Another 4EAT Torque Bind thread......

[Numbchux]

I feel like there should be a definitive sticky on this, or something in the USRM.....I know it's common, but never payed much attention to the discussion.

 

 

Well....I bought a '96 Outback from my ex-girlfriend, it needs a lot of work, but I know I can rehabilitate it for a profit.

 

175k ish miles. Stock, original transmission/rear diff (4EAT). Swapped to a '94 2.2 several years ago.

 

 

It's got nasty torque bind. FWD fuse seems to remedy it (it's also got a badly clicking CV, which got massively worse in FWD, so bad that I did not test for bind). Fluid looks very clean, so I suspect it's been serviced. But I may do it again....

 

 

Anyway, I will double-check this stuff, but let's assume that the Duty C is fine, and fluid/filter doesn't fix it. What's the next step.....transfer clutches?

[Fairtax4me]

Pull the transfer drum out and see if it has grooves cut into it from the clutch plates hitting it.

They can sometimes be filed down smooth to get rid of binding. Worst case you have to replace the drum. You have to remove the clutch plates from the drum anyway, so might as well put new ones in.

Parts are usually less than $500 including the Duty C, which is like $120 by itself.

[johnceggleston]

it may be mechanical, and fairtax has covered that.

but the odds are that that new fluid will improve if not fix it.

 

a bad duty-c and dirty fluid seem to be the most common causes.

fluid maybe more than duty c since it is a result of little or no maintenance.

 

i have heard of one situation where apparently a bad (stuck?) duty-c was corrected by new fluid.

 the FWD fuse did not fix the binding or put the car in FWD,

but with new fluid, the duty c did in fact put the trans in FWD.

this of course is all based on the owners report.

but ircc, the owner was not a dummy.

 

but if you have to open it up,

unless you have lots more time than money ,

you may want to consider taking care of everything at once.

 

if you don't mind doing it twice,

just do the minimum.

 

if i was selling the car,

it would be hard for me to sell it ''knowing'' there was something wrong or about to brake.

but bad discs are way less common than dirty or bad duty c.

so if fluid fixes it,

you are good.

 

by the way,

if the duty c were bad,

you would have (should have) a flashing AT Temp light at start up.

Edited May 28, 2014 by johnceggleston

[Numbchux]

Good to know. Like I said, the fluid does not look old. Maybe I'll use some SeaFoam TransTune transmission flush before I change the fluid, and see if I can't get it to let loose.

 

 

I did not know about the AT Temp light, so that's good to know.

 

 

 

 

Another peculiar thing.....this car chewed up a set of tires. When I was inspecting it before I bought it, I noticed the left rear tire was basically bald. The PO said she bought them all at the same time, and had not had them rotated....so I assumed there was something out of whack. But it drives straight and true, I've pushed it a bit into corners, and I wouldn't guess it's got any alignment issues or bad bushings. Anyone ever heard of binding AWD chewing up tires?

[idosubaru]

the binding puts the drive train under high tension. that tension is released by the tire skipping/sliding over the road. you can hear it well on gravel/loose surface, the tires let loose and sliding through a slow, sharp turn.

 

with warn struts or trashy roads that will all be escalated. when i have a vehicle with warn struts in the nasty mountain roads of WV, the tires wear very fast - so i'm assuming it's strut and/or poor road related.

 

i'm not surprised by what yo'ure seeing.  fix the known issues and i bet youre golden.

 

an alternate "fix" is to install the Duty C type switch in for the FWD fuse - which is just one wire, so it would take a couple minutes as opposed to pulling the rear extension housing.  then you can flip between FWD and "locked" 4WD and have a perfectly usable vehicle with almost no work, a good option on high mileage vehicles, rusty vehicles, or cars otherwise not worth gobs of money.  which is nearly all 1990's Subaru's in my area, but everyone is different and since you're wanting to sell it, probably not ideal.

Edited May 29, 2014 by grossgary

[Numbchux]

Follow-up....

 

 

1 can of SeaFoam Trans Tune. Drove 100 miles. Drain, fill, drive about 50 miles, drain, replace trans filter, and fill. The problem seems to be completely gone.

 

 

Also.....the toe was pretty out of whack, front and rear. Alignment shop was (surprisingly) even able to get the rear adjustment bolt to move, and got it back in line. I'll throw some new tires on it this week, and hopefully have it ready for a new home by the weekend.

[CNY_Dave]

Cool beans.

 

Our Forester is just a little 'tight' on parking-lot turns, maybe I'll try this if it starts to get worse.