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1997 Subaru Legacy Axle Replacement

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  • #485261
    EricTheCarGuy 1EricTheCarGuy
    Keymaster

      Don’t worry, I already shot the video of ‘tightening up’ the differential. I look forward to your comments on this one also.

    Viewing 12 replies - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)
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    • #485481
      Tony DuffyTony Duffy
      Participant

        Great video. Im really interested to see the effect tightening the diff makes if any. The car seems to pull nicely when you take it out..but I know that Subaru’s of that era and even more recently have low rev hesitation problems. They tend to run lean and get carboned up, some folk will use engine flushes and damage their o2 sensors making the drivability problem worse. How does the car idle Eric? no vacuum leaks? The other thing Ive heard about was some people found the hesitation worse when they moved quickly from the brake pedal to the gas…if they took their foot off the brake somewhat before accelerating the problem went away, it also stopped if the parking brake was used prior to moving..possibly a leaky brake booster?

        Tony

        #485540
        EricTheCarGuy 1EricTheCarGuy
        Keymaster

          I’ve already shot the video of tightening the diff. In fact it should be Monday’s video. As to your other suggestions.

          Solving Performance Problems 1

          Solving Performance Problems 2

          Re Performance Problems

          #485542
          Tony DuffyTony Duffy
          Participant

            Thanks for that Eric, Im still working my way through the videos..The suggestions were based mainly on acquaintances 2.5WRX STi versions of the subaru we have in Scotland, they are popular due to the 4wd system given the weather and terrain here. O2 sensors seem to be a common problem as do ground cables. Scotland is a drivers paradise, not sure if you have ever been here? Im not a technician, Im a doctor but love my cars and have a lot of respect for guys like you who know their trade and are willing to teach. There is a certain simlarity between our jobs…get the history, examination, investigation with tests, treat and review. Im afraid I wont be making any videos on my work though 😉 Here’s a taste of my local road and engine rebuild.

            [IMG]http://i1322.photobucket.com/albums/u564/Tony_Duffy/Facebook/Corsa%20VXR/412987_4724275341302_1565157004_o.jpg[/IMG]

            [IMG]http://i1322.photobucket.com/albums/u564/Tony_Duffy/forged.jpg[/IMG]

            Kinds regards Tony

            #485617
            Markus ArrilliusMarkus Arrillius
            Participant

              I could be wrong, but it looks to me like the play had nothing to do with the axles at all. It does seem like too much play in carrier bearing, but honestly on my ’93 Camry V6 it is about the same. When I went to replace the left side axle awhile back, the first I thing I thought to myself was, that seems like too much play. But I checked out several similar cars at the junkyard and there were pretty much all the same so I concluded it was normal. On the Toyota to adjust the preload you have to install or remove shims there is no external adjustment like your Subaru.

              But I see no reason to adjust them if there is no unusual noises or other issues. That bearing doesn’t have much lateral load stress on it, so my theory is it’s adjusted the way it is for a reason, you don’t want a bearing too tight or excessive friction will destroy it. Why fix something that isn’t broken?

              On the roll pin aka spring pin, the original was a much better design I would have reused that instead. My prediction is replacing the axles will do nothing to cure or help your hesitation issue, but I hope it does that kind of thing can be very annoying.

              #485687
              Jeff AckerJeff Acker
              Participant

                Hey Eric, I am one of those guys who posted about similar hesitation issues. Thanks for shooting this video because swapping axles is an integral part of the larger procedure I may undertake myself to deal with my car’s problems ,,, swapping out transmissions. I think the tranny has to be pulled anyway to replace the rear main seal; I seem to have a pretty good oil leak there. Anyway, thanks and I’m looking forward to your follow-up about whether the axle swap helped.

                #485708
                Tom SharplesTom Sharples
                Participant

                  I worked at Subaru for four years and that amount of play is normal. It is due the rather unusual way the shafts attach to the differential. The play in the diff carrier is not excessive to me but obviously I haven’t felt it! I have some repair manual images about diff adjustment on Subaru’s if you want them. The original roll pins are better than the replacement due to the ‘zig-zag’ design which stops them getting slack when lateral load applied. A good tip when installing is to put some old vacuum pipe on your drift and attach the roll pin to it, works well.
                  In my experience on that model Legacy, MAF sensors and O2 sensors caused lots of hesitation issues. MAF in particular, a clean out won’t always work, try replacing and then resetting the ECU learn’t values before you condemn the repair. That’s important. Also if air is being drawn in between the heads and the manifold flanges, that can cause hesitations. We used to file them flat and replace the gaskets.

