MLRC Forum - Well It's Out!

Dave Cotie

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Well It's Out!
10/13/11 at 21:03:05

I have pulled the centre diff out of my spare transmission. I am going to try to install it in my Outback without pulling the engine and transmission. Dan Sprongl said it can be done.

I decided to bolt the remainder of the transmission back together to reduce the stink from the gear lube and to keep it clean.

Good thing its my spare. I guess I need to be more careful with the alignment next time.

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Dave Cotie
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GuyLePop Junior Member Offline Posts: 66	Re: Well It's Out! Reply #1 - 10/13/11 at 23:27:07 well, if my transmission breaks, I'll know where to go buy a spare...
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Do_It_Sidewayz

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Re: Well It's Out!
Reply #2 - 10/14/11 at 08:11:06

Dave,

Changing out the centre diff is very doable in the car.

I personally have made the same mistake putting things back together, and cracked the case.

FWIW, from the looks of your picture, you took the entire "centre diff" section off the rest of the transmission... To replace the centre diff you really don't have to do this. You can very simply just take off the "tail section" which is the furthest rearway piece, and swap things out. It is a bit of a pain to get things lined up when going back together, but enough playing around and you will get it. I've swapped out the centre diffs in a couple hrs on my back, with the car just on stands, no real problem.

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Dave Cotie

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Re: Well It's Out!
Reply #3 - 10/14/11 at 12:47:04

Do_It_Sidewayz wrote on 10/14/11 at 08:11:06:

Dave,

Changing out the centre diff is very doable in the car.

I personally have made the same mistake putting things back together, and cracked the case.

FWIW, from the looks of your picture, you took the entire "centre diff" section off the rest of the transmission... To replace the centre diff you really don't have to do this. You can very simply just take off the "tail section" which is the furthest rearway piece, and swap things out. It is a bit of a pain to get things lined up when going back together, but enough playing around and you will get it. I've swapped out the centre diffs in a couple hrs on my back, with the car just on stands, no real problem.

Thanks Chris, now that I had it apart, I have realized what you are saying. The centre diff actually comes out throught the back cover, and I didn't need to take the whole section out. It seems to me that this will make it much easier to do in the car.

Should go something like this? - Drop the driveshaft, break some bolts, swear, remove back cover, replace diff, line it up, swear some more, get it lined up properly, put drive shaft back.

I think I will take a shot at this after the rally-X on Oct. 23. I am reluctant to start and not get it done and miss the rally-X, since it is the only one that I am going to get to this year.

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Dave Cotie
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Do_It_Sidewayz Junior Member Offline I love YaBB 1G - SP1! Posts: 56	Re: Well It's Out! Reply #4 - 10/14/11 at 14:02:55 Dave, that's about right.....what i've found is generally the biggest headache on a car that is older is getting the dowel pins out of the shifter linkage. It's not a terrible job....easily doable in an evening.
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SuzukiSwiftGT

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Re: Well It's Out!
Reply #5 - 10/14/11 at 16:38:39

what happened to the old one? if the viscous coupling gave up, is there a way to get them open and look at the damage?

if so, please do so and post pics. or ship it to me and i'll do it. lol. I love opening broken parts and seeing what things look like after they've seen some abuse.

Or does the fluid just break down and there wont be anything interesting to see? that would be disapointing. lol

The only time i've seen the inside of a viscous coupler was in school and it was a brand new unit, never used. so it'd be nice to see what happens to the friction plates of a unit that isnt working anymore.

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Dave Cotie

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Re: Well It's Out!
Reply #6 - 10/14/11 at 17:04:27

The old one starts to lock-up after I drive the car for a while and it seems like it is getting worse. This results in the car not wanting to turn, when I drive into places like gas stations etc.

If you keep driving it like this apparantly it can break a couple of snap rings. The debris from that floats its way through the transmission wrecking everything on its way. Preventative work.

Bruce Leonard posted earlier this year about what happened to him from running his spare tire.

http://www.mlrc.ca/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1304296505

Unfortunately, the pictures no longer show up in the thread.

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Dave Cotie
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SuzukiSwiftGT YaBB Newbies Offline I love YaBB 1G - SP1! Posts: 34	Re: Well It's Out! Reply #7 - 10/14/11 at 18:32:33 ah yes, i do recall reading that thread now that you bring it up. interesting. Are these units pretty solid though? Obviously in Bruce's case that was an extreme torture test that it failed. haha. in your case, im guessing a bit of abuse over the years?? What about regular driving? do they eventually bite the dust?
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Dave Cotie

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Re: Well It's Out!
Reply #8 - 10/14/11 at 20:52:48

My Outback has 400,000 kms on it. I think it might be a wear issue.

I have had some other say that their cars do it on long highway drives. It seems like the manual transmission Subarus, with their mechanical/viscous diffs, may suffer more from this. The automatics have a different system with variable torque splitting, as I understand.

Like I said, with the mileage on mine, I am looking at this as preventative maintenance, so that I don't grenade the whole tranny.

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Dave Cotie
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Dave Cotie God Member Offline Posts: 838 North Bay, Ontario	Re: Well It's Out! Reply #9 - 10/15/11 at 14:20:32 Chris, when you replaced yours did you get a gasket from Subaru, or just use some RTV - Make a Gasket stuff?
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Do_It_Sidewayz Junior Member Offline I love YaBB 1G - SP1! Posts: 56	Re: Well It's Out! Reply #10 - 10/16/11 at 20:48:01 I think i got the gasket once, then decided it was a waste of time. i have found "moto-seal" to work well
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Bruce L

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Re: Well It's Out!
Reply #11 - 10/20/11 at 20:39:16

Here's the link to my Picasa album. https://picasaweb.google.com/bjleonard17/SubaruViscousCenterDifferential?authuse...
I tried to do it myself, but, with the mix of parts that I had and could get, I had to change the case, and I just couldn't do it. Had it towed to Four Star (just a km. away) to finish it.
Sold the car last week, too! Tough to part with - it was a great car.

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