Thread: half shaft / tranny question - looking at a car to buy

So I am looking for a new GTP to buy, and I found one. Only thing is, the guy originally said the tranny was bad. He didn't go into detail about it, this was posted on the internet. There are some other minor issues with the car that would warrant the cheap price so I wasn't too concerned, I can get a tranny rebuilt pretty easily, my dad works at Aamco and knows all the builders there.

So I get a hold of the guy and he said he took it to a transmission shop, and they said the driver side half-shaft is bad, not the transmission.

Could someone who doesn't know much about cars think the tranny is bad when the half-shaft is actually bad? I'm concerned either the shop just looked at it and saw it was leaking bad and needed replaced, and didn't diagnose the tranny. If the half-shaft is bad, is there an easy to tell if the transmission is always bad, slipping, etc? Not sure if the car is driveable or not, I've drove around before with cv joint going out loosing grease and clicking, but the car still drove. Never did I think the transmission was fried. Pictures of the car show it on a trailer.

I don't know too much about cars but want to get other peoples opinions before I drive an hour to see this car.

It is a 99 GTP with ~190k on the odo.

Thanks

Have someone else look at it.

New axle: $50

Rebuilt trany: $2000

2 grand for a rebuilt tranny? Maybe if I had a shop remove/replace it, and charge normal rates for parts. I can get parts for dealer cost, and pay next to nothing for labor. My step dad and I will remove it and replace it.

when I had the tranny rebuilt in my 79 Regal, I spent about $120 on parts including a new custom torque converter, and then paid a family friend a case of beer to rebuild it in my garage. I'm sure it won't be that cheap this go around, but having hook-ups will definitely help.

We can drive the car with a bad half-shaft right? I imagine then we could tell if the tranny was slipping, clunking, etc, or not.

Rebuilt tranny from TEP, 4T65e-hd, is $1795 plus shipping and core.

You can drop the tranny yourself (as I did) and rebuild it yourself, but expect to pay around $800 for all new internals (clutches, bands, bushings, steels, seals etc).

All of this, of course assumes you can re-use all of your hard parts (diff parts, bushings etc) and solenoids etc.

Calling around, it's $2.8k to have aamco or the like drop it and rebuild it.

So, price breakdown (for mine at least) was:

- rebuild it yourself ~750 nominally (could be more if not WAY more)
- Buy used JY tranny ~650 depending on miles
- buy rebuilt ~1900 nominally - plus 1 year, 20k mile warranty
- pay for another sthop to drop and rebuild it: ~2800 nominally - plus 1 year 12k mile warranty

So the question I had for myself is whether or not it was worth delving into rebuilding a tranny myself in order to save ~1k at most or $500 on the low end. My answer was no considering even if I saved $1k, I would be flying without a warranty and also spending TONS of time I would rather spend doing something else (not to mention I'm comfortable saying that's something I would rather have a pro tackle).

Replacing the half-shaft is a piece of cake - it will take you about 1 hour and really no special tools. You can check to see if you have a bad halfshaft while it's on the car - turn the wheel all the way, get under the car, and see if you can wiggle the axle. There should be no play in the u-joint. If you have a split boot or play here, you need a new CV.