Hey all. There are 2 excursions for sale at a place not to far from where I live. The guy sells alot of 3/4 ton and larger trucks, diesels mainly. Both of the EX's are '01s with clean titles, and both are Powerstrokes that "run and drive well". I don't know about the mileage on either but they both appear to be in decent shape. One is $12,500 and the other is $5000. The one for $5k is the one I am more interested in. The only things wrong with it that I know of is that someone stole the lockouts off of it, it has two flat tires, and the guy said that the transmission doesn't shift at lower rpm, only at higher rpm. He said they put it on a scanner, and the trans computer is sending the signal to shift, and its not slipping or grinding, it moves in forward and reverse. He said he thinks it might be a shift solenoid. I called autozone (even though I don't shop there) to see what trans solenoids existed, and the guy listed 3 but they are not available to them, which tells me they must be dealer parts. I know as far as the lockouts and whatnot go I'm probably going to have to replace the bearings, races, lockouts, and maybe the hub, unless its unit bearings (is it?), but the tranny is what has me worried. I need to know what could be wrong, and also, about how much is it going to cost me worst case scenario if I have to swap the tranny out/ have it rebuilt. Thanks in advance for any and all info and insight on this. I'm a heavy duty truck mechanic, so I know I can do whatever it needs, I'm just trying to determine if its going to be cost prohibitive to buy this truck, but for $5k with a clean title, I would think the bank is probably going to be more than happy to give me the loan (bluebook is twice that for a standard model)

 

from what I've heard a new performance tranny can run around $3K if you send it to them. Pretty sure they have to pull the truck and chassis apart to get it removed.

 

The trans issue is more that likely the mechanical diode that claimed the life of my original tranny. If you really want to, you can spend the money on a BTS trans and never have to worry about it again. OR you can buy the other truck for $12.5K and not bother with the other one all together. Regardless you're going to end up spending the same amount of money, it's just a matter of which truck you want and how you want to spend you money.

 

if its at a dealer that specializes in these type of vehicles I would say that he knows something he is not telling you. sounds like he is trying to unload a problem vehicle. remember these guys buy at auction often not getting to test the car prior... he probably can't get out of it for what he has into it if he fixes the tranny, hubs, tires etc

 

Thats kind of what I'm thinking southpaw. There is a really good tranny rebuild shop I know of and they rebuilt a friend's E4OD for under $1000 if I remember correctly, and the front axle stuff is NBD for me, as I've done no less than 50 of them in my life time, be it a dana 30, 35, 44, 50ttb, 60 or any other big truck axle you could think of, I just can't help thinking along these lines: if the truck is being sold for $5k, even if I can't talk him down some, then get a loan for $8-10K then fix what is wrong with it, have money for some upgrades, and then I'm still "saving" $2500 or more based not only on the price of the other EX he has, but also based on blue book value. I am going by there tomorrow to really look them over, and I'll go from there. I'm just trying to determine what the tranny problem could be.

 

Well, I went and looked at the cheaper of the two today. The more expensive of the two was sold this morning. The interior is rough and in need of a deep cleaning/ detail job, it has leather seats, but the third row seat is missing, it has the small mirrors, and its had a Macco special paint job. It used to be a nice green color, but they painted the exterior (ie not the door jambs, inner doors, engine compartment, or under the exterior trim) white. It had a few dents and dings, and the battery was dead. Its got 216,000+ miles on it, and like I mentioned before, two of the tires are flat, so even if I were to wait around for the batteries to get charged, they would have had to either change/ repair the tires or at least air them up. So I respectfully told the guy I had other things to do and bid him good day. The fact of the matter is, this is how it always goes for me. I find something that I think is going to be a sweet deal, and then I'm either (usually) a day late and a dollar short, or I get mislead one way or another. This thread may as well be deleted, because it's of NO USE now. Oh well. Thanks for your time guys.

 

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I DISAGREE - STRONGLY:
I hope they leave this "thread" in - you did NOT waste our time - your story is EXACTLY why I tell people over and over again - DONT BUY SOMEONE ELSE'S HEARTACHE !

Even if a guy thinks his own labor-hours are worthless, you still have to think about parts, and the cost of assemblies that you cant do yourself in your own shop with hand-tools.

The price of parts these days make it just about impossible to BREAK EVEN on trying to revive a ruined vehicle, compared to just going out and paying more for a nice one.

Then there is the matter of re-sale value. That should be figured into the ultimate cost of a vehicle. Most of us in here are car-buffs, so we take better-than-average car of our vehicles. I bet most of you, when you are done with your vehicles, have them in pretty much the same useable condition when you sold them, as when you bought them.

Because so many guys have learned the hard way it is a waste of money and time, to try and un-do what someone else has treated like crap, it is getting harder and harder to find someone who can't spot a repaired disaster case.

So - I THANK YOU for your post, GLAD you put so much time into it, and HOPE they will leave this "thread" up so people can learn something !

 

First clue is no lockouts and flat tires...made so it can't be test driven..
Buyer Beware.

My .02