ok, gearbox definately has a problem, the clip had come undone like i had thought.

re-attached everything and refited the engine the 'proper' way (thanks for the heads up doug!), noise remained.

removed engine again, swapped torque converters, input shaft, input tube and wobble plates, noise remained.

swapped the gearbox out with a FWD box, reused the torque converter, tube and input tube... no noises...

cant exclude the possibility the gearbox didnt already have a fault before i started work on it.

anyhow, wanted: 1x AWD automatic gearbox, suit my93-my96 n/a impreza!

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Long live the WRC

This is punishing you for not converting it to a proper manual transmission turbo spec.