut between the manifold and rear section of the exhaust. My local NAPA also had the spring bolt kit.

[Mikevan10]

Just a quick update (since I know I have everyone on the edge of their seats):

 

Altrhough I have dropped the trans out of this (and several other) Subarus, I had a heck of a time yesterday. It took me 5-1/2 hours just to get the transmission out and on the ground.

 

The release bearing came out in about 5 pieces. The clips were nowhere to be found.

 

One thing that I find strange is that the release bearing in the clutch kit that I bought includes a sleeve that you slip onto the "horn" that the old release bearing rode directly on. You install this sleeve and the new release bearing rides on it. Anyone else seen a setup like this? Why would they do this? Is it because they noticed that the "horn" would wear and you would end up with a sloppy fit so now the bearings come with sleeves (and a slightly larger i.d.)?

 

Anyway, by the time I had the trans out I was a bit worn out and beat up (getting too old for this stuff I guess) so I called it quits. Probably won't reassemble until Saturday.

[hohieu]

Yes, that sounds like a repair sleeve for the snout, which sometimes gets worn and grooved as you've already surmised.

 

I, too, had a heck of a time separating the tranny from the engine. I very carefully tapped around the mating surfaces and it finally started to come loose with some wiggling -- jacking the tranny up and down, not unlike trying to free up a stuck drawer. Before reassembling, I cleaned up and smeared some antiseize on the mating surfaces and pins to hopefully make the next time a bit easier.

 

It sounds like you're through with the hard part. Reassembly should go much more smoothly.

[Mikevan10]

Ok, thanks, hohieu, for confirming my theory on the snout sleeve.

 

Thanks also for the encouragement, but my experience is that the real hard part of this job is aligning and mating the trans back up to the engine. That alignment has to be damn near perfect plus the splines must be ptroperly indexed. I find this very difficult to do since the transaxle is so darn heavy and I am working with just regular floor jacks (i.e. not a real "transmission jack"). It's quite a process balncing all that weight on the cup of a floor jack and trying to align it and then slide it forward on a not so smoothe driveway. That, my friend, is what I call the hard part!

 

And I was thinking the same exact thing about cleaning up and anti-seizing the dowel pins before reassembly. I resorted to heat when I was trying to get the trans loose. This seemed to help.

 

 

Mike V.

[hohieu]

I've heard from others that lining the pins and tranny input shaft can be a real struggle, which is why I picked up a tranny scissor jack for the job. With a little beginner's luck, it went in on the first try for me. If you're down here in Philly at any point this week, you're welcome to borrow it.

 

It also helps to raise the front end of the engine, which will cant forward while the tranny is out of the car. I put a bottle jack with a little block of wood under the left engine mount.

[Mikevan10]

Thanks for the kind offer, hohieu. I was in Philly this past Saturday and probably won't be back down for a month or so.

 

Yeah, I normally end up with THREE jacks in use: One under the front of the engine to tilt it back, one under the belly of the transaxle, and one at the tail end of the trans to control its angle. Quite the operation!

[Mikevan10]

Just an update:

 

Removed the cluth cover (pressure late) tonight. Looks in good shape. Very little wear on the disc, but this was expected since it only has about 30,000 miles on it. Some wear on the "fingers" of the diaphragm spring, which would be expected since the release bearing had been coming apart. Not bad though and it probably is perfectly serviceable but since I bought the clutch kit, I am replacing everything.

 

There is a major goove machined into the input snout on the trans, caused by the disintegrating release bearing. About 1/4" wide and maybe 3/16" deep. Good thing the clutch kit came with a repair sleeve and a release bearing with an i.d. to suit!

 

I removed the flywheel. The surface was fine. Just discolered a bit. I touched it up with a 2" dia. scotch brite pad on a drill (Thanks dave bugs). It cleaned right up and left a grippy finish. One thing I forgot to do was to mark the flywhell and crank to make sue it went back on in the same place. But, heck, the clutch cover is not balanced either...

 

I replaced the pilot bearing. The old one was oretty notchy when you spun it. A bit mystifying since, again, there is only 30K miles on it.

 

I remounted the flywheel and installed the clutch. Torqued to spec.

 

That will be it probably until Sunday since we are supposed to get 4-8 inches of snow tomorrow and I am working in the driveway. Supposed to be around 40 F on Sunday and dry so I'll try to finish up then.

[lmdew]

While you had the flywheel off did you re seal the breather plate on the back of the block? A common oil leak source.

[Mikevan10]

Nope.

[Caboobaroo]

Another thing to do is put a bit of anti seize on the input shaft of the transmission to help aid is making it easier to slide into the clutch disc. I also use a bit of wheel bearing grease on the alignment dowel pins as well. Make sure to lube up where the throwout bearing rides on the snout, where it contacts the clutch fork and the pivot ball that the fork rides on. If not, you can end up with a bit of squeaking from the clutch fork. I recently did a clutch in an '07 Impreza and even though I lubed everything up, it came back 3 weeks later with the cutch fork squeaking a bit so I had to yard the trans back out of it and re lubricate everything.

 

If it makes it easier, while you're trying to align the transmission, have the end of the driveline in the transmission and put it into gear. This way you can spin the input shaft of the transmission to aid in lining up the splines. I use just the slip yoke from a broken driveline.

[hohieu]

I hope you find a nice patch of sun... low 40s today.

 

In any case, I resealed the separator plate with some Loctite 518 anerobic gasket maker. It's great stuff, and the first tube I bought was repackaged by Suzuki for their motorcycles -- higher heat and more vibration on motorcycle. It used to also be available at my local Autozone, but I had to ask them to look in their commercial catalog.

 

No big deal on marking the original orientation of the flywheel on the crank, but if there's a paint mark on your new pressure plate, it should be lined up at least 120 degrees apart from the paint dot on the outer edge of your flywheel.

[Mikevan10]

OK. I cleared the slush away from the car and made some progress yesterday. Normally I do this job single handedly but this time I had focused help from my 15 year old kid and it made a big difference. Not that the trans jumped right into place, but it did go in alot quicker and with less blood, sweat and drama than it does when flying solo.

 

Anyway, the trans is re-mated to the back of the engine, strater back in, gear shifter reconnected, etc. Still a fair amount of work to do but we ran out of dalight yesterday so I will pick away at it evenings this week.

 

I also re-tapped one of the front trans mount captive nuts which I had managed to mess up last time this transmission was out. Good to get that nagging worry off of my mind.