- Transmission:
- So the transmission news unfortunately did not get any better in the last week. I went to pickup a used 2004 WRX transmission for $300 from a guy about an hour away. I brought the transmission back and immediately started to disassemble it so I could install the diff and check out the condition of it. As luck would have it, it had a sheared 3rd gear on the main shaft. Long story short, I attempted to make the best out of a bad situation by getting $175 back from the seller and swapping my donor’s 2006 WRX gearset onto the 2004 WRX pinon, then using the 2004 WRX case.
- So I now have an OBX differential, 2004 WRX clutch, case, and final drive with a 2006 WRX gearset. We’ll see how well I did rebuilding and checking the parts. Hopefully this thing will last a while.
- I also found out the real issue with the donor transmission! It was not that the pinion had been improperly shimmed but that the guy left out a washer where the pinion and gear set bolt together (Where the FFR adapter now goes). All this work for one washer…
- If anyone needs some miscellaneous trans parts I have some spares for sale! Only half of them are broken 🙂
- Other poor news is that the 2006 WRX flywheel I had won’t work with my 2004 WRX pressure plate. There’s almost no difference in the 2004 and 2006 flywheel except for the alignment dowels for the pressure plate. So I have bought a new flywheel to install.
- I had planned to have a timelapse rebuild to get something cool out of this but even my GoPro died during filming! It no longer turns on despite my best debugging efforts. 6 years of action didn’t kill it but filming a transmission rebuild did 😢.
- I did repair the flywheel bolt threads so once I have a new one I can put it on immediately.
- Ordered a clutch fork and slave cylinder for my 2004 trans.
- I installed the front pedal box aluminum and bolted in the pedal box.
- Fitment for the pedal box was extremely poor. Took me about 2 hours to get it installed and in the end I still had to redrill two holes as well as some trimming of the pedal box. I hadn’t had any major issues with FFR parts until this. I tried removing the front firewall aluminum so I could unbolt the pedal box mount but that did not help align it any better. I hadn’t heard of many others having this much of an issue with the fitment.
- Despite spending almost 50 hours working on the car this week, haven’t gotten a whole ton done. Hopefully the next two weeks will be better as I will be in Michigan following then through December and away from the car.
- Goal is to get the rear end finished, car rolling, and get started on fuel/brakes/clutch before I leave.
Pedal box installed
The car as is it sits now. Slowly progressing along to a roller
Didn’t need to machine the old flywheel, but all the threads have been repair and checked now
Almost got it to come on once but it froze on this screen
My newly rebuilt frankentransmission!
You can see the sheared 3rd gear here
Interior aluminum riveted on
