5MT Speedo gear and stub shaft swap

Hi all, I'm new to the forum and before I begin operating on my transmissions I thought I'd check here and see if anyone has had any experience with this. I have a MY 00 Legacy Outback 5MT and I am swapping it with a MY 05 Legacy GT 5MT. The internals for the speedo gear need to be swapped as well as the front stub shafts (as opposed to buying new front axles). These appear to be the only differences.

 

I've searched the forums and haven't found anything that relates to this mod. If anyone has any personal experience they can share it would be appreciated. Otherwise, I'll take pics and document my transplant and let you know what I find.

 

-Chad Kassem

Alright, well so far this looks like it'll be fine. Here is the MY 2000 OBW trans that came with the car. I need that speed sensor and those stub shafts out.

 

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g93/ckassem/5MT/IMG_4978_zpspcar1d3u.jpg

 

Here is the MY 2005 Legacy GT (non-turbo, I think) already disassembled. I need to get the speed sensor where that plug is.

 

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g93/ckassem/5MT/IMG_4976_zpsqyowuwzv.jpg

 

Part of why I expected this to work is because its prohibitively expensive to change castings and gears. While Subaru changed the way the electronics pick up the speed signal, I was sure they didn't change the casings or the gear sets. Looks like I was right. As seen below, evrything appears to be intact, with the vss gear assembly itself simply not installed in the right side case.

 

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g93/ckassem/5MT/IMG_4977_zpsctkhrydv.jpg

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g93/ckassem/5MT/IMG_4975_zpsmsg6nvnh.jpg

 

I'm not sure if I can link youtube vids, but I just looked at a couple videos to get the jist of how these needed to come apart. I'm not sure the tail section even needed to come off.

 

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g93/ckassem/5MT/IMG_4981_zpsy0qhhigm.jpg

 

In the morning I'm going to open up the MY00 trans and swap the parts over. I may just swap the entire right side case with the installed speedo gear and all.

Why, pray tell, are you using a different tranny?

Two reasons actually:

 

It's what I could get locally.

It was $325 compared to $800-$1200

 

I'm honestly surprised no one seems to have done this before. Seems like with the punishment we put these cars through people would find themselves getting whatever they can get their hands on more often. Maybe it's just me. I guess if I was in the NE somewhere 5MTs would be cheap and plentiful. In Austin, TX? Not so much.

Makes sense. You're braver than most LGT owners obviously, which I'd say is the reason that there's not much swap documentation:)

Well, I'm no mechanic, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

 

 

Seriously though, I did take an automatic transmission and transaxle course at my local community college several years ago. I recommend that to anyone that wrenches. I was tired of being able to do everything on a car except the "slush box." Fact: automatic transmissions aren't "magic." After one semester of rebuilding my Jeep AW4 then later swapping parts from a donor AW4 and transplanting them into a Supra a340e to make the 2JZ-GTE setup 4WD (yes that went into the Jeep)...taking apart a manual seemed like it should be theoretically simpler. So far so good.

 

The real test will come after the swap. Longevity and a working speedo will tell the tale.

This morning I started on the old fucked up MY00 5MT. I skipped the back end entirely and went straight for the center diff to trans connection. I cracked the bolts loose with a rubber mallet.

 

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g93/ckassem/5MT/IMG_4982_zpsx271sheh.jpg

 

I found that grinding a thick screwdriver to a sharp edge goes a long way to getting the cases split apart.

 

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g93/ckassem/5MT/IMG_4983_zpsljiwyi9o.jpg

 

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g93/ckassem/5MT/IMG_4984_zpsn7y5vuyz.jpg

 

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g93/ckassem/5MT/IMG_4985_zps4uj5sf7w.jpg

 

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g93/ckassem/5MT/IMG_4987_zpspf3dcxds.jpg

 

Next I removed the trans case bolts, these two ball bearing retainer bolts, and split off the right side.

 

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g93/ckassem/5MT/IMG_4988_zpslwsya0rh.jpg

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g93/ckassem/5MT/IMG_4989_zps33ne0yjb.jpg

 

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g93/ckassem/5MT/IMG_4992_zpsqooi3yuc.jpg

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g93/ckassem/5MT/IMG_4991_zps6an4nwqe.jpg

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g93/ckassem/5MT/IMG_4993_zps6vbbfbay.jpg

 

At this point I decided to just swap the right sides of the trans cases, but before I did that I needed to move the front diff stub shafts over to the MY05 5MT. All it took was removing the circlips, pulling out the stubs, sliding them in the other diff and replacing the clips.

 

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g93/ckassem/5MT/IMG_4994_zpsjtftndrx.jpg

 

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g93/ckassem/5MT/IMG_4995_zpsxdriqymr.jpg

 

With the stubs installed, I then swapped the right side covers, bolted the MY05 back together, and torqued it to spec.

 

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g93/ckassem/5MT/IMG_4996_zpsuomfpwzo.jpg

 

After the trans bolts were torqued I swapped the left side bearing cups with shaft seals. I found that my Motion Pro clutch basket tool (for my motorcycles) worked great for these components. I then set the backlash and preload according to the manual (backlash= .005" to .007").

 

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g93/ckassem/5MT/IMG_4998_zpsmhd8zjfo.jpg

 

Transmission retrofit complete. Now just final assembly of remaining components.

 

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g93/ckassem/5MT/IMG_4997_zpsrcgym09q.jpg

 

 

I cleaned the shit out of the mating surfaces, used a gray rtv specific for gear lube, and reassembled and torqued the center diff and output shaft cover into place. Verified that shifting felt right...and done.

 

One MY 2005 non-turbo Legacy GT 5MT retrofitted to plug into my MY 2000 2.5L SOHC Legacy Outback Wagon.

 

Took me a couple hours last night and several hours today, but I move slow. I hope this helps anyone else needing a trans swap in the future.

 

A couple notes:

-Getting the shift lever to hook in properly with the shift forks was a bitch.

-There is a small black spacer that looks like a washer in the tail section. Don't lose that.

-I used a 90 degree die grinder with a flap wheel to GENTLY remove the nicks caused by splitting things apart during the mating surface prep treatment.

 

Here's to hoping for a smooth install, no leaks, and a properly working speedometer. Cheers!

 

 

-Chad Kassem

Thanks for this.

 

I've been threw a few 5mt's over the years. I keep swapping my original 98 2-wire VSS onto new cases. I guess I been lucky at picking up 4:11 5mt's that had the VSS. Yesterday i picked up an 05 Legacy Outback trans and didnt notice until i was ready to instal that it had the VSS plugged like yours.

 

This weekend im going to try swapping over that orange speedo gear rather than that case half. My old case isnt a TY755, and it was modified to take blast plates. I'm not reinstalling the blast plates this time around.

Glad it could help someone else. I just realized how long ago this was. Trans still works perfectly. LOVE my Suby!

Glad it could help someone else. I just realized how long ago this was. Trans still works perfectly. LOVE my Suby!

 

Finished mine this morning. Transfering the gear and shaft over was pretty simple. Got it all back together after a short arhuement with shift rod. I found if you put pliers on tail shaft and wiggle it while dropping tail section on then it helps it drop right on. Gotta wiggle shift fork too.