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Luckily, it turns out that he meant a transmission mount, not an engine mount. But that's small consolation. He gave me an estimate to rebuild the transmission at about $1650 + the price of a new flywheel. When I once again brought up the idea of putting in a 4.44 transmission & differential from an Outback. He said it would probably cost about the same, but didn't come up with an estimate. He was hedging to do the rebuild.
Stalling, I told him I'd come in and bring my paperwork about the transmission swap. When I got there, he said he'd take it home and read it tonight, but he was still down-playing a swap, and pushing for the rebuild. He repeated that with the rebuild I'd have a 1-year warranty, but with a used transmission I'd have no warranty. (As if lasting for one single year is really a great deal!)
He showed me the crack in the flywheel. I told him that one of the reasons why I preferred the swap was that the SVX transmission is notoriously weak; he told me that all Subaru transmissions are. He said that the Outback and other similar Subaru transmissions are equally fragile, that my ~118 k mileage is typical for when they all fail, and that these transmissions are actually the same except for the gear ratios. That goes against what I've read here so often about even the SVX's transmission being marginally improved throughout its production run.
Then I told him that the other reason I preferred the swap is that I only had my car back for a little over a week after having a used (SVX) rear diff. installed when my transmission failed. So, maybe it was incorrectly installed or is faulty, and caused the transmission to fail. This was more of an excuse I used than my actual belief, but I've come to think it may actually be the case. He showed me my open transmission, the broken shaft, and showed me other parts that were bad, not that I could tell they were. He said it is very likely that a bad differential could have caused the problem. He said that the junkyard might have sold me a non-SVX Subaru differential. He said that they look the same from the outside.
He asked if the shop that installed the "new" diff. had opened it up before installing it. I knew they hadn't. He also asked if they still had it, but I knew they had already gotten rid of it. (Otherwise, I would have kept it.) In order for him to remove the current rear diff. (so he could open it up and see if it is an SVX diff.), he'd have to remove a bunch of stuff in the way, which he apparently doesn't want to do, and the implication is that it would be a bunch more labor billed to me. (His reaction to this indicated to me that he must have pretty much already had his mind set against doing a swap.) He offered to call the junk yard to see if he could find out from them if this diff. actually came from an SVX or not. I asked him if there were numbers on the diff. that would help identify it, and he said there were.
Ironically, the junkyard where I found it (the only one that had an SVX diff. in my immediate area.) is also the one I was planning to get an Outback diff. from.
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