Towing a Subaru Loyale with the back wheels on the road

[forsythfamily]

Hi

There are lots of posts about towing with a Loyale, but none about
towing one. I have a 1994 Loyale wagon, manual gearbox, selectable 4WD
using a switch on the gearstick. Its not constant AWD. Do I have to put
it on a trailer, or can I tow it with the back wheels on the ground,
providing its in neutral and in 2WD?

Thanks

Sandy

 

[Carl 1 Lucky Texan]

pretty sure your OK. But please also post this at the Forums at
www.usmb.net . I've seen this asled before over there. Actually, some of
the manuals can be towed all 4 on the ground in AWD. There may be
distance/speed limits though.

Carl

 

[johninKY]

I've towed several Subarus and have always just removed part of the
driveshaft. Not difficult and now there is no chance of transmission
problems.

 

[Rick Courtright]

it on a trailer, or can I tow it with the back wheels on the ground,
providing its in neutral and in 2WD?

Hi,

As already recommended, you might ask on the other board, or your Subie
dealer, but I've been led to believe as long as the switchable 4wd
system is in 2wd AND it's a manual trans IN NEUTRAL, you can flat tow to
your heart's content. If it were an automatic, whole different story.

Just think about it: the rear wheels are in "towed" mode most of the
time anyway, unless you spend a lot of time in 4wd, so there's nothing
to be damaged back there. The front wheels will turn the internals of
the transaxle enough to keep the gear oil splashing around, so no
worries there. The only thing I'd be hesitant to do is disconnect the
rear driveshaft. Unless yours is different from mine (a '90), if you do
that, you want to make sure you can tie it up some way so you don't have
to take it out. Mine only comes out in one piece (though it's a two
piece shaft) and the tail shaft (splined shaft at front of driveshaft
that slides into the x-fer case) is integral to the sealing of the rear
of the x-fer case. Pull it out and you can have gear oil everywhere but
where it's supposed to be. (Don't ask how I learned that!)

Good luck!

Rick

 

[S]

Hi Sandy, All!

Hi

There are lots of posts about towing with a Loyale, but none about
towing one. I have a 1994 Loyale wagon, manual gearbox, selectable 4WD
using a switch on the gearstick. Its not constant AWD. Do I have to put
it on a trailer, or can I tow it with the back wheels on the ground,
providing its in neutral and in 2WD?

As Rick suggests, as long as it _is_ a selectable FWD/4WD manual box
(NOT AWD, NOT Automatic), the drive to the tail is disengaged _behind_
the gear train when the selector is in FWD. IE, it's free-wheeling,
just as if it was being driven normally in FWD. As such, towing with
the rear wheels down (on a tow-dolly) shouldn't give you any problems
at all, at least not over the short haul.

However, I have heard of folks having trouble with transmissions (this
on a towed Suzuki Samurai IIRC) where the lack of spinning
input/output shafts (hence no oil being thrown into the upper reaches
of the transmission case) caused oil starvation at the output
bearings.

If you plan on cross-country towing, do check to be sure the fluid
level in the tranny is topped off, and you might want to start the
Loyale and let it idle in neutral for a minute or two whenever you
stop for a break. If you tow with all four wheels down
("flat-towing"), this probably won't be an issue (if indeed it even
is), as the output shaft (the bottom shaft, at least on the older
Subaru trannys) will spin whenever the vehicle is in motion.

How's that for saying yes and no at the same time? ;-)

Oh, and you probably don't want to mess with the drive shafts; pulling
the main shaft will make a huge mess unless you drain the transmission
fluid before hand, pulling the rear half shafts is possible (I think;
the newer cars have them retained via an internal snap-ring; same
issue as the main shaft when removed. The DL/GL/Loyale rear shafts
bolt in IIRC), but install/removal would be a fairly major ordeal to
go thru every time you wanted to use the car. Guess you could just
pull them and leave them off for the duration of your trip (FWD car at
that point, but you probably won't miss the 4WD feature playing
tourist anyway) . . . guess that would probably be the _best_ solution
if you have to tow for long distances on a tow-dolly.

Hope this is helpful.

ByeBye! S.

Steve Jernigan KG0MB
Laboratory Manager
Microelectronics Research
University of Colorado
(719) 262-3101