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99 Legacy Center Differential. pulling hair out. not much left.


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Hi,

 

I have a 1999 legacy wagon, 2.2L, 5mt with 130,000 on it.

 

last spring the car started making clunky noises while turning, so of course I replace the front axles. still making noise. So I replaced the right ball joint. still making noise. Then I replaced the right front wheel bearing. still making noise. (these things probably needed to be done anyway).

 

I finally figured out that the center differential needed help and was making the clunking noise.

 

I bit the bullet and jacked up the car. pulled off all the stuff to get to the tranny extention and then pulled off the rear piece with the center differential.

 

The snap ring on the viscous unit had come off and was in lots of pieces. bearings not bad. viscous unit was frozen.

 

I decided to clean everything up and reinstall the unit. I also removed the rear piece of the propeller shaft so I'd be converting the car into a front wheel drive. I left the front half of the propeller shaft installed, to stop tranny oil from leaking out.

 

After reinstalling all the parts I thought I'd go for a test drive.

 

No Way. couldn't even make it down the drive way.

 

with the tranny in gear and clutch all the way out it barely moves. feels like the clutch isn't fully engaged. this was never an issue before I "fixed it".

 

is there anything that I might have done to cause this clutch issue? I dont' know if the clutch can be adusted, or bled or something.

 

Any advice would be helpful.

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I have fixed the center diff before is very hard and has to be pressed togther to get snap ring in also has about 60 peices to it that are stacked in very specific way any discks damaged will no go back togther. Best bet is new trans also i find that when i reinstall them putting in 4.5 L of gear oil helps them to last came with 3.8 but is not enuff to keep center diff in oil all the time so extra 3/4 of a L keeps the level up enuff to help center diff stay cool and last

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Thanks for all the great advice.

 

I'm currently looking into buying a unit from a junk yard.

 

this was yet another thing I tried that didn't work too well. Last time I tried something crazy, I installed a carburator off a v6 pinto on my 604 peugeot. It ran, but not any better. That car was disaster.

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Dont know why it didn't quote you here....the new forum is garbage compared to the older versions of USMB IMHO...

 

Anyways this is a quote from that dude with the grenaded Phase II:

 

Thanks for all the great advice.

 

I'm currently looking into buying a unit from a junk yard.

 

This is me:

Good luck!  Phase II center diff's are rarely divorced from trannies!  If you can find one you'll likely grenade a gear down the road.  I'd start looking into a new tranny.

Edited by 99lego
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Whole center diff has to be replaced in 99 and later transmissions. The VC is part of the center diff carrier.

 

WTF the quote option worked fine here.....

Quote function works the same now as it did before.

Put quote tags around whatever you want

XXXXX [\quote] replace \ with / . If you use the "quote" button, make sure the tags do not get typed over or deleted.
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Whole center diff has to be replaced in 99 and later transmissions. The VC is part of the center diff carrier.

 

 

Quote function works the same now as it did before.

Put quote tags around whatever you want

XXXXX [\quote] replace \ with / . If you use the "quote" button, make sure the tags do not get typed over or deleted.

 

^

yah.....what he said

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As of late have been fixing the 97 and up awd unit by installing the 97 and older awd tailshaft/ rear trans assembly into newer trans units the older awd is way stronger and is direct fitt. had two outbacks in 2 days both smeared awd  units fixed both with older awd units and fixed and way better awd., It takes one newer trans and one older trans to do this but worth doing

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You can't do this on a Phase II style trans.....

 

Sure you can.  I've done it.

 

The VC is basically one of the 2 spider gears.  Knock the center dowel out and take the carrier apart.  It does come out as a unit and you order a new one from Subaru.

 

 

 

And for quoting if you delete text from a quote to only respond to portion of someones comments, you have to be careful not to delete very begining of their text.

 

You can delete the first visible character....but not the hidden text infront that defines the quote.  IF you select the whole text block and hit delete, it will remove the hidden text that defines the quote box.  I ussually leave the very first letter, and then put the cursor in front of it and then hit a single "delete" keystroke and the hidden text for "boxing" will stay.

Edited by Gloyale
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