What should I do? Transmission Problem

[Mrpandazz]

Looking for some opinions. I recently bought a 1987 Suburban 3/4 ton 2wd to tow my travel trailer. I drove the truck around a couple of months and then headed out to west Texas near Midland with the trailer. The tans went out right as I got into town.

The shop here wants way too much to do the rebuild in my opinion, $1400
in Dallas it $700, but have no way of getting it there

Its an 87 454 TBI TH400 4.10 gears and is really clean imo

I have it for sale, but dont want to give it away
So should I pay to fix?
or keep and do something crazy down the road? (wishful thinking)

Any options you guys can think of would be great

 

[diesel4me]

I'd be calling salvage yards and or searching on CL for a good used tranny...depending on what it has in it,you might find one in decent shape for a good price...can you install one yourself if it came to that??...if so,some places will rent you a bay to work on it...

 

[Greg Ducato]

A good old workhorse like that
Big Block Burb is getting hard to find, and if it is in good shape as you say it would be worth hanging onto as an excellent tow rig. If that is your plan then invest the money in a quality rebuild and trans cooler so you can rely on the truck to take you the places you want to go. If that is not the plan, then sell for what you can and move onto the next one.

 

[ion]

I'd drop in a 2wd nv4500 personally just for the shear strength and tough factor of that transmission.

 

[dyeager535]

TH400's are likely one of the easiest automatics out there to rebuild, and I agree, $1400 is pretty pricey, especially when it's 1/2 the cost somewhere else.

If you can't do the work yourself, I can see selling the truck. I suspect not having it running will result in far less value whne you try to sell it though.

A used transmission installed would probably be the best of both worlds. Pretty hard to get any experienced buyer to pay for the full cost of a new transmission you had installed...I trust no seller that what they say was done, when it was done, was done. Well, I'd probably trust one from here, but that's different.

 

[Mrpandazz]

I like the idea of fixing it to use as a tow rig for my M1028, and doing a nv4500 would be beast!
But Im currently out here working in the oil fields of west Texas as an intern and people are demanding a premium for most everything and TH400s are scarce
Plus I don't really have the time, tools or space to do that work out here, if I did id be all over that chance to learn!

If I decide to get it back home, how much work would a SM465 or Nv4500 swap be?

I know the 4 speed is easier 85+ hydraulic right?