Click Click Click Click.....

[BAC5.2]

So I'm driving to the MVA this morning to get the tags for my Forester.

Lately, the car has been feeling really good. I have'nt been pushing it really because I was going to let Matt borrow my transmission for a while until he could sort out what to do with Subarina.

Sunday was the swap day and my car was going to sit sans-trans for a while until I find the time to build my dogbox.

I come up a very slight grade to pull into the MVA. I'm going 10-ish miles an hour and I'm in 2nd gear. The car starts to jerk a little. You know what happens when you are in gear at to low an RPM and the ECU struggles to choose between idle and not and you cut fuel? That's what was happening.

So I figure, no biggie, I'll just downshift to 1st.

I push in the clutch and go to let it out in neutral to rev-match and as soon as my foot reaches an inch away from the floor..... CLICK, CLICK, RATTLE, RATTLE, CLICK, RATTLE.

Fuckall. Blown tranny.

I coasted into a parking spot and got my tags then waited for a tow. 2.5 hours later, tow shows up.

Lame.

The only time I moved the car was to reverse it for towing, and creeping it out of my garage to back it into my "broken tranny lot". Clutch was out and car was in gear for a total of 15 feet.

Sunday, I'll still pull the tranny and I'll probably crack it open in my garage to see what got fucked up.

I'm Sorry Matt

Phil

[legacy92ej22t]

So it will go into gear? I still think it might be a clutch/pressure plate/ throwout bearing problem. Did you talk to Andrew about it at all? Did you get the gear oil drained? Was there metal in it? Did you look into the clutch fork area to see if you could see any damage?

I'm bummed too. This was my last hope.

If it is blown, then I feel really bad for you too. It's a sucky feeling.

[BAC5.2]

There was metal in the fluid and the clutch seems fine. It'll go into every gear but 5th, though when in gear it violently jerks and bucks even while coasting .

[legacy92ej22t]

That's stinky.

Did you get a chance to drop it yesterday? If so, did you get to crack it open? I wonder what could be wrong with it. Every gear but 5th is there but it jerks violently? That sounds weird.

That's crazy that it broke when you were off throttle and going so slow.

At least you have the Forester to fall back on and nice dogbox to put in fairly soon.

What's with everyone blowing their trannies out all of the sudden.

[Legacy294]

They are the "glass box", so to speak. They all have a shearing point, and sometimes it doesn't take much for them to go..

But most of the time, it's the hard 1-2, or 2-3 shifts that kill them with authority.. The shaft can flex and the gears go away

need to post a pic of my "catastrophic 2nd gear failure"..all teeth gone off of the main shaft, a few bits left attached.. It's a jawdropper. That was on the 1-2 at high Rpms..

[BAC5.2]

The tranny case is so strong, I doubt it's flex. I think it's just inherent in the design of... everything.

There is a lot of vibration in 4-cylinder engines, and lots of accel-decel of the crank which is then transmissed through the transmission. And the fact that Subaru gears are realtively tiny compared to most other manufacturers, doesn't help much.

The STI 6-speed has the same basic lay out as the 5-speed box, and it's proven to be MUCH stronger. Why? The teeth are HUGE in comparison to the 5-speed gears.

I've got a picture of a PPG straight cut, dog box mainshaft for the 6-speed lying next to the stock 6-speed input shaft. I've also got a picture of a 5-speed RA input next to a stock 5-speed shaft. And of course, a straight cut synchro 5-speed PPG gearbox.

Here is the 6-speed PPG vs. Stock input. It looks different than the 5-speed because 1st and Reverse have the same ratio, so instead of being 3 individually cut gears on the main shaft, it's one long cut gear and then 2nd.



Here is the RA vs Stock shafts. RA on left, Stock on right.



See the size difference in the gears? RA is significantly wider than stock. And even stock 6-speed is larger than RA. PPG's 6-speed shaft is HUGE compared to stock.

Here is a 1-4 PPG straight cut synchro box. See how much larger that is than stock?



I really think gear weakness comes from the "tininess" of stock hardwear. And, of course, driver error. Any bad driver can fuck up a nice built tranny.

[Legacy294]

Great pics!

