It’s a 1993 Subaru Justy (same one as before for people who remember me asking about it) and it’s stuck in reverse. It’s a piece of shit car and I decided to try my luck to fix it. I’ve gotten all the pertinent connections and hardware off the transmission box except I dont’ know how to get the axles out of the gearbox (the tranny has to be lifted out). So does anyone have the know-how for such a vehicle?
get a Haynes manual. You’ll need it anyway, and it’ll have the procedure. Usually they just pry out but some vehicles have retainers, or the CV joints bolt up.
b.
I haven’t had to do this on a Justy, but all the Subarus I have seen used roll pins to secure the inner CV joint to the axle shafts. If that’s what you have, drive the pins out (and back in later) with a hammer and punch.
I know a Justy expert (be nice now…) who has done this several times. I will ask him tomorrow morning for you, if no one else answers by then.
If it’s like a Chrysler, you remove the entire halfshaft from the car.
On a Chrysler, it goes like this:
Pull the speedometer pinion gear out of the transmission.
Remove the big nut on the outboard end of the halfshaft (big cheater bar & socket while someone stands on the brake pedal).
Disconnect the lower ball joints by removing the clamp bolt and prying the lower A-arm downward (it helps to disconnect the sway bar at both ends first).
Swing the steering knuckle up and back, and you should be able to slip the outboard end of the halfshaft out of it.
Then pull outboard on the halfshaft, and the inboard end should slip out of the transmission.
The only other brand I’ve done this on was a VW Rabbit; the basic procedure was the same, but at the inboard end the halfshaft was secured to the transmission by a ring of Allen-head bolts, instead of just being pushed into the transmission.
Then pull outboard on the halfshaft, and the inboard end should slip out of the transmission.
On cars with this design (circlips that gently hold the inboard CV joint into the tranny’s stub axle shafts), you don’t want to pull on the halfshaft. There’s a high probability that it will dislocate the inboard CV joint’s innards. The safe method is to pry the inboard CV joint housing away from the tranny.
I lovereading threads like this, even if none of it makes much sense to me
I have a Chilton’s. It’s patheticly written, poor grammar, few pictures, doesn’t tell me anything I want to know (remove starter and pitching stopper–as if i know what a pitching stopper is). So is a Haynes any better?
The pitching stopper is a snubber which prevents the torque of the engine from twisting the whole assembly as the engine comes under load. the haynes manual will give you pictures and procedures, and will also be a big help in rebuilding the trans. Make sure you get the one for your make/model/year car. Never had a bad haynes experience. There might be better info in a factory manual, but at this point you might spend more on the manual than the car’s worth- a haynes should cost 12-15 bucks.
Good luck!
b.
My Justy expert is out of town, and apparantly doesn’t check his voicemail. Sorry. 
I dropped both control arms, rotors are off, and the driver’s side half shaft is out. I noticed 2 things thus far that got my attention.
The first is that the driver’s CV joint boot is torn. The second is that when I pulled out the half shaft, no oil came out and it looks like the shaft with the “teeth” are about to start rusting. Shouldn’t there have been tranny fluid in there?
Now i just have to figure out how to remove the exhaust pipe and shield so I can get to the passenger side punch pin thingy.
punch pin thingy
It’s called a roll pin.
Now i just have to figure out how to remove the exhaust pipe and shield so I can get to the passenger side punch pin thingy.
Look long and hard to see if you can do it without dropping the exhaust. On the models I recall, it was accessible with a long thin punch when the wheel/axle was rotated to just the right position.
…when I pulled out the half shaft, no oil came out and it looks like the shaft with the “teeth” are about to start rusting. Shouldn’t there have been tranny fluid in there?
Not yet. Unlike some designs where the halfshaft sticks inside the tranny, going through a seal at the hole, this design connects outside the tranny. The protruding stub axle is what goes through the seal in the side of the transaxle case. One advantage of this design is that you don’t have to mess (literally) with draining (and spilling) and refilling the tranny if all you’re doing is removal and replacement.
