Well, I've been putting it off for 5 months now, but its finally done. The deciding factor on finally doing it: my lifted 86 GL wagon with 550k+ miles on it, second transmission broke 2nd gear off the gear set and its damn near impossible to drive on ice to dry pavement with a welded rear end, having to jump from 1st to 3rd gear.
Took me about 10 hours of actual labor to get it done. I love how much easier the SVX is to work on compared to a legacy automatic. The SVX crossmember is a godsend, it actually makes it easier to drop out the transmission because it doesnt have that huge lip that overhangs the r&p like the legos and foresters have. So long story short, 98 Forester 4.44 trans and rear diff is what got installed today. I was going to put a 4.11 in until board members mentioned that they were pos trans and that the 4.44 trans has an extra set of clutches on the high side pump. Anyhow, I ended up using the 4.44 torq converter (the stock 3.54 converter was full of metal shavings, I couldnt think of a way to get all the metal shavings out of there) used the 4.44 flex plate because it was almost twice as thick as the stock SVX flex plate. SVX TCU and pressure control Sol.
My only real mind bender is the speedo sending unit. I put the SVX on in since it was a 3 wire and the 4.44 was a 2 wire. What or where do I need to go to get ahold of a 4.44 speedo sender thats a 3 wire? or what do I need to do to get my speedo back to semi accurate?
Is there anything else that I need to know about or need to worry about with the 4.44? it sure does get up and go and bang gears a hell of a lot faster than the 3.54. Thinkin about getting a clutch type LSD for the rear too since the car has 179k miles on it and the VLSD is most likely worn out. What swaps are you guys doing for reg. LSD rears? or torsen gleason rear diff?
Thanks guys appreciate the input and what not and getting me to go with the 4.44. Time to go get the custom 4.44 Alaska license plates ordered now