They make it clear for guys that haven't seen the difference between the stock guts, RAs and straight cut gears.. It also helps guys understand the reason why they should buck up for the good stuff first, before learning the hard way..In PGT I couldn't run the good stuff, basically stuck with the crappy stock gears.

Completely agree that the stock gears are tiny, which transfers more load through to a smaller surface area lowering their shear strength, especially during accel/decel. Even with the RA gears (first), it looks like one of your examples got chewed up pretty good..How much power was that car pushing? Hard launch or what killed it?

any deals on the dog gears? They are sweeeet!!!

[BAC5.2]

I don't remember the specifics of the RA gearset in that picture. I would imagine it was under 300whp, and probably on the street.

There isn't much special about the RA gears, and they are a big waste of money IMO. If you blew a stock gearset, you will almost definately blow an RA gearset.

If you want to go fast, you can't cheap out on something like the transmission. The bottom end of the engine, and the transmission shouldn't be cheaped out on. Thats my rule. It's expensive, and it should be done once, and done so that you can beat the shit out of the car and not worry about those failing.

If you are serious about wanting a dogbox, I can hook you up with the best of the best for less than anyone else in the country could set you up for. You can E-mail me and we can talk. It ain't cheap, but it's worth every penny.

[rallysam]

Those pictures don't even do it justice. The difference is shocking in person.

And PS - If anyone is looking for gears, BAC5.2 and the rest of his crew are the place to go.

[rallysam]

Phil and Matt - sucks about the tranny! Man, what a string of bad luck recently!!! My tranny sounds bad. It will be in tranny heaven with yours soon!

[vrg3]

What's with everyone blowing their trannies out all of the sudden.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again -- our cars' diseases are communicable.

My tranny went yesterday.

[Psychoreo]

ok, transmission newb here.
trannies are a whole grey area for me, here's everything i know about transmissions ... thats it. so the straight cut ones are better then the funny spinny ones? SOMEONE EDUCATE ME PLEASE!!!

[rallysam]

What's with everyone blowing their trannies out all of the sudden.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again -- our cars' diseases are communicable.

My tranny went yesterday.

OH NO!!! Are you going to look for a replacement tranny or move your mods over to the auto SS you have or what?

My tranny is whining loudly in 1st and it didn't used to, so I wouldn't be surprised if I join the club soon.

[vrg3]

I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't have much money or time. For now my roommate has generously offered to chauffeur me anywhere I need to go, but I don't know how long I'm willing to impose on her. And I love this car. I don't love the auto, though I have put loving care into it. Maybe I should sell the auto, and then I'll be able to buy a Legacy Turbo transmission and also afford all the other things this car needs. I could probably get someone to help me do the swap in my garage here, if I can get together all the tools necessary. I dunno. For now I just wanna cry or something.

My transmission gradually started whining in first over several months... I hope it's different from yours' whine, Sam.

Sigh.

[rallysam]

How'd it go? Ordinary driving or a hard launch or what?

[legacy92ej22t]

OMG Vikash, I can't believe it! That sucks bad. Communicable is right. Wow, what are the chances that all 3 of us would lose our trannies so close together?

Is this in your newer SS or the original '93? I'm confused. I thought both cars were 5mt. Did the '93 5mt tranny go and your'e saying you should sell your newer SS, that is a 4eat?

Mike at Innovative Tunning has 2 more SS 5mt's IIRC. That's who I got mine through.

I really need a dogbox though. *sigh*

[vrg3]

Yeah, dude. They totally catch each others' ailments. 'Memmer just before our last backroads jaunt, how my car suddenly threw its first not-initiated-by-me idle switch code ever, while your car was idling funny?

This is my original car -- the s00b. The newer (to me) one is s00b t00. Both s00b and s00b t00 are 93s, but s00b t00 is a 4EAT. I think I'll probably be posting s00b t00 up for sale soon... It's at my parents' house. My brother's been using it lately but he's about to move to Manhattan.

I'll contact Mike; thanks for the lead.

I think I'd also ideally do some kind of upgrade but that is simply not in the cards at this stage. I'll just be happy to have my car running again.

[entirelyturbo]

Didn't I post a thread about these cars spreading their diseases to one another?

Sorry to hear of the troubles guys