In the first picture the pump shaft came out but then when I was messing around with it all of the sudden it just sucked back in as shown in the 2nd picture. I did some more reading up on this subject and should I try to change out anything out while I have it in the state? Not sure how to get the pump shaft to come back out again. Or should I just try to put the TV back in and call it good? I hope these pictures come out

 

I was able to pull the pump input shaft (or whatever its called) back out. What is up with the snap ring? It fits really loose so how do I get the TC back over it without somehow messing things up? In the photo is also a o-ring, should I change that out? Sorry the picture is a little blurry

 

I was able to pull the pump input shaft (or whatever its called) back out. What is up with the snap ring? It fits really loose so how do I get the TC back over it without somehow messing things up?

it's fairly simple - the snap ring just has two ears that hold it in place.

it's totally normal for them to be loose and kind of "flop" around on the TC when removed. it is an odd feeling - like "this floppy thing drive my car?"

if yours has a ring seal on the oil pump shaft (the tube connected to the TC), be very careful not to touch it. they easily break and Subaru often doesn't have those in stock, they are a Subaru only item.

if you remove and install it - it'll want to "sit up" and come out of it's groove. use some light grease to hold it in place.

i just pulled a 2002 TC that didn't have one, but all earlier transmissions i've pulled - inclucing 2001's, have had the ring seal.

 

You should be fine.
But the way I hear it you really are going to cuss putting the motor back in.
The front of the tranny is going to be needed to be raised a little to slide things together right.

Anyways try putting the tc back in now. You should feel it go in with two clicks turing it some when you feel it go in partway..make sure it is all the way in or expect bad things to happen.

I have yet to split a subie motor/tranny so study more..I know there are some threads on it here somewhere.

 

this is really simple and not a big deal. people pull torque converters all the time to also replace the torque converter seal while the engine is out. you may want to do the same thing, particularly since maybe the seal was damaged when pulling the engine?

Simply install the torque converter. it doesn't just "slide back in" it'll go most of the way and then require lining things up a bit to fully seat it. It'll take a small amount of effort to get it to seat the last amount. Annoying but not that big of a deal, I just did one last night, took me 3-5 minutes.

hold the weight of the converter with one finger on that little center nose portion. spin it counterclockwise, then push in. if it doesn't seat, pull the converter out a fraction of an inch, rotate a hair, push again. keep repeating that until it fully seats.

when the engine and trans are bolted together the torque converter bolts draw the torque converter to the flex plate. so you can easily tell if the TC is seated fully or not. look at flexplate in relation to engine bellhousing - and torque converter bolt holes in relation to trans bell housing. if they're going to "hit" while installing the engine, the TC isn't fully seated. they will NOT touch when the engine and trans are bolted together - again the bolts draw them together.

if you put the engine back in and the TC touches the flexplate and you bolt the engine and trans together - you will crack the transmission oil pump.

 

if you put the engine back in and the TC touches the flexplate and you bolt the engine and trans together - you will crack the transmission oil pump.

So i did this and now im leaking oil from the back of the TC. I'm going to pull the engine back out and reseat the TC and tube. How can i see if i cracked the pump?

 

There I knew someone could say it way better then me. Good post grossary.

 

Supporting the weight at the front, as said, is the key.

 

Ok got it to go together and your right it was not all that hard. Add pictures to show how flush it is. It sticks out past the bell housing ever so slightly and if you look at the back of the engine the flex plate is recessed from the mating end of the engine so it looks fully seated.

I have one question on the TC install - does it matter that the TC has no fluid in it?

For anybody else looking at doing this I had to pull the inner shaft (whatever its called) out and install it onto the end of the TC. The inner shaft has (2) short single splines that fit into the TC. The short shaft only mates into the TC about 1" and sticks out. You can see the inner shaft in the earlier picture, its the one with the small spline that is about 1" long with the snap ring. The snap ring fits into the same notched out area that the short single splines fits into. No way to mate the TC to the inner shaft when the inner shaft is installed on the tranny. I had to pull the inner shaft out and mate it to the TC. It hard to get the snap ring squeeze enough to get into the groove but I cocked it ever so slightly to get one end in and then used an small screw driver to compress the other side and then pushed it down until it bottomed out and the snap ring expands into a notch.

