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Will a 98 Outback tranny fit a 99 Forester?


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From what I've heard, some 98's have the earlier trans and some have the newer that would be a direct swap for your 99.

 

The easy way to identify is that the newer ones have an external screw on oil filter.

 

An older trans may bolt up, but the wiring and TCU are also different.

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You are correct with the number of bolts being different but it will still bolt up. It may require a few parts being swapped on the electrical end. I don't know for sure that it will work. On all of the interchange systems the transmissions or very vehicle specific.

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A local shop has offered to rebuild mine for $1200. Since the used trannies to fit my car directly have been coming in over a grand I think I'll go that way. The 98 has 140,000 miles on it and is questionable in quality. I had been thinking I could find a JDM one for $500 or so but that does not seem to be happening. At least if I have it done right it should last the remaining life of the car.

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A local shop has offered to rebuild mine for $1200. Since the used trannies to fit my car directly have been coming in over a grand I think I'll go that way. The 98 has 140,000 miles on it and is questionable in quality. I had been thinking I could find a JDM one for $500 or so but that does not seem to be happening. At least if I have it done right it should last the remaining life of the car.

 

why the rebuild, what's wrong with your trans? what are the symptons, bearing noise?

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It started when I pulled into the garage here at work and selected reverse. The car lock up and did not move for a second as I let up on the clutch and then went bang and let go. After I drove it again it went thup thup thup anythime it moved. No noise you can hear in neutral. I popped the hood and saw that the axles had faioed boots. I figured a joint had failed and locked up. I replaced both axles and still had a noise, a bit less, but it's still there.

When we had it up on the lift in gear you can hear the noise coming from the rear of the tranny with a stethascope.

We won't really know what let go until it's apart. I kind of wonder if it had slightly worn internal linkage that let it select two gears at once at least partially. At first I thought it broke a spider or ring gear but the noise does not seem to be from the diff.

It will be apart in a couple days as I'm going to drop it off at noon. I'm kind of curious as I have not seen this particular thing before, and I don't think it is common on Subarus.

If I did not need the car I'd just wait until I found a tranny I was sure would fit but I need to rebuild my porch before winter and I'm now hauling boards on my motorcycle.

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So a spacer that sets the gear clearance in the transfer case shattered. Pieces wnet into the bearing and the gear moved forward ruining both transfer gear sets. Transmission gears themselves are fine. they want to sell the entire transfer case for $500 which seems a bit expensive. More later.

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The latest update on the Forester tranny saga. I got it back today after $1600 worth of rebuild,the tranny sounds great but the new left front axle I got from Kragen is definately defective.

I'll install another Subaru rebuild axle Monday.

The tranny guy found an update that will prevent the same transfer case spacer problem and if any of you guys have it apart you should consider.

What failed on my car was that when play developed in the transfer case the spacer at the end got a bang with each shift. Eventually the spacer work hardened and broke putting debris in the gears. This ruined the entire gearset in the transfer case.

Subaru's fix is to install a thicker bearing with no spacer to break at all.

This hurt but I reckon it was cheaper than another car as the body and suspension is OK. I may buy another engine to rebuild for the day when that shows its ugly head. This would have been cheap if I had a spare tranny I had bought at a deal.

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Cookie, thanks for the follow-up and info. I'm sorry that the repair cost so much, but I'm sure you finally found the real cause and eliminated it. I find it so annoying to have someone start a thread like yours and then it dies without explanation so we never learn something from it. Long live the Forester.

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