95 legacy awd system problem

The front is an 'open' differential and seems to work normally. You don't mention if you have a manual or auto-tranny. here's some reading;

Well I did say it was stuck in park which means it had to be an automatic. As for the open front differential,shouldn't both wheel be spinning at the same speed until one encounters resistance?

You may find a wheel turning while the other one is stopped due to friction caused by the brake system, wheel bearings etc.

If the awd is not working, then you should be able to spin wheels when flooring the gas pedal when stopped. This is easier to notice on a road with sand or on grass.

Good luck

mark wrote:

You did mention the 'park' issue, sorry I missed that. I THINK there may even have been some FWD only soobs from around '95 ? But I assume your car was built as AWD. One thing, is there a light on in the inst. cluster that says FWD? The 4EAT equipped soobs have an AWD disable function utilized by placing a spare fuse into the FWD socket in the fuse box under the hood. It is used under conditions where a flat tire cause you to use a donut spare or other tire of odd size.

An open differential ,front or rear, will behave as you observed. Indeed, with the engine off, spinning one side of the front axle should cause the other to spin backwards. WRXs, STis and I think some Foresters have LSD in the rear, spinning one side will likely cause the other side to spin in the same direction. Maybe someone else here knows how the

Carl

As far as the rear LSD, Outback Limiteds have it too. I can say for certain that spinning one tire causes the other to spin the same direction. I tried it while it was up on the lift for tires.

I didn't power up the car and put it in gear (4EAT) to see how the front/rear differential acted tho...

Original poster never mentioned any flashing dash lights. Bet only problem is someone installed the FWD fuse.

I just checked over the car again, there is no empty fuse slot either under the hood or under dash, all fuses are in place and acounted for in the manuals diagram. The only fuse that has anything to do with the drivetrain is one labeled "auto trans control module" . There is no light on the dash saying FWD. In the "capacities" section in the manual it lists automatic transmission fluid, AT differential oil, and rear differential oil. Is this telling me it uses a center open differential. There is no power at the rear wheels, on snow I can let the front wheels spin for a minute and nothing happens at the rear. Is it possible that what the manual calles AT differential oil is viscous coupling fluid and mine could have leaked out dissabling the rear output?

First, check the manual under 'flats' or 'emergency spare'/whatever. There should be instructions on using the spare fuse in the slot for FWD in the fuse box under the hood.

If you have a rear differential then you obviuosly have an AWD vehicle and, from your description, the 'wet clutch pack' or the 'duty solenoid C' or other component is bad.

I checked the manual and found the slot for the FWD fuse. There is no fuse there, I put one in to check and the dash light comes on and then I removed it . The fluids in center differential and auto trans and full. As I said before a mechanic disabled the shift lock mechanism, now with engine off and key removed and foot not on brake the shifter can be moved to any gear. Could this have anything to do with my problem, it seemed the AWD stopped working right after he did this but he insists it couldn't have anything to do with it. Is there any electrical problems that would cause this? Could you tell me more about the duty solenoid C? Thanks

IIRC Duty Solenoid C opens a valve, relieving pressure to the clutch pack in the tail of the tranny. It does this in response to a variable square wave (variable duty cycle) sent by the TCU, such that the more it is closed, the more torque is sent to the rear wheels. The FWD fuse, in effect; causes the valve to stay open so no torque is applied to the rear. So, either the valve is gimmed up or held open, the TCU or other lectrical problem is causing the valve to stay open, or the clutch pack is bad in some whay that force is not sent to the rear.

maybe someone else here knows of some tests.

Carl