I have one more question - if you look at the picture you will see the stut located at the top of the transmission. Notice the strut is torque really bad and looks like it wants to break. Do I have the transmission hoisted to high? should I take the strut off.

 

It sticks out past the bell housing ever so slightly and if you look at the back of the engine the flex plate is recessed from the mating end of the engine so it looks fully seated.

exactly - well done seeing that and getting it!

I have one question on the TC install - does it matter that the TC has no fluid in it?

no, when you start the car the ATF pump will take care of that immediately.

I have one more question - if you look at the picture you will see the stut located at the top of the transmission. Notice the strut is torque really bad and looks like it wants to break.

not a big deal, that's a rather benign part that almost never fails. but it could break.

should I take the strut off.

Yes - disconnect that one bolt on the transmission bracket and reattach the pitchstopper (strut as you call it) after the engine is installed.

 

Great questions and answers! I just pulled the engine from a 2001 outback LLB H6 and the TC came out part way with the engine. I was pretty nervous that I screwed things up but thanks to this post I'm a little less nervous. The only concern I have is that I did damage to the trans pump when it came out. Is there any way to check on my own or should I take it to the transmission shop?

 

Never heard of anyone damaging it during removal. During installation is another story.

The big thing is to make sure the TC is fully seated right before you lower the engine back into place.

 

3.0 TC all the way back just about scrapes the housing, literally no room for it to go back when looked at from the bottom.

 

Similar issue please help!

sorry to dig up an older thread but i am stuck in a similar situation

my input shaft got pulled out with the torque converter removal and will not go all the way back in

i can feel it engage twice but the 2nd time it barely moves forward then you can hear it bottom out on something and its still out too far about 1/4 inch or so... i could install the TC fully no issue when the input shaft is out so it not seating fully is my issue can anyone suggest anything???

 

sorry to dig up an older thread but i am stuck in a similar situation

my input shaft got pulled out with the torque converter removal and will not go all the way back in

i can feel it engage twice but the 2nd time it barely moves forward then you can hear it bottom out on something and its still out too far about 1/4 inch or so... i could install the TC fully no issue when the input shaft is out so it not seating fully is my issue can anyone suggest anything???

I assume you figured this out by now but if not any pics to illustrate the problem?

anyone have the tool to hold the tq converter still?

I didn't end up needing the tool when I did the job. Pry bar or whatever you can find should work if you are just talking about holding it from spinning. It wasn't an issue when I did it.

 

anyone have the tool to hold the tq converter still?

 

nd

You can easily make a tool, by drilling a hole in a piece of wood to stop the torque converter falling out with the engine.
Use the bolt from the starter motor through the hole in a piece of wood, attached to the threaded hole on the torque converter, through the hole where the starter motor was sitting.

 

the one to keep it from being stuck to the motor.

 

I think I once saw a combination wrench used to hold it in place as a makeshift TC holder - but maybe that was for just storing/moving it around? Looked like they use one of the bolt holes and a medium wrench with the bolt through the socket end.

 

Pull the ATF hose and see if fluid flows when it’s cranked. Check the dipstick and see what the fluid looks like nominally and after starting. Though of course you don’t want to do that if you think it wasn’t installed right. But it’s already been started and sounds already hosed.?

Why was the engine/trans being pulled together?

If the TC and flexplate were touching and the engine/trans pulled together with the bellhousing bolts and this thing ran fine before and doesn’t now - then yeah cracked the pump.

Pull the TC and look at the end for damage.

 

Ive started it and it sits and idles. doesnt sound klackety or anything. just a steady thin stream of atf coming from behind the TC. When i bolted the bell housing to the motor the TC and plate were touching but not by alot meaning i didnt feel like i was forcing anything. I just lined up the first bolt in the window, put a bar on the crank and pulled it around. everything seemed normal until i started it and noticed the oil leak. Whne the TC originally slipped off with the morot the tube came halfway out but slid back down. Not knowing about the circlip i just lined up the notches and slid that thing in until it felt seated. I regret this now but i did put it in reverse and drive. It went backward but not foreward however it losta alot of fluid when it slipped off with the motor. that would cause it to not pop into gear as well correct? I'll start taking it all back apart later...