Squirt some WD40 on the splines before reinstalling the halfshafts, they get a bit rusty there because they’re dry and a touch of moisture creeps in. BIG HEADACHE SAVER: When you put those axles back in, look very carefully at the roll pin hole going through the splines. You’ll see that the hole goes through a male spline tooth (peak) on one side and through a female tooth (valley) on the other. This means that it only goes together one way. If you get it 180 degrees out, you’ll only see half a hole for the roll pin to go through (it won’t work). Get it carefully lined up and it’s a breeze. If reading this doesn’t seem quite clear when you’re looking at the splines of the stub axle and of the halfshaft, let me know and I’ll rephrase it somehow.
…the driver’s CV joint boot is torn.
Look into a rebuilt halfshaft. It will have reconditioned CV joints and new boots, inboard and outboard. More cash than just buying a boot, but more new parts and a lot less trouble.
punch pin thingy
It’s called a roll pin.
Now i just have to figure out how to remove the exhaust pipe and shield so I can get to the passenger side punch pin thingy.
Look long and hard to see if you can do it without dropping the exhaust. On the models I recall, it was accessible with a long thin punch when the wheel/axle was rotated to just the right position.
…when I pulled out the half shaft, no oil came out and it looks like the shaft with the “teeth” are about to start rusting. Shouldn’t there have been tranny fluid in there?
Not yet. Unlike some designs where the halfshaft sticks inside the tranny, going through a seal at the hole, this design connects outside the tranny. The protruding stub axle is what goes through the seal in the side of the transaxle case. One advantage of this design is that you don’t have to mess (literally) with draining (and spilling) and refilling the tranny if all you’re doing is removal and replacement.
Squirt some WD40 on the splines before reinstalling the halfshafts, they get a bit rusty there because they’re dry and a touch of moisture creeps in. BIG HEADACHE SAVER: When you put those axles back in, look very carefully at the roll pin hole going through the splines. You’ll see that the hole goes through a male spline tooth (peak) on one side and through a female tooth (valley) on the other. This means that it only goes together one way. If you get it 180 degrees out, you’ll only see half a hole for the roll pin to go through (it won’t work). Get it carefully lined up and it’s a breeze. If reading this doesn’t seem quite clear when you’re looking at the splines of the stub axle and of the halfshaft, let me know and I’ll rephrase it somehow.
…the driver’s CV joint boot is torn.
Look into a rebuilt halfshaft. It will have reconditioned CV joints and new boots, inboard and outboard. More cash than just buying a boot, but more new parts and a lot less trouble.
GaryT, are you basically saying the roll pins will only go in and come out one way only?
I’m saying the splines will only line up one way AND still allow the pins to go through.
The splines are radially symmetrical, meaning you can rotate the halfshaft one tooth at a time relative to the stub axle, and slip them together in any position. Let’s say there are 15 splines. That means there are 15 ways to orient the halfshaft to the stub axle. But only one of those 15 orientations lines up the roll pin holes in the halfshaft with the roll pin hole in the stub axle.
Where one can get fooled is by quickly eyeballing the holes and then slipping the halfshaft onto the stub axle. If you approach it 180 degrees off, it’s actually off half a tooth. That can be hard to notice in the awkwardness of working under the car and with the halfshaft’s inner CV joint bent at some angle.
Looking at the roll pin hole on the stub axle, you’ll see that the hole goes through a male spline tooth on one side (call it the 12:00 position) and a female depression between teeth on the other side (6:00). Likewise on the inside of the inner CV joint on the end of the halfshaft. You need to line the tooth part of one with the depression part of the other to fully line up the roll pin hole. Once it’s lined up, it doesn’t matter whether the pin goes in (or out) from the 12:00 side or the 6:00 side.
Test fit this with the tranny on the floor while it’s really easy to see everything. Satisfy yourself that you have a complete circle roll pin hole. Mark it with white paint if you want, to make it easier to line it up again during the actual installation.
Be sure to install the roll pins as soon as the halfshafts are slipped onto the tranny’s stub axles, before attaching anything on the outboard end of the halfshaft. If for some reason you have to reposition the inboard splines, you won’t have to undo anything first.
I hope that’s clear. If not, ask and I’ll try another explanation.