1992 Legacy AutoTrans Swap Report

[Mikevan10]

Did the automatic transmission change-out over the weekend. The reason for the swap was the transmission was “slipping”. That it, from a stop if you selected “D” and opened the throttle you went nowhere – the engine would just race. If you selected “3” you got the same result. The only way to move was to select “1” or “2”. Then you could take off and once you achieved about 35 mph you could slip it into “D” and if you very gently opened the throttle, you could nurse it into the upper gears and cruise. If at any time you pushed on the “gas peddle” too aggressively, the trans would disengage. Or, if you had to slow down below about 25 mph, you would have to again select “1’” or “2” and start the process over. The advice I was given by Subaru specialists was to throw in another transmission because there is no chance of repairing this one for less than $1,000.00. Since I have no way to disprove that theory, I went ahead and located a used transmission. I was also told that it “had” to be the same exact year. I was lucky enough to find one pretty locally but it cost me $450.00 for a trans with a reported 116,000 miles on it!! Seems like a lot of money but I didn’t have much choice. I need to get at least another 6 months out of this car.

 

I did the job totally solo in my driveway. The entire job, start to finish, took me 12 man-hours. Hand tools only. I do not have a “transmission jack” but I used three floor jacks to do the job. I had done some research on this forum and read A LOT about how tricky it was to make sure the transmission input shaft and the oil pump drive tube were properly seated. So I went through a couple of dry runs with these parts on my “new” trans before I started the job. It was quite clear when both of these items seated. So clear that I was questioning whether or not I was fooling myself.

 

On the other hand, NOWHERE did I read where anyone had any trouble with removing and, more so, installing the four flex plate to torque converter bolts. This was really the only tricky part of the entire job! The Haynes manual says you can do this either through the top or the bottom. Well, although you can get a line of sight through the bottom I defy you to tell me how you could get any sort of wrench on the bolts from there! At least on my car there was no freaking way. So this left me with only the top option which is no bargain. You have to use one hand, like 2 fingers and blindly fish each bolt though the little access opening, find the bolt hole and start the threads. And all the while knowing that if you drop the bolt, you may very well have to remove the trans to retrieve it! Like I said, the bottom “access” hole is all but useless so you probably would not be able to get dropped bolt out through there. Once you get the bolts started in their holes you barely have enough room to get a wrench on them. I cannot imagine how you could get a TORQUE WRENCH on them. Can you??

 

Anyway, finished up around noon yesterday, added the fluids and it seems to work just fine.

 

Mike V.

[tcspeer]

You done a great job! I can not even dream of doing this in drive way with no help. Me and a freind changed one last spring in a 98 Legacy wagon and we had all of the fancy things to work with and it took us around ten hours, but we wasted around one hour trying to move enough stuff out of the way to get the torque bolts from the bottom which never happened, and we also done one wheel bearing. You are correct the torque bolts are the only hard thing, we poked a rag in the large hole to try and stop bolts from falling down in. You should be fine with the transmission with 116,000 miles I put over 300,000 miles of stop and go driving on a mail Rt. before the one in my other Subaru quit. If I remember correct I complained about those bolts on my post when I finished.

[wtdash]

... on this forum and read A LOT about how tricky it was to make sure the transmission input shaft and the oil pump drive tube were properly seated. So I went through a couple of dry runs with these parts on my “new” trans before I started the job. It was quite clear when both of these items seated. So clear that I was questioning whether or not I was fooling myself.

 

 

Mike V.

 

Mike,

Old post, but I'm doing this job soon. Is the issue above separate from getting the TC in correctly? I've read where it's a challenge to get the TC seated correctly, too.

 

Thanks