I had a high mileage motor and swapped it out with a EJ20. thats why i split em in the first place. It was running and shifting fine before that. it just sounded like a diesel and needed head gaskets.

 

What atf hose are you talkin? The feed line to the cooler?

 

So yeah, i'm hosed... Could barely get the TC off. The tube is in there still. Not sure i can even get that out. The seal was the reason for the leak. I assume i'm going to need a new TC, tube, seal and pump. I did remove the line to the radiator and turned the car on and that sucker shot fluid all over. Not sure if that means the pumps working or not but at this point just knowing things are that bad in there i'm not sure i'd wanna drive it around like that. Might just look into a JDM one. The TC stuck out 3/8 of an inch and mated perfectly to the plate. I guess thats my bad for not googling it....

 

Good job pulling it and getting to it that quick. You pulled the engine?
Those tubes can be hard to extract. I don't recall how I've done it before, but I recall it taking awhile to figure something out.

Too bad you didn't find something a little more hopeful.

When that shaft crumpled, it could have deflected into the seal, causing the leak.

 

I've had my practice pulling that **** motor out. I recently yanked a good motor out of a rolled 2.5 with a bent valve (threw belt in the rollover) then yanked my motor and swapped the heads onto the newer better block because mine sounded like a diesel. Got it all dialed in and reinstalled it when I proceeded to tag a valve because the timing was off. Had to yank it and buy a 2.0 just to put it in and have this happen. I've been learning a lot of expensive lessons lately...

On the bright side I found a dude on CL with a relatively low mileage tranny from the same year for 400 bucks. Lets just see if he comes through. it is a CL deal after all.

 

Ah snap that’s too bad. That’s the cost of working on stuff, but a couple big dingers in a row, wow. If you want, message me for some Subaru goodies for the learning and documenting effort.

 

I appreciate the offer but I haven't sent enough posts to PM anyone. I admire this forums approach to trolling hahaha

 

I literally did the same thing today trying to seat my torque converter in my new transmission. Flex plate and torque converter touched when putting a new engine and transmission together. Rotated it with my crankshaft to try to align the bolts and man that’s gonna hurt the pocket. I’m working on doing a drivetrain overhaul on my 2005 outback 2.5 limited before I sell it. Looks like another setback. Hopefully pick and pull has what I need. I pulled some interior parts from a car there yesterday. Hopefully I can figure it out tomorrow

 

If you don't have leaking tranny fluid, and the transmission works normally then you dodged a bullet.

 

Thanks for the response, MikeC5. No leaks and it seems to be working well. I'm assuming if the AFT wasn't flowing then the thing would have blown up by now?

 

They either seize so bad you can't turn it over, leak, make a hideous racket or a soul-sucking combination of one or more of those symptoms. Like MikeC5 said, you got lucky.

 

My turn. Pulling 2.5 for head gaskets and despite my best effort, TQ and input shaft crept out, oil (atf?) ran out, I have yet to really look at it but, new seal somewhere and reinstall, and pray?

 

Are you saying it came out all the way? If it only pulled out a few inches, you should be able to get it to reseat. Mine came out a few inches and leaked some ATF. I was able to get it back in. See this thread for some pics of how it should be sitting when fully seated: Torque Converter Came Out with Engine

You should be able to get it there by pushing on it while rotating it. You may have to put a little upward force on it while doing so.

The pros here say that once you tighten the engine on the bell housing, the flex plate should not be touching the TC. Make sure the flex plate is not pushing on the TC as you tighten the bell housing bolts. If it is, your TC is not fully seated.

 

To put TC back in; Screw 2 bolts, opposing, in long enough you can lift and manoevre the TC, while you hold the TC with the bolts, put the TC over the shaft of the gearbox, turn and wiggle the TC on/over the shaft till it is FULLY on.

 

Okay, but the shaft came out too......😌I'm heading out to investigate in a minute, working up parts order for head gasket job