                  #485872
                  RyanRyan
                  Participant

                    Hey Eric, great video. Just wanted to say that if you use aftermarket axles in a Subaru a lot of times you get vibrations at idle when in gear (this manifests itself in the automatics primarily). In case you feel that in yours, that’s why. Also I believe in that transmission what controls the transfer in the AWD system is what is called the Duty C Solenoid. If you do some research on that you’ll see it as the culprit for a lot of binding and other issues. Last thing, I wanted to maybe suggest (perhaps for an inclusion in an RE video if you do it) if you could provide tips for doing this job if you don’t have air tools. Thanks!

                    #486433
                    EricTheCarGuy 1EricTheCarGuy
                    Keymaster

                      [quote=”Toyotatech” post=41985]I worked at Subaru for four years and that amount of play is normal. It is due the rather unusual way the shafts attach to the differential. The play in the diff carrier is not excessive to me but obviously I haven’t felt it! I have some repair manual images about diff adjustment on Subaru’s if you want them. The original roll pins are better than the replacement due to the ‘zig-zag’ design which stops them getting slack when lateral load applied. A good tip when installing is to put some old vacuum pipe on your drift and attach the roll pin to it, works well.
                      In my experience on that model Legacy, MAF sensors and O2 sensors caused lots of hesitation issues. MAF in particular, a clean out won’t always work, try replacing and then resetting the ECU learn’t values before you condemn the repair. That’s important. Also if air is being drawn in between the heads and the manifold flanges, that can cause hesitations. We used to file them flat and replace the gaskets.[/quote]

                      Thanks very much for your input. I think after all the ‘testing’ that I’ve done I can reasonably conclude that my hesitation is due to a transmission issue. In particular the clutch that sends power to the front wheels. I did install the fuse to make it FWD and tested it. The hesitation was still there however if you think about it no matter what that clutch is where the front wheels get their power from so even if you drive it in FWD only and you have a slipping clutch there it will still have the same hesitation. That’s my latest theory anyway. I’d need to get another vehicle back on the road before I tore into the Subaru trans however, if not I’d have nothing to drive.

                      #486435
                      EricTheCarGuy 1EricTheCarGuy
                      Keymaster

                        [quote=”RyanS93″ post=42059]Hey Eric, great video. Just wanted to say that if you use aftermarket axles in a Subaru a lot of times you get vibrations at idle when in gear (this manifests itself in the automatics primarily). In case you feel that in yours, that’s why. Also I believe in that transmission what controls the transfer in the AWD system is what is called the Duty C Solenoid. If you do some research on that you’ll see it as the culprit for a lot of binding and other issues. Last thing, I wanted to maybe suggest (perhaps for an inclusion in an RE video if you do it) if you could provide tips for doing this job if you don’t have air tools. Thanks![/quote]

                        Thanks for your input. I did do some research on that but I’ve come to a different conclusion. I don’t think the hesitation has anything to do with the solenoid but rather the clutch it controls. I think the clutches in that are worn causing the hesitation. I covered that in the last video posted above in this thread.

                        Thanks again for your input.

                        #500226
                        Gustav NGustav N
                        Participant

                          Hello Eric!

                          You mentioned you used to drive a car with a bad CV axle.
                          I’m wondering around how many Km/Miles did you drive it before it clicked while going forward and when it actually broke.

                          The reason is cos i got a 1998 civic and its been clicking on both sides (one upper and one lower) for about 7000km and i wonder when i need to start to worry about buying parts.

                          btw!
                          Thanks for the nice videos, knowledge is Power!

                          Attachments:
                          #500238
                          EricTheCarGuy 1EricTheCarGuy
                          Keymaster

                            That was more than 20 years ago so I don’t remember. You really can’t judge when they will go but if they are clicking while you are driving straight down the road it’s time to replace them.

                            #661225
                            Jojo CalingasanJojo Calingasan
                            Participant

                              Hi Eric,

                              Just want to know if the performance issue has been solved already? I currently have the same issue with the same model.

                              Thanks.

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