legacycentral bbs

I think I already know the answer to this one, but here goes...

I have a '91 Legacy L - non turbo, AWD, automatic trans. Accelerating mildly, I felt a pretty severe clunk at around 40mph. Now, it seems to be stuck in third gear! Neutral and park still seem effective, though nothing else does - reverse doesn't work (engine revs but car stays put) and when the lever is in 'first', it definitely isn't in that gear.

Before this, there were signs that the tranny was on its last legs (less than 100k miles on it though). A recent fluid flush didn't help. It has a slight shudder when accelerating, up until around 40mph. Shifting is a bit slow at times, possibly related to torque convertor lock-up.

Is there any hope of salvaging what's there and getting this car to limp along for another few months, or do I pretty much have to replace the tranny?

Thanks in advance...

It might be that the car is stuck in second. If the control for the front brake band screws up it will get stuck in second or fourth and reverse wont work well if at all.

I did some more troubleshooting based on what I found at http://www.surrealmirage.com/subaru/trans.html

I don't understand the difference that page makes about 'previous problems.' Anyway, whatever those are, I have one. Code 33 came up, Vehicle Speed Sensor #2. Is it possible, then, that the tranny is merely in Safe Mode? I doubt it, as I don't have reverse, and there is a thunk in normal operation when it's trying to shift gears - neither of which I'd expect any sort of safe mode to produce.

Anyone have experience with these speed sensors? According to Alldata, it's located right behind the speedo...I'd rather not tackle this job unless I'm pretty sure it's actually a problem.

I tried pulling the ECU/AT fuse for ~15 seconds but that had no effect.

By the way, it's raining quite a bit today...I wonder if that could be related (ie, shorting out some electrical connection down below).

That's my site. Previous problems.....basically means if you have any codes in there from problems or such.

It's possible it could be speed sensor.....but I sorta doubt it because you heard the thunk.......that's not good.....

I'd stop by a tranny shop....see if they could give you a free diag......a good shop should know those trannys and can probably tell you what's wrong.

If that's a previous problem, what's a 'normal' or 'other' problem then? Both tests are run with the car off, so no new codes are being generated. Could 'previous problem' refer to an error code that was active at one time but has since been fixed?

I've had a hard time finding a decent shop around here...but I'll keep trying. Any recommendations in the San Jose, CA area?

don't worry about the previous problem thing. If something pops up.....then the TCU is getting a signal from that sensor that is out of the normal range.

May want to check i-club in the regional forums....someone there may be able to give you a recommendation for a place in your area.