Ray Casner

Hey, guys & gals - I have a 2000 Outback Legacy with a stickshift tranny that all of a sudden has decided to lock me out of first gear. All the other gears work fine - but, when attempting to engage first, the lever can't even be forced in. It's like the gate doesn't even exist.

I'm an ASE certified "master mechanic" (zippety doo dah) and I've overhauled plenty of standard trannies during my 45+ year tenure as a mechanic, so I know a little bit about 'em, LOL. I also have a hoist in my garage, so I can drop it and blow it apart if need be - but, I'm hesitant to launch into such a major repair without some kinda insight from you experts.

I've searched quite a bit on the net and have read about numerous gear failures on the apparently-weak trannies in the Impreza's & WRX's (which I ASSume is the same as my tranny) - but, most of these appear to be blown-up due to higher horsepower (modded engines) or in instances of aggressive driving. Therefore, I doubt that my situation applies, since I drive like the old fart that I am.

Most of my "dealership experience" has been with Ford and "we" used to have probs with some of the truck 5-spds where the synchro assembly was defective and allowed one or more of the "dogs" to pop out of place, thus preventing movement of the shift collar. In those instances, however, the trans would be locked INTO gear and would not come out. Perhaps this is similar??

Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated and SORRY for the long (first) post!! THANX, in advance!

C'ya - RAY

The Fixer

I had the same problem, it was because there a wasnt a first gear anymore gone along with a broken imput shaft

Ray Casner

LOL - Thanx, Conrad. But, I'm reasonably-certain that my prob is not that severe, since I can still drive it normally in all gears, except 1st. Short of discovering a "magic rag" to wave over the POS, I'll probably be dropping the tranny out of the car tomorrow and blowin' it apart. I expect to find a damaged 1-2 synchro assembly (not to be confused with "blocker/brass ring"), wherein the sliding collar won't move due to a jacked synchor "dog". Of course, I'm sorta talkin' out my ***, since I've never had a Scooby box apart before - so, I may have a surprise coming! I've had several other makes of transaxles apart, however, and I'm not expecting to find any world-changing differences, lol.

I'll post back with my findings, along with a pic or two (if I can figure out how to post 'em on this site), when I figger out whazzup!

C'ya - RAY
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Some people are like slinkies........not really good for anything - but, you can't help but smile when you see 'em tumble down the stairs.

The Fixer

Ray, I could still drive mine normally in all the other gears, just couldnt get it into first, I too didnt think it was that bad until the box came apart lol

Ray Casner

Hmmmm...............There's obviously something I'm not understanding here - perhaps it'll be readily apparent when I split the cases. Does the tranny have two input shafts???? When you said "input shaft", I ASSumed you were talking about the shaft that's splined to the clutch disc - thru which power is transmitted from the engine to the trans. If THAT were broken, I don't understand how you would be able to drive the car at all.

C'ya - RAY
__________________________________________________ _________________________

Some people are like slinkies........not really good for anything - but, you can't help but smile when you see 'em tumble down the stairs.

Ray Casner

Okay...........the box is apart on the bench. My, what tiny little gears it has!! ("All the better to blow up on you, my dear!") No wonder youse guys have to upgrade to the STI box when you mod yer engine or drive aggressively, LOL. This thread didn't seem to generate much interest and, quite frankly, I doubt that any of y'all will ever have the same prob I did - because it's just too bizarre! But, here's what happened:

After removing the transfer case and splitting the cases, I pulled the two shaft-and-gear assemblies from the L/H section and noticed, right off, that the 1-2 synchro collar snapped into the first-gear position exactly as it should. So much for my theory that I was gonna find a jacked synchro assembly! I then turned my attention to the shift fork and found that, indeed, it would NOT move in the direction required to engage first gear. When moving it to the 2nd-speed position and then attempting to get a "running start" towards 1st, it stopped abruptly at neutral with a solid "thwack" noise that could be felt resonating in the case half - indicating that whatever was stopping its travel should be readily apparent.

As a point of reference, there are two bored bulkheads thru which the three shift-fork shafts travel. The rear one is plain, but the front one also has two smaller bores that intersect at 90° angles - (1) one that intersects all three shift-shaft bores simultaneously and contains the two sliding interlock pins that prevent accidental engagement of two gears at once, and (2) three separate bores that each contain an outside-accessible plug-spring-ball arrangement that engages with one of three grooves in each shaft to provide detents that hold the forks either in neutral or engaged.

However, on THIS tranny, there was another short "blind" hole in the front 1-2 shift-shaft bore that was NOT drilled or machined - perhaps an artifact of slag or a bubble that occured during the casting process. I could see it quite plainly with a small dental mirror, and noticed that it had accumulated some metal particles that were acting as a "stop" for the end of the shift shaft. I used a small bent-end awl to pick the metal fragments from the hole and VOILA - the shaft then moved freely.

Now, for those of you who have had one of these boxes apart before and can visualize the area to which I'm referring - understand that this is a blind hole. It could not possibly have been machined, nor is it opposite from any other hole that is machined. Sooooooo..............this is probably the only box that ever came off the Subaru assembly line with this defect (my luck, LOL!).

BTW, I'm not just gonna put it back together and hope that it doesn't happen again. I'm cleaning the hole, as best as possible, with aerosol parts cleaner (BraKleen) and compressed air - then I'm gonna fill it with epoxy and slice off the "almost hard" residue with the end of the shift shaft, which I have sharpened by grinding off the chamfer. This will prevent any other errant particles from becoming lodged therein.

C'ya - RAY
__________________________________________________ _______________

Some people are like slinkies........not really good for anything - but, you can't help but smile when you see 'em tumble down the stairs.