Yesterday morning, I finally started tearing into my ’87 Subaru, and I got the transmission and everything else taken out today. It took me six days to do this much work the last time I had to pull my transmission, and it only took me a day and a half this time around. I also removed the exhaust and driveshaft from the ’88 Subaru, so now all I’ve got to do is tear the front suspension apart and yank the transmission out. Well ok, it’s a little more complicated than that.
One good thing is that the rear-ends in both cars have 3.90 gears, so I don’t have to swap them out. I had always thought that all older Subarus with automatic transmissions had 3.70 gearing, but it turns out that’s not the case. Saves me a bit of work.
After looking at the front-end on the ’87 today, I decided that I better just replace most of it while I’ve got it all taken apart. The ball-joints are shot, the axle shafts, CV joints, and dust boots are all worn pretty badly, and whoever worked on it last cross-threaded the nut that holds the wheel bearing on. Most of the bushings are in bad shape too, so I’ll have to take all of that off the ’88 and put it into the ’87. I guess that makes up for not having to swap rear-ends.
I broke one of my ratchets last night while trying to break a bolt loose on the front-end (I had a 1′ length of pipe on the handle). I’ve had that thing since I was 17 years old, and it was a really cheap one, so I’m surprised it lasted this long. I ended up spending $18 on a new one (Stanley 3/8″ drive), and I also had to buy some more jack stands today–I’ve got both front-ends up in the air. The only thing that sucks is that after I get done putting the good transmission in the car with the good engine, I still have to put the other car back together in order to move it. It’s quite fitting, I’ll end up using the ’87 Subaru to tow the other one to its final resting place in my back yard.