legacycentral bbs

My '91's transmission is quite noisey, and from what I've heard, is on its way out the door. A nice rebuilt transmission would be be icing on the cake for this car, too. I'm looking for suggestions, I'd like this cheap as possible.

Current options are: Put core+deposit down on a spare transmission a guy has for his '91 rally car and get it rebuilt by the local Subaru (and Legacy turbo fan). Could be expensive, if he'll actually do it.

Or I could have a dealership do it, for $Texas.

Is there any place that sells rebuilt transmissions for a core, or I could send them a tranny and have them rebuild it? I know shipping charges would be through the roof.

Or anywhere I can just straight out BUY a new/rebuilt transmission from?


1991 Legacy Turbo Sport Sedan.

Have you looked into your local tranny shops? Gotten price quotes locally? Yes, shipping and core, and all that jazz are gonna be out tha yingyang, but.. its your tranny, you need it.
AFAIK, new trannys are around 2k, with rebuilds going for anywhere around half that.. I've not looked too hard, but i s'pose i should be, considering i DO drive a 4EAT..

DeusExMachina wrote: Or I could have a dealership do it, for $Texas.

Did you mean the price of texas?
haha, that's funny!

Yeah, I drive a 5MT. I haven't looked at local tranny shops..I don't know if I'd trust anyone that's a generic transmission shop to do it.

It's from SNL's Celebrity Jeopardy, "And your wager is..Texas..with a dollar sign infront of it?"

Haha, I love Celebrity Jeopardy. Although, my last name incidentally coincides with one of Burt Reynold's little schticks on there, so i picked up that nick for a time.. (Guess which one?) (Hint:TF)
Umm.. well, since trannys are just that, Generic, see if your local shops have done reputable work on Subarus like yours, or visit a speed shop and see who they recommend if you're going more of a performance route.
As a general rule though, unless you've got a dogbox or something, I would guess there's not much difference in a rebuild, even if you were performance-minded. Ask around, and just get it done.. its easier that way, right?

Rebuild is absolutely the way to go, but if you have any sort of mechanical inclination, I would recommend doing it yourself…. You will save an assload of cash. I’ve done a few (~5), they are pretty straight forward, (all you need is a 10, 12 & 14mm sockets/wrenches, a gear/bearing puller, a few larger sockets to remove synchros and a rubber mallet, hehe). If you are slick, you can usually get the guys at the place you buy the bearings to press them on for you. I’ve collected a whole lot more info, if you want it, let me know. Grabbing a used one from a junkyard to start with is usually a lot cheaper… I’ve also got one completely rebuilt that I should probably get rid of.

It’s also been my experience that the nubnuts at many tranny shops don’t take their time to completely inspect and repair everything in these AWD transmissions because it is time consuming (relative to their schedules). If they know it needs just new synchros and a gear in the front, they won’t bother to even crack open the back half, which is where I have had most of my problems. If you do find a place to do it, make sure they have a good reputation and have done a few of these…

Cheers

fishbone79: If you want to unload it, look at me

I'd love ANY info you have. Cost estimates, what I should definitely replace and what I should inspect, etc.

I have the tools, I have mechanical experience (I pulled the motor in this car, overhauled everything and new clutch/flywheel, by myself). Think I can tackle this? Got the service manuals too.

Absolutely, man. I talked to a bunch of Subaru techs (reputable ones, not the parts monkeys behind the counters) and a couple of rally guys. Most of them said fairly consistent things:

No matter what mileage (within reason, eps if its never been done), replace the following:

Throwout bearing (always a given, I replace mine when they may only have 5k on them… if you got it apart, do it… $15)
The 2 rear most bearings in the rear of the tranny (definitely the top one, you get away without the bottom one if it looks OK..~$30per)
The bearing that the viscous coupling sits in (where it sits in the housing ~$20)
The drive axle/diff bearings on the front diff (the biguns, mucho dinero, though, I think they are $70 apiece… you may be able to get away without them, but definitely the races will need replacing)
All the synchro rings ($33.33 apiece)
Front drive axle seals (the smaller ones)
Main shaft seal
Rear shaft seal… all seals are like 3 bucks per

Things to inspect (that are suspect), replace if needed:

The bearing on the top shaft above/behind the viscous coupling
Main bearing on the main shaft (rear, this one is commonly bad, but you’ll know for sure if it is or isn’t)
Main bearing on the lag shaft (front and rear… front will have some chatter/chirp marks on it, but everyone told me they all do that… it looks like its pinning its race, but it cant because there is a locking pin to hold it stationary)
All the gears, esp 1st (duh!)
All the tiny little roller bearings inside the viscous center diff… there is one waaay inside that is a bitch to get out, and is a good candidate to be shot, take a look at it at least… when you put that whole assembly back together, make sure you maintain the orientation of EVERY SINGLE part you aren’t replacing. One let loose on me because I didn’t do that)
The little plastic pads on the shifting forks
The O rings that go around the bearing keepers for the front axles (I mean, if you take them apart, you probably aught to replace them anyway, they are like $4 for two)

If you are ambitious:
All the little bearings inside the front diff should get a once over, I’ve never done it because Subaru recommends that you re-torque those bolts 3 times (!) letting them rest a day in between each.
The brass “bearings” inside the reverse idler gear

This list seems comprehensive, but its not… I mean, if you’ve got it apart, only a moron wouldn’t inspect the whole thing. On the few that I have done, I have never spent more than 400 on parts, and they are as good as new (however, its pretty goddam expensive to replace a blown gear… like ~400/apiece). I hope this helps, I have a lot more info on parts and parts numbers… some bearings you can get from bearing shops a lot cheaper than the dealer… the prices above are dealer prices. Another thing to think about is the viscous coupling; it would be the only thing not new… if you pull a tranny with lower mileage (~130) it’s probably fine, but it’s impossible to know if it’s good or not until you run it in a car. It’s also about $475 to replace.

Cheers

Morgan

Throwout bearing? As in, gear throwout bearing (or something, call me a newb)? Because the clutch throwout bearing cost me $100 when I just did the clutch on my car.

Yes the clutch throout bearing...it cost you 100???? Is it made of gold? Is it a performance part or a regular aftermarket? And yes, that is the one I was talking about.

5MT pull-type (Turbo models) clutch throwout bearing cost $100+. It has to spin at the same rate as the clutch so it needs to be constructed to withstand that. That was the explaination I was given. Stock Subaru TOB.

Deerrrr... sorry, I gotcha now, I completley forgot about the turbo clutch. In that case, I would def. leave it, haha.
Cheers

what are some other diferences between the turbo and the nonturbo 5MTs?

i know the gears are made of a different material, what about the syncros?

the material isn't different. Supposed the gears have been shot-peened to provide better surface strength.

any other differences?