Refill Gear Oil for transfer case/center differential?

Hi all,

The center differential in my MT5 has failed, so I pulled one from the breakers yard yesterday (from 04 Outback, diff labeled 'JD094'). One thing I noted was that the transfer case was full of oil when the gearbox was drained.... hard to miss when it's draining down your arms.

So the question arises; do I have to refill this 'compartment' separately after I re-assemble?

I thought it was part of the main gearbox, but wanted to check as running it dry would be bad.

Cheers,

Simon.

PS. Will post pictures of the tear down, planning to do it tomorrow.

So best laid plans of mice and men... got the car up on stands, pulled out heatshield, driveshaft and transmission mounting (supporting gear box on jack) and then couldn't get the larger roll pin out from the gearbox-to-shifter coupling. Spent a while hammering and swearing to no avail; going to try drilling it out unless someone comes up with a better suggestion.

Gave up with the center diff and attempted to pull the rear diff - which was (of course) also corroded into place. One of the 4 long bolts from the support carriage wouldn't release. The only luck I had here was that the rear long bolts were also pretty bad and the whole stud came out when I tried to remove the nut... at least that way I was able to tilt the differential down whilst attached to the carrier and grid off the top of the stuck bolt (being very care so close to the fuel tank).

Don't you just love working on older cars...?

Simon.

PS. As you might have guessed this is the Forester, not the LGT.

Had another go over the lunch break and success!!

Tried more hammering and then had an idea to use a jack to push the air hammer up onto the pin. Started to move and then I finish off with pin punch. The rear cover was also a littly tight on the pegs, as you can see in the following picture it actually pulled the top peg out when I removed it (case on the left).

Now have to clear up the covers and reinstall with the 'new' center difff/viscous coupler.

Cheers,

Simon.