Gearbox carnage - Subaru only

[Guest]

Post what shat itself, why - if known, km and spec of the engine. Specify if race car and pics are fun also.

Like so:

#1 V5 non sti box 185ish km coming home from tune 227kw atw. Passed a car in 4th low load then slipped it into 5th. Went to change down a couple of straights later and fucker wouldnt come out. Pulled box managed to unlock it pulling the centre housing off so checked it all over and couldnt replicate it. Bolted it back together and it lasted about a month before doing it again. Made for 2 very sketchy trips home espesh when I hit town.

#2 V4 sti box meant to have 120k on it put in to replace #1 and had a slight whine in 4th. Did a few long trips on it before it nuked itself. Pulled out of a pub in country town low load low boost and was just changing up through the gears. Got to 4th and it felt like it just popped out of gear. Slid it into 5th and kept driving till I went to pull 4th and there was nothing there. Stripped box and found the following:

#3 Current box is V3 sti. Only issue is have to slide it down slightly into 4th then pull it accross with a slight upwards flick to get it into reverse. Works fine when its in and hoping this lasts until I win big wednesday for a 6sp.

[lachlan]

v3 ra 85k on clock . vf22 and all the mods with 6s ecu

drivin round the hills on a (sedately for once ) . quite a sharp left hander . was comin in bout 50 kph ish . went to change from 4th to 3rd . was a bang and a caput . rolled to space on the outside of the road . loohed underneath and the gbox is dumping its oil .

pulled it apart and it had snapped the shaft the spider gears run on in the front diff into 3 bits .

would have been from doin hellis by starting the grass ....

bought 2 spare boxs with unknown issues for 200 . swapped housing and front diff . well effectivly put the ra gearset in the other box

good as gold .

dont do helis by starting on the grass

[jazza]

V6 sti ra with around 150kms, had downpipe and full exhaust. Did a minor boost in 1st, went into 2nd fine but made clunking noises...like a farked cv joint. Still drove but was suspected chipped tooth so bought new box.

[Jesus]

All of the following on a 2002 BHE Legacy 3.0L.

Gearbox number 1: Pulled from a \'94 TT wagon. Forgot to fill it with oil for the first 1000kms. Lasted another 40,000kms with progressively worse gear whine until eventually it started popping out of 3rd gear off load. In the end 3rd was useless and 4th was starting to go.

Gearbox number 2: Pulled from a \'96 WRX. Was a bit s*** from the very first drive. Gave it utter death around the motorkhanas. Eventually knocked a couple teeth off first gear. Lasted about 15,000kms before 1st gear got obscenely loud and some of the bits went through 2nd causing it to make noise too.

Gearbox number 3: Pulled from a \'99 WRX. Was a little bit notchy but performed well. Did a lot of towing and tried to be a bit nicer to it. Cracked a tooth on 1st gear a week after i put it in with an overzealous clutch dump at an intersection. Kept driving it until it spun the main shaft bearing and nearly seized coming into feilding. Made the loudest screaming noise ive ever heard and felt like someone put the handbrake on a click or two. After stopping - it was sweet but had a horrendous death rattle in neutral. Got about 20,000km out of that one. Easily the most fucked box but i did keep driving it until s*** was just unacceptably rattly.

Gearbox number 4: Finally bought one from a wrecker out of a \'98 STI. Was quiet in neutral but had a little gear whine. 3rd wouldnt engage properly and you had to give it a damned good slamming to get 1st gear. Sent it back after 500km. It came back to me exactly the same after they had fixed it. Got my money refunded and moved on.

Gearbox number 5: From a \'02 RSK Legacy. Was mint. Reasonably quiet and shifted great. Is now for sale because gearbox number 6 had DCCD

Rear diff: VLSD out of a BHE. Some teeth decided to take a vacation at about 210,000kms. Crownwheel and pinion were mint but one of the spider teeth broke off and went through the mix a couple times. Jammed the diff up once or twice but came right with a bit of throttle. Eventually replaced it at 230,000.

Why do i go through so many drivetrain components? Because I keep buying $200 gearboxes from dodgy bastards and treat them like this (put right pedal in carpet to activate factory launch control, stick lever in number one, sidestep left pedal);

Edit: How do you embed s*** on here?

[Guest]

Gerald was telling me about you and your gearbox luck or lack of the other day

[jost]

Crappy old 2.2l legacy, pulled a really noisy gearbox missing anything above 2nd and put a new box in it, Thought this is great, gave it lots of shit, ten mins later wondered why it was getting louder, pulled over and gearbox locked up.

Being a dumb ass i had forgotten to put oil in it.

[Johnnynz]

Alright, try and remember them all...

Got the car, Gearbox was an unknown. It developed a vicious whine in all gears before shitting itself at 40km around town. To this day I don\'t know why it just stripped 3rd gear while accelerating to 50kmh. I can only assume it had a bit of abuse before me.

