legacycentral bbs

What all do i need to remove to get the transmission to drop back? So far I've disconnected the driveshaft and knocked the pins out of the axles as well as removed the tranny to engine bolts. Is it necessary for me to remove the wheels to get the axles off and do i unbolt the whole transmission mount or just the back? All i want to do is get about a half a foot of space between the engine and transmission.

You do need to unhook the axles from the transmission. The way I suggest doing it is to remove the wheels, mark the camber bolt positions, and remove the camber bolts. Then when you loosen the remaining strut-to-hub bolts you can bend the top of the hub outboard and pull the axle out of the tranny. You can just rest the axle on the control arm.

You do need to unbolt the transmission mount. You may be able to just remove the four bolts holding the mount to the transmission, but more likely you'll have to also then remove the transmission crossmember from the car.

You've undone the pitch stop mount, right?

But you can actually get pretty close to half a foot of space by leaving the tranny where it is and actually pulling the engine forwards (after removing the radiator). That may be easier. It's definitely enough space for a clutch swap, as I've done it that way.

Yeh, I've undone the pitch stop. If I undo the transmission mount, what keeps the tranny up? What's involved in pulling the engine forward? I'd assume you would need to undo the engine mounts and lift it up a little.

Yes, you do. I undid the motor mounts and used a crane to lift the engine up and pull it forwards. You could probably use a tranny jack or even a regular old trolley jack though.

You'll probably also have to disconnect at least one of your intake pipes and your downpipe.

I'm pretty sure I left all the hoses and wires hooked up.

If you have an A/C condenser, put some tough cardboard behind it so the engine doesn't smash into it.

Support the transmission with a jack or something so it doesn't fall too far.

I'll probably continue with removing the transmission since i'm fairly far along with it now. But next time it might be easier to just move the engine.

Cool. Yeah, you are mostly there.

To remove the axles from the transmission, unbolt the front swaybar from it's endlinks. There are 3 control arm bolts.

Loosen the rear bracket bolts, and remove the front-most bolt completely. Then, you can simply use a pry-bar and remove the axle from the tranny. Wheels don't even need to be removed!

No camber settings changed whatsoever, and it's fast.

Messing with camber is bad. Every .1 degree of camber, adds .4" of toe. That's a good way to ruin some tires. Ask my RE92's.

I already removed the axles late last night.
I just need to put a jack under the tranny, take the two engine to tranny bolts off the bottom and remove the transmission mount and pull the tranny back a bit.

Only problem is I forgot what clutch i have in the car. I don't remember if it was for a wrx or a 2.5RS. The tranny is from a 98 2.5RS, how do i tell?

Hydraulic, right?

Look for the slave cylinder. Is it in front of the clutch fork (engine side) or mounted behind it?

If it's infront, you have a hydraullic push type. If it's behind the fork, you have a hydraullic pull type.

Hydro pull type is standard WRX and Legacy Turbo. My 98 Forester has a Hydro push type though.

The clutches are not interchangeable, and the WRX's clutch is larger in diameter than any of the cars that were offered with hydro push type clutches, so pressure plates aren't the same.

Hydro pull type is vastly superior to hydro push type, for that reason. Much wider clutch selection with a pull-type, as well as inexpensive parts and such.

Can hydro push be converted to hydro pull? No idea. Probably. Vikash, any idea?

If the transmission is from an RS it's probably an RS clutch -- hydraulically actuated, push-type. That's good; it makes transmission removal a little easier.

Phil, I think you're getting confused between push and pull. The WRX's clutch is a hydraulic pull-type. And unless someone's done some interesting custom work on your Forester, it has a hydraulic push-type clutch.

Yep, definately a mistake then. Forester IS a hydro push-type. I seem to transpose push and pull sometimes when switching back and forth between the types and not proofreading.

I also said the WRX clutch was larger than any other pull-type clutches. That's backwards too. I'll edit it with my super-helpinator ninja skills.

I know it's not hydraulic, it was converted to cable when put in my car.

I just don't remember what i bought the clutch for. My best guess now is the center of the clutch disk is gone, but i won't know for certain until i get a look at it here in a few mins.

Oh. Then it's push-type for sure. You can replace it with any clutch made for a non-turbo EJ engine's transmission.

It turns out it wasn't the clutch but the clutch fork. The little ball had pushed through the metal. Lining up the transmission is a pain.

Ok, I'm slightly annoyed after messing with this for a couple hrs. Is there a decent trick to lining up the input shaft and getting the tranny back together with the engine?

I don't know of any tricks, really... You just gotta get them lined up horizontally and vertically. As you push them together, some shaking can help them slide together. A jack under the oil pan or under the transmission (or one under each) can help you get the pitches to match.

I'll probably mess with it more in the morning when one of my friends stops by, right now i feel intense amounts of frustration.

When you get the tranny "almost" there and it wont go any further, climb out from under and look down at the tranny from up top.

How much is the top of the tranny away from the motor compared to the bottom of the tranny? And how far is it way?

If the tranny is over 1/2" way on both top and bottom, something is funky. Even with problems you should be able to get it pushed in at least to 1/2 away top and bottom.

If the tranny is "close" but no go, then you are probably not parrallel, ie, either the top or bottom is closer. At this stage you make have to unbolt the two motor mount bolts and jack the engine up a tad.

Now if everything is lined up parrallel, but wont pull together, try turning over the motor with a breaker bar on the crank while pushing/pulling the tranny onto the motor.

IF you can get the lower two bolts through far enough, get the nuts on them, and then bolt through the top. SLOWLY crank them down and "force" the tranny onto the motor. GO SLOW and stop if it feels wrong. I have done this a few times but I don't like to do it this way.

When the motor and tranny are pretty perfectly lined up, it just slides together and you stand back and go "WOW!". But I seldom get to go "WOW!" the first time....
Good luck.

I think maybe the clutch disk might have slid inside the pressure plate so i'm going to check it with an alignment tool in the morning. Right now I'm too cold, hungry, sore, agrivated.

You also need to line up the splines on the input shaft to the clutch.

If the pressure plate was torqued properly, it is almost impossible for the clutch to slip between the flywheel and pressure plate... unless there is almost no clutch material left.

To easily line everything back up, use your driveshaft and with the tranny in gear (4th is nice because it's almost 1:1) spin the output shaft.

On every push-type clutch I've replaced, I've gotten lucky getting them back together. The forester went together without a blink of an eye. Just pushed, wiggle, THUMP! It was great.

Don't turn the crank counter clockwise though! I found out why, and I've seen it happen! The timing belt will actually jump teeth if you do this. Turning it counter clockwise compresses the tensioner rather than wanting it to extend, and you introduce slack to the system and you belt be a slippin. Not a huge problem, but a pain in the dick all the same.

Good advice, i'll remember that.

So yeh, clutch disk had gotten in the way so we had to recenter it and the transmission went right in, put everything back together and pushed the clutch. Next thought was wow the clutch is a lot easier to push in, next thought was something isn't right, thought after that was SOB gonna have to pull it back apart because I don't think the throwout bearing is pushing against the pressure plate, musta fallen down as the transmission was going in.

With push type clutches, the throwout bearing clips to the clutch fork and rides on the snout. It falling down is scary.... But then again, if the clutch disc slipped from under the pressure plate, who knows what else could have been wrong!

I think the clutch moved when we were pulling the transmission away from the engine. I didn't jack up the front of the engine so the transmission took a little wiggling to get off. It's a good thing Boulder has a great bus system cause I don't think i'm going to get the car running until this weekend. I'm getting an engine hoist tonight, and just gonna pull the engine rather than the transmission this time.