Another trans swap/TB issue. (Yes, i did a ton of searches first)

[biggman100]

The car is a 1997 Legacy outback, auto, with a 2.2 swap, with 236k on it now, that i bought in 02/2016, and have been driving since then, with a TB issue, due to not enough funds, as well as not driving it much. Fast forward to around 08/2016, when i started driving it more. The first issue i am having, is that since i know that it will be better to just replace the trans with a used one, since i highly doubt after driving it this much, that replacing the clutches and duty solenoid, and then several drain and refills of fluid, will help anything. All of the local yards say that ONLY the 1997 trans can be used, and only the Legacy outback trans. My research on here seems to say different, but i would like to confirm that for sure, as i have read that the 96 to 98 Outback 2.5, and 98 forester will work, as well as the 96 to 98 2.2, as long as i swap to a matching diff. Any thoughts and advice are greatly appreciated.

 

 

[idosubaru]

if it's just torque bind you don't even need to drop the transmission - verify the issue, replace the clutches, Duty C solenoid, or both.  way easier than a transmission swap.

what if the Duty C wire is broken (usually rodent damage) and a "new" transmission does the same thing?

 

Any 1996-1998 legacy, forester, outback, Impreza with an EJ25 engine will work.

 

EJ22 (and EG33's) transmissions plug and play and run perfectly too - they just have a different final drive ratio in the front diff (which is integrated in the transmission for Subarus).

EJ25 = 4.44 final drive

EJ22 = 4.11 final drive 

 

so if you swap the rear differential to match final drive ratios you can even use EJ22 automatic transmissions which means any 1996-1998 transmission. 

 

1995's are the same engines, not sure about transmissions - they might work. 

1999's are odd - electronically legacy/outback engines are identical to 1995-1998 models so they probably work.  forester/impreza EJ25's and all EJ22's in 1999 are Phase II vehicles with different engine electronics, not sure if that carries over to the transmissions. 

 

if you find a 95 or 99 just google it - i know it's been discussed before. 

[biggman100]

The reason i am leaning towards just replacing it is due to the fact that since august of last year, i have put more than 4000 miles on it, and the transmission has developed some issues, such as slipping, hard shifts, weird downshifts at odd times, and, i actually had this same issue on a 1996, that i never bothered to fix, and just drove until one day it wouldnt move unless it was either put in first manually, or it would hit about 2000 RPM's from idle, and, after replacing the clutch pack and duty solenoid, draining and filling the fluid, that transmission blew up 3 weeks later. When i replaced the clutch pack and solenoid in that transmission, i dropped the pan, and it had a ton of clutch material in it, which i assume came from the clutch pack, because the clutch material was completely gone, and that that clutch material got inside the valve body, and no matter what i did, could not get completely out afterwards, and would cause all kinds of shifting issues.