Next Gearbox was from a reputable wrecker supposedly only 40,000 on it, I blew it apart launching at Heads road drags about 4 weeks into having it. My fault and to be expected although I was disappointed breaking such a low km box. There was very little left of use inside the box.

Next Gearbox was 92,000 km Old from a frontcut a mate brought imported from Japan. It had a slight whine in 4th but other than that it was perfect. I went to put it in gear one day driving out my driveway and it was stuck in Neutral and I couldnt force it out no matter what I did. As I had another box there I checked the exterior of it but everything looked ok so I put the next box in. The broken box got left at the flat I moved out of so I never got to get it opened up.

Gearbox after that I didnt pay a lot for but it locked itself out at Manfield mid lap. I knew it had issues going into the day as I redid the Trans fluid 2 days before Manfield and the Magnetic plug was filled with metal filings and a chunk or two. Going around the infield and the car wont go into 4th, I get it back to neutral and nothing, it just couldn\'t go into gear. Turned out selector forks were bent.

My current gearbox cost me $100 I think, it had done high KMs (160,000+) before i got it and it has done another 10-20 thou in my car. It whines, synchros are shot on 4th, it crunches and 3rd is a sometimes gear but it just wont die so Is sticking with it until it does. Got close at the Easter playday, 3rd and 4th stopped working but I slammed third midlap and it started working again lol.

I have a spare box in my shed that I have had for over a year now. It has fairly low Kms apparently so fingers crossed it might last a while when it goes in.

The amazing part is all of those Gearboxes, 70,000 KM and only one clutch. I really thought I would have blown a clutch by now with the way I launch but it has lasted extremely well. Its fair to say I have a lack of mechanical sympathy but I normally seem to kill boxes in a very mundane way, quite strange.

[lachlan]

What clutch have you got ? Must have really shit gearboxs if a stocker has wrecked them . I have a light weight flywheel and a sprung centre 4 punk

[Johnnynz]

Excedy Heavy Duty of some sort. I don\'t really know drivelines very well, I just know I either have horrible Gearbox luck or I\'m way to rough. One or the other.

[kamineko]

 jesus said:

All of the following on a 2002 BHE Legacy 3.0L.

...

Edit: How do you embed s*** on here?

I skimmed over this, thinking what kind of muppet driving is this, who the heck could destroy so much box (lol)

poster: jesus *ohhhhhhhhhhhhh* righto. ok then. carry on. HAHA

sorry you can\'t imbed. i used to be able to, but i gave up my god powers

when i\'ve got 10mins i\'ll post my gearbox history

[Munkvy]

I have only killed 3 Subaru boxes.

First was in my first BC5 about 8 years ago launching at Melling on Boxing Day (as you do when you are a boyracer). Stripped all sorts of bits and pieces off 1st gear. Sold the car as it was easier to just get rid of it (was rather rough). That was a factory RS gearbox. Before it died I was launching it on average 10-15 times a night on Thursday and Friday nights in the hutt, of course this was back when I was a naughty boyracer.

2nd box was in my Legacy rally car, mid corner at a gravel sprint in upper hutt, antilag humming, went for 3rd gear and it wasn\'t there. Or any other gears, destroyed the crown wheel thingy. That was a V3 STi RA box. I had at a guess given it 40-50 launches before that including several drag meets and also regular donuts at Slipway (I wasn\'t much of a boyracer by this stage). I originally ran a 3 puck clutch when I bought the car. That died on the dyno early on, so was running a new Excedy factory clutch with 215wkw.

3rd was when I crashed aforementioned car, engine shunted box back (was still in gear) and bits of box left the housing... Toast! This was a V3 box with front LSD, 20kg competition centre diff and steel selector forks. However front and centre diffs were checked by Rick and fine, so sold them.

I would recommend run a factory replacement Excedy clutch. Never had any issues with them at all, and I love limiter launches. I mean, I really love them - main reason to buy a Subaru in fact. Only way to go quickly. So really I should have broken more clutches or gearboxes given this. Mind you, most power I ever ran was 215-225wkw. Only ran 98 and factory turbos, so never made big power to break things.

[Jesus]

I forgot to add:

79 Leone Hatchback with an Impreza EJ16 5 speed. Had some very noisy bearings when i finally got rid of it. Turns out they cant quite handle the jandal behind an EJ22 spinning wheels from 1st to 3rd with no rev limiter.

[Johnnynz]

 jesus said:

I forgot to add:

79 Leone Hatchback with an Impreza EJ16 5 speed. Had some very noisy bearings when i finally got rid of it. Turns out they cant quite handle the jandal behind an EJ22 spinning wheels from 1st to 3rd with no rev limiter.

Just reading that brought back a memory and a massive fecking grin.

[Jesus]

Which one would that be?

[Johnnynz]

Ride in the EJ22 Leone without proper Gearbox mounts lol.

[Jesus]

Lol yes. Blocks of 4X2 hammered into place are no substitute for a proper crossmember kiddies.