i picked up a 1998 forester 2.5L transmission 5 speed the other day and had an oppotrunity to start the project after work saturday. around 7pm i made room in the garage to change out my long awaited fix. i had previously (couple months ago?) lost 1st and 2nd gear in my GC8 and had been waiting for money to buy a replacement. NMDAYTIME and i started the work at around 730pm saturday and kept working all night long until it was finished at 1130am the next morning. it was a first time replacing a transmission by ourselves so it took a long time. we learned a lot about what works and what doesnt when removing a transmission. i guess not having a hoist made it take a while longer. we used truck jack stands to raise the car up. it seemed at times to not be high enough because we couldnt fit a jack under there to lift the tranny up. it made things interesting because we had to lift it by hand and then place a jack under it while we tried to move the transmission onto the engine. we had the help of my 2 cousins who had stopped by to see what we were up to and they ended up staying all night with us. it was an interesiting night filled with frustration and laughs. i give props to people who can do a tranny replacement in half a day because we took forever and we never really took more than one break. our frustrations were from removing the axles, getting the transmission off of the bottom studs that bolt it to the engine, keeping the garage warm, lifting the transmission off the ground while laying under the car, closing the gap at the top of the engine and the transmission, finding out that the 2.5rs tranny and the foresters 5 speeds are slightly different and the speed sensors plugs dont match. a learning experience for all of us and we are damn proud of what we acomplished without any instructions or guides. the car is running great and having my car back is amazing one thing that REALLY bugged me in the swap was the fact that the trannies were so different. i had been getting worried that the finaldrive would be diff, but i followed Fujis word that it would work. if the final drives are different, is it easy to tell? like the car will ride strange? another thing i noticed is that my gearing now makes my car pull REALLY REALLY hard in 4th gear.:yumyum:
oh really... where you able to swap the speed sensors? They are twist off and twist the other on. If that tranny is INDEED one from a Forester, it will be 4.111. If you want to know, get teh code off the DRIVER side of the tranny. I'm sure The parts guys at Minnetonka would be able to tell you if it is a tranny off the Forester or not. That tranny is a '98, which it is a PHASE 1 tranny, which has different center diff, less bolt holes, and different tansfer case casting. ALSO it uses an EXTERNAL spring to keep the shifter in neutral. I run a '93 cable driven speedometer Legacy tranny on my car. I swapped over the speed sensor, reverse/neutral switches to it and it all works out.
4.111? thats what the Rs uses right? i was able to swap out the speed sensors. it was easy. my spring thing doesnt seem right. it doesnt stay in dead center neutral but thats not really bugging me. im kinda sad because my reverse gear doesnt like to go in easy. its always a tough time getting it into reverse smoothly. was there somthing with the spring that could change that? it might just be the transmission though. lets just hope this one lasts
should have posted these when i made the thread. but here are some pics from the night its starting to look like we are actually doing anything the new Tranny. WHOOOOOOOOOHOOO! for all of those Dominos haters on here we feasted on a large Pep and sausage from DOMINOs! mmmmmm finally got the tranny out....half way point and it felt good. look at that nice clutch mmmmmm NMDAYTIME was trying to be spiderman.... all of those fumes inside the garage all night were getting to us.
i would too. i missed it for almost 2 months! it was killing me i couldnt drive it. but thats all changed and its louder, faster, and rides better now than when i got it from you.
