91 Legacy Wagon - auto trans failed

Hi Guys,

 

About a year ago I found a 91 AWD wagon / automatic that I picked up super cheap for my sister (that has NO money). It's ugly but been a good car for a year. Now the auto trans slips and I'm trying to decide what to do with it.

 

It has about 170K and the engine runs good. My options are sell it to the junk man for $100 or find a decent used trans and install it. I've done these trans before but that was a lot of years ago on a '79 wagon I had many years ago. I'm just not looking forward to 2 days on my back under the car

 

I'd love to hear your experiences and I'm open to suggestions... or if someone in the north Georgia area knows of a Transmission that's available at a reasonable price, I'm listening.

 

btw.. I have located a trans about 450 miles from me but the shipping starts to make it prohibitively expensive.

 

thanks!

Jeff

Well you could sell it, get the $100 and spend

a few grand getting a new car with new problems

and registering it and inherit someone else's

headache or you could try and find a junkyard

close and try your luck with a $200-300 trans.

Usually they have a 100 day warranty. I would

suggest checking every junk yard close to you

or use car-part.com. Also check craigslist. Is

that the only trans you could find?

$100 is pennies. I'm not sure what scrap goes for where you live, but when I junked mine about 9 months ago I got $275, and they came and picked it up for free. Scrap prices fluctuate, and they vary with location, but $100 is still way too low for current market price of scrap steel. Ask what they charge per ton and tell them you have a 3,000 pound car for them.

 

Personally, I'd try and fix it. That's just me. If you have another mode of transportation and enough money/time that car should last you a while longer. Its really a personal decision more than anything. You might be better off searching for another car for the same price as the transmission you're looking at picking up.

Go to the junk yard/u pull it/ pick & pull and get a trans out. I was at the junkyard close to me they had 5 first gen legacys and they were all auto...maybe 1 was 5 speed. Tomorrow i'm going to the one thats further away to hopefully find the rest of the things i need to finish fixing up the car.

 

Couldnt be more then a couple hundred bucks.

Guys,

 

Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately, here in the south east, Subaru's are few and far between. The best deal on car-part.com will cost me about $400 with shipping and no warranty. The next best deal is 2x as much. Nothing within 300 miles of Atlanta.

 

If it was for me, I'd do the trans but since this is for my sister, I think I've convinced her to put away some money toward something more reliable.

 

This one will hit the scrap yard in a few months!

 

thanks!

Jeff

You said it, man. I lived in Savannah for five years with a 96 LGT wagon, then my current OBXT, and hardly ever saw another Subaru. Sometimes people would ask me what the heck a Subaru was, they'd never heard of it.

 

Now I'm back home in western Massachusetts where every fifth car is a Subi. It just feels right.

Savannah...nothing but one way streets and people.

Pretty place, but too freakin hot.

 

Drove from Washington to Florida the other day.

Apparently Nebraska, Idaho and Utah dont like

Subaru's from what I've seen.

I think New England, Seattle/Portland and Colorado are the only places where Subarus are popular with the general population. But they're expanding their market by making their cars gigantic, which seems to appeal to more people. I had a silver 1990 Legacy LS AWD sedan that was small but built like an anvil - that's the way I like them.

Uh huh. I have a 90 L AWD and I freakin love

this car. So much so that my dedicated off-road

car is also going to be a 90-94 so this one will just

see the streets from now on. I love being able to

go down 4 wheeler trails through the woods. There's

not a truck out there that could fit through them and

keep their mirrors.