Oh the dreaded transmission!
 

Last year I made the mistake of buying a 92' SVX LSI on Ebay. Don't get me wrong, I have always wanted one of these cars. My daily drive is a 91' Legacy with 265,000 miles on it, it has been the most dependable car I've ever owned. So I was looking forward to upgrading to the SVX. To my shock the transmission started going out on the way home from picking it up. I was again shocked at how I got screwed on the deal, but that's another story. I was again shocked to find out how much the transmission was going to cost and how many problems everyone has had with it.

This is a great car, I want to get it back on its feet, but I have a hard time paying more for a repair than I paid for the car!!!

I have been reading a lot on this website, you fellas seem to know this car inside and out. I'm looking for a little advise. Where's the best place to pick up a transmission (Cost effective and reliable)? What kind of mods need to happen to make the tranny last? And does anyone recommend or has tried the 5-speed conversion?

Sorry to hear you didn't get a good one for the money. Sometimes a bargin isn't as good as it seems at the time. Hope things get better in the future.

I would go to a reliable Subaru dealer. They usually have rebuilt trannys for $2500 or so. Prices vary, so do some checking around. There are some 5 speed conversions as well. That is a little more money if you don't do it yourself. Do a search here, and you will find out quite a bit about them. There is also an article by Huck on how he converted his over to a 5 speed for $1,000. It is on the top of the page here, or in the "How-To Documents". Good luck. :)

I have the same problem with my tranny and my plan is to go with a 4.11 or a 4.44 trans out of a impreza or outback. Do a search on these for more info:)

Man, I'm sorry you've had such a miserable experience with the car. It's a shame you didn't find us before you bought it - we could have told you and SVX was not going to be as reliable as a Legacy. :)

Earl already gave you good advice concerning a dealer-sourced replacement. I agree with him, unless you happen to be so inclined to do it yourself. I bought a used transmission from another member on this site and installed it myself. I think I paid somewhere around $700. But, again, you have to be familiar with the car and have some experience to undertake a repair like this.

The five-speed route is certainly a step beyond a straight replacement. The transmission may bolt up, but there's still some custom fabrication and tweaking involved. It'd be tough to find a shop who would do it, and even then it'd cost a lot. The vast majority of the five speeds I know of were installed by their owners or mechanic friends.

I'm glad you joined the site, but I'm sorry you're having these problems with the car. Let us know if there's anything else we can do to help, and let us know what you decide and how it works out for you.

If you are mechanically inclined then the best value would be to rebuild yours, $475 for the stage 2 kit, $525 for the stage 3 from Level 10 performance (google it) and I heard something like $175 for a TC overhaul. For a little more you could pick up a 4.11 or 4.44 core and use that.

Give us some symptoms of the tranny going. It may not be as bad as you think. Alot of tranny slipping symptoms may just be due to a bad tps or brake band wear, etc. . :)

The symtoms of this failure:

1. Initially a loud clunking after a slip into reverse.

2. Then it would die whenever it was put into drive when cold. The only way to get it moving was to rev the engine hard, get it moving, it acted like it was trying to take off in top gear. After it run for a half mile or so it frees up and acts fine.

3. The last time it was drove it could no longer shifted through reverse into park. So it has been setting in my driveway, in neutral, block, and the battery disconnected for the past 6 months.

My wife says fix it or trash it. I don't blame her. I would make someone a heck of a deal on a really nice SVX, except that it only goes foward.

Total transmission know-nothing here, and the clunking and failure to shift into park may rule-out this possibility, but the second symptom you described strikes me as torque converter trouble.

dcb

1. Possibly just a torn transmission mount.

2. Possibly just the coolant temperature sensor for the ECU. Mine did this when my sensor failed. Symptoms can be: locked TC, engine fans on all the time, hard starts when ambient temps are near freezing.

3. Perhaps the shifter cable is loose or out of adjustment.

Im going to move this to the tech section - Harvey will have a better chance of seeing it there :)

1. One loud clunk, could be a mount, but clunking, as in clunk, clunk, clunk, would seem to be the reverse/low brake.
2. This could be lock up clutch on the converter locked or engine problems. "frees up and acts fine". may be the valve body is gooed up, frees when it heats up?.
3. Does this mean the lever does not move, or the box won't select reverse. ?

"except it only goes forward". this would be the low/reverse brake, it probably does not have engine braking in low gear either.

Harvey. ;)

Harvey,

Thanks for the info. To answer you questions:

There was only one clunk going into reverse, it would slip and then clunk into reverse.

The shift lever can no longer be shifted past the reverse postion. it will go into 1,2,3,D but not R & P.

Thanks for the help!!!

Ok ,the lever problem has to be in the lever cable, or in the manual valve in the box that the lever moves. I would pull the pin that connects the cable to the lever on the box, to see if the shift lever moves into the R,P, position. also to move the gear box lever to see if it will move into the R,P,position.

If the shift lever moves ok, when disconnected, it is ok. If the gear box lever does not move into the R,P, position, when disconnected, it could be the inhibitor switch that it moves, on the side of the box, may be jamed with a stone, if not, then the manual valve that the lever moves in the box may be jamed.

The manual valve in the box, can be got at by pulling the pan off and removing the valve body. The box does not have to come out to do it.

I would get the lever problem sorted out first them look at the clunk thing.

Harvey. ;)