1993 L Series Transaxle Advice

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geefish
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1993 L Series Transaxle Advice

Post by geefish » Mon Jun 27, 2016 10:12 am

Hi Everyone.
Advice and peoples knowledge gladly accepted.
I have a 1993 L series Dual Range with about 280000kms on it. I got it 10 years ago in Melbourne from a subaru dealer who traded it from the original owner, who used it for delievering and servicing computers in Melbourne CBD. It had about 87000km on it and came with full service history when I bought it. Since then I have serviced it spot on every time, including major services such as timing belt.
Last year, unusual tyre wear led me to buy new tyres and find that a ball joint and tie rods had worn causing the bad tyre wear. These were replaced and the exact same parts also replaced on the opposite side. Almost immediately, an occasional nasty vibration would occur for short periods of time (5 minutes) which would make the steering wheel move up to two centermeters back and forth at any speed above about 20km/h. It would then dissapear and not return for weeks. I reported it to my mechanic who could find nothing wrong but suggested the CV's might be worn. Although at this stage there was no tell tale clicking in the CV's under hard turning etc. A short time latter the clicking did appear - 1000kms maybe? So the CV's and boots were both changed and the old ones inspected. Some wear was found on the inside CV's that connect to the transaxel. However, after the change the mechanic took the car for a drive before completing his work, and the clicking noise was still there, only almost consistently and a lot louder. He suggested that his experience tells him that when the ball joint and tie rods went it made the CV joint a "little" free to move slightly and this has damaged the transaxle or associated gearing.

Does this sound right to everyone?
Has anybody had any experience of this?
Can the transaxle be rebuilt or repaired without doing a whole gearbox rebuild?
I am not suggesting the mechanic is wrong just looking for advice as I haven't come across this before and cant find anyone who has.

Incidently, my mechanic has serviced/repaired my car for the whole time I have had it and I have never had any problems with him. He regularly works on Subaru's. He also prefers not to work on gearboxes as he is an owner operator and has limited special tooling for gearboxes.

Thanks in advance
Geefish

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TOONGA
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Post by TOONGA » Mon Jun 27, 2016 11:16 am

Tell him to look at the outer axle hubs before he goes pulling the gearbox apart.

If you need to show him a photo

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image taken from here showthread.php?p=240556 (link posted as a courtesy to OP in other thread)

The splines on this part fail and can make the same noise as a CV clicking. I chased the same problem for months, until one morning I had no drive in any gear.

I got out of the car with the handbrake on engine running car in first gear, to see the castellated nut spinning in the hub. one new axle hub later I was back on the road. Not a recommended thing to do but I wasn't going anywhere.

The tops of the splines need to be square not triangular. Sometimes a wear point is evident normally it is about a centimetre from the bevel where the cone washer seats.

Of course I have no photos to show the wear and cannot find any but it is worth checking.

If it is the problem only the outer axle hub will need to be replaced not the whole steering/bearing hub.

TOONGA
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El_Freddo
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Post by El_Freddo » Mon Jun 27, 2016 6:11 pm

It's not gearbox related.

Gearboxes tend to make noises and then go bang with more noises. Some cut to the chase and just make nasty "I'm dead" noises :evil:

It'll be something around the gearbox. Toonga has put up a good suggestion. Sometimes you can also get clutch shudder if you don't slip it enough to clear the dust off the pressure plate faces every now and then. But that's only when you're in the process of engaging the clutch on take off, not once your foot is off the clutch pedal and accelerating.

All the best with it, keep us updated ;)

Cheers

Bennie
"The lounge room is not a workshop..."
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Silverbullet
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Post by Silverbullet » Mon Jun 27, 2016 8:16 pm

I went through almost exactly the same story with my Brumby :rolleyes: don't know how applicable it would be to your L series but I had clicking on brand new drive shafts. Went chasing worn hubs, they were fine, was told it could be in the gearbox which was then swapped - noise was still there. Turned out to be the aftermarket drive shafts were making the noise from new. A CV expert told me I had to use factory original style joints or live with the noise. Aftermarket ones are all the tripod inner joint design which is no good on older Subes. I went to rebuilt factory shafts and the noise went away for a while but now my ute just eats drive shafts for breakfast for no apparent reason which is another issue altogether.

I wouldn't go diving into the gearbox just yet ;)
Will it ever end!?
-EA81 TWIN CARB!!!!
-L series 5 speed
-Custom paint job
-2" lift
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