transmission issue 91 legacy obw strut lift rebuilt engine

[topsecret]

Hello all.

I have a 91 legacy sedan.

It has an ej2.2 and a 4eat.  It is the model with the "manual" 2 3 range button.

I lifted it with outback struts and springs in the front and in the rear I used outback struts but used the springs that were originally on the car in the rear because there were different tophats.

Since I've gotten the car it's only been used occasionally for trips to the mountains but now I'm starting to drive it regularly and some problems have popped up.

Problem #1 :  I think it may be torque binding?  Slow turns in parking lots are painful and the vibrations can be felt through the whole car. 

I have checked wheel rub and it's close to non-existent.  However I do have 205 65 16's on it on Chrysler sebring wheels so they are much larger than stock and the back spacing is different than stock but the rims I have actually have much more room around the calipers than stock.  At full lock I get a tiny bit of rub in the front but the binding and vibration happens much sooner than the wheel rub.

Problem #2 : After the car is hot (driving for longer than 30 minutes)  It starts having a weird thump downshifting.  It is much more noticeable at highway speeds and only happens when you are slowing.  If you let off the gas and coast it will start the weird downshifting when the tach drops all the way to idle (700 - 1000)  Again, this doesn't happen on short drives, only when the car is hot.

I have been flushing the transmission with the drain the pan then top it off method.  I have done this twice and have been told that I may have to do it up to 5 times.  I haven't noticed any improvement with the 2 but will continue.

I have also drained the rear differential and refilled it with lucas 75w-90 synthetic diff fluid ( I don't really know if this was the right stuff to use but I had it sitting around from a job and I really wanted to see the condition of the fluid that was in there.)

The transmission fluid looked darker than new but didn't really look bad.  There wasn't excessive clutch material, no metal shavings, and the fluid wasn't black or burnt and had no evidence of water.

The differential fluid was a bit dirtier and had some darker spots in it.  I couldn't really tell what it was.

Also where the axles connect into the rear diff it looks like there may be very minor seepage.

 

Where to next?

I have read that it may be a duty c solenoid or rear transfer clutch?

how can I diagnose which it may be?  If it was the clutch would I see evidence in the fluid?

 

Could this be caused by the rear springs being a different height?

I've heard of problems with different sized tires.

 

Also just to throw a wrench in the works I just recently pulled the engine and rebuilt it.

Could this problem be connected to a bad ground or a bad sensor?  This was my first time taking apart a Subaru and I'm sure I could have messed something up along the way.

 

Thanks for reading my long winded post.

here is my engine before and after just for fun

 

[topsecret]

my pics wont work I guess.

[topsecret]

update:

After more research I found out that the fwd fuse powers the duty c solenoid and defeats 4 wheel drive.

I put the fuse in and the "torque bind" went away.  So I now know that the transfer clutch is the point of my trouble.  I think. lol

I still don't see any clutch material in my fluid and have done another flush.

I just noticed that there is some sort of canister along the frame rail between the transmission and the cooler.  Is this a filter?  Should I be replacing it with my flushes?

[Gloyale]

The lift and the engine are likely not connected to the torque bind and shifting issue.

 

That is indeed a filter.  It's probably clogged to hell by now, I would just remove it.  They were added to a run of cars in the early 90's to deal with a possible shavings issue in the trans.  They added the filters to deall with it and not have to junk thousands of transmissions purchased from Jatco.  Later models have the same trans with no filter so it's ok to remove it.

 

To be clear, the FWD fuse is like a switch, put a fuse in it's like turning it on.  This signals the TCU to send power to the Duty C to relieve pressure.  The FWD fuse doesn't actually complete that circuit it's just a signal switch.  So don't jump 12v to it or anything.

 

The fact that the FWD works means the Duty C is working.  I would say you may have a Throttle position sensor adjustment to make, or you may have mismatched size tires.  IF none of that is the problem then maybe it's an issue of ridges on the transfer drum.  These will keep the clutches stuck.

[topsecret]

I was ordering a new filter for it right now. now I don't know.

is it pretty common to delete that part of the system?

 

also

update- I read the tcm

the first time I read it there was a 15 amp fuse in the fwd slot. and it came up with the codes 13 - (shift solenoid 3), 15 - (shift solenoid 1), 32 - (vehicle speed sensor 1), and 33 - (vehicle speed sensor 2).

I realized the fuse was in and took it out and tested it again, I got all 4 codes again at first but then 2 of the codes disappeared while I was reading it.  Now the only two codes that are on are 13 and 15.

where do I go from here?  is it for sure the solenoids or could a bad connection cause this?  Is there a way to test these solenoids individually like I did the duty c?

thanks again for any help.

[topsecret]

another update:

after driving it for a while 32 came back.  I'm assuming that's the speed sensor that has something to do with the speedometer because I did notice that the needle is wagging a bit but it is still accurate?  I really think I'm looking for a bad ground. 2 solenoids and something in the dash??  this just isn't adding up with me.  can anyone tell me where the ground for these is located?