tardisguy
Newbie
Hey everyone, been awhile. My uncle recently gave me his old work truck and I have been working on getting it back up to ***** after being parked for the past 5 years. Long story short, the truck was stolen 5 years ago, but my uncle got it back a week later with only a busted column and it has just sat since. It has had a hard but very productive life so far (Truck has over 600k and hauled vending machines daily in the bed for 26 years.),so its not a real looker but it was cared for right and I have lots of fond memories of this truck so its a keeper.
Been working through things and it runs good but it doesn't move on its own. Another long story short, the TH400 (or 3l80 if you like) is burnt up. Black, gritty sludge on bottom of pan, awesome burned fluid smell and the outer part of the planetary that you can see when the pan is off has a beautiful rainbow coloring on it. We think when they stole it they overheated the trans some how. Trans had been rebuilt for the third time 20k before and had a fresh fluid & filter done a month before it was stolen.
This is a project right now so I am not in a big rush to get it done ASAP but I am a single dad so the funds are available but need to be spent wisely. This is going to be a weekend driver & tow rig that is not driven too much and will be driven responsibly so I don't necessarily need a "bulletproof" trans. With that being said...
Would it be better to get my trans rebuilt or just get a "new" trans from Summit, Jegs, Monster, etc.
I have talked to a number of local trans shops and nobody can even give me a ballpark figure of what a full rebuild would be. They all want to see it first then shoot numbers. Some even want the whole truck or they wont do it. I'm not too fond of that. I would rather pull it and take just the trans to someone.
Yall are probably tired of reading by now so again:
rebuild what I have or get a "new" trans from Summit, jegs, Monster, Gearstar, Etc.
Any other ideas welcome too, except 5 speed swap. I already did that to my 91 and even though that is pretty stout, I want to keep the 89 an auto. The idea of doing the 4L80 swap does interest me but I don't have that much funding for the trans and the standalone controller.
Thanks in advance everyone!!
Been working through things and it runs good but it doesn't move on its own. Another long story short, the TH400 (or 3l80 if you like) is burnt up. Black, gritty sludge on bottom of pan, awesome burned fluid smell and the outer part of the planetary that you can see when the pan is off has a beautiful rainbow coloring on it. We think when they stole it they overheated the trans some how. Trans had been rebuilt for the third time 20k before and had a fresh fluid & filter done a month before it was stolen.
This is a project right now so I am not in a big rush to get it done ASAP but I am a single dad so the funds are available but need to be spent wisely. This is going to be a weekend driver & tow rig that is not driven too much and will be driven responsibly so I don't necessarily need a "bulletproof" trans. With that being said...
Would it be better to get my trans rebuilt or just get a "new" trans from Summit, Jegs, Monster, etc.
I have talked to a number of local trans shops and nobody can even give me a ballpark figure of what a full rebuild would be. They all want to see it first then shoot numbers. Some even want the whole truck or they wont do it. I'm not too fond of that. I would rather pull it and take just the trans to someone.
Yall are probably tired of reading by now so again:
rebuild what I have or get a "new" trans from Summit, jegs, Monster, Gearstar, Etc.
Any other ideas welcome too, except 5 speed swap. I already did that to my 91 and even though that is pretty stout, I want to keep the 89 an auto. The idea of doing the 4L80 swap does interest me but I don't have that much funding for the trans and the standalone controller.
Thanks in advance everyone!!