i wanna say it may be a crank/harmonic ballancer issue. Try this but not for too long! disconnect and remove the belts for the alt. pwr str and a/c. Then run it for a short amount of time so it wont' compleatly drain your battery. And see if you still have your issues. that would eliminate any off the accesories. Also check to see if your harmonic ballancer still has the counter balance inside of it. Maybe the thrust washers in the bottom end are worn out so the crank walks a bit? I'll check the old pwr steering pump from my 3.0 and see if the shaft moves at all. And let you know tomarrow. ... i just thought of something, i've worked on a couple of subaru's that were auto, had vibration issues and had the hard clunk shifting reverse to forward and the problem was the flex plate sheared all the way around the part where it bolts to the crank. and here's the kicker, they still drove!!! That may be something to try to look for inside the bell housing.

 

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A friend of mine had the crank shims on his 22re fall out. He had a manual trans and it prevented him from shifting. He had the clutch and all clutch parts replaced and finally one day noticed when some one pushed the clutch pedal his front pulley was moving towards the radiator. I'm not sure how this would act on an automatic but you could check the end play in the crank. I read vital22re's post and remembered this problem.

 

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my old pump has about a 1/16 of play in the shaft moving in and out of the pump. good luck man

 

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the reverse to drive pause, is just from the P.O not stopping completely when going from reverse to drive(car still rolling back and stickin it in drive..) if you wanna know about the TC having weights on it go to the parts store and take one out of the box to see, but it seems to be more than 1 prob, combination of things that are throwing people off, you say the engine vibrates (possible crank pully/HB) and you also say theres some slack in the rear end? pull the third and check the fluid for metal shavings or chunks and inspect ring gear and spiders, possibly pinion baring....some things to think about

 

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