Well the PO742 has been annoying me over the past month and two weeks ago the car pretty much couldn't drive on its own. While I knew I was looking for a rebuilt unit with upgrades, I didn't want to spend over 2k with shipping and core charges. I happened to come across a thread on another 3800 forum and noticed that tim king (I've been told he used to work for intense) is rebuilding transmissions with the same parts as a vendor on here. No core, and $1200 was the price without a converter(plus $150 for shipping to a business, $200 if you wanted it shipped to your house). The trans from what I've been told has new z-pak clutches. upgraded valvebody, trans-go kit, inspection of the whole trans, new chain and inspects any problem areas of our transmissions. So for $1350 shipped, I had a performance in mind transmission shipped to a business and had it installed by two hardcore forum members and myself.Trans feels great, and that car feels like a freight train compared to the sh!tty converter and trans issues I had.
My only issues fall on shipping and a sensor on the trans. The trans was shipped to a business strapped to a small pallet with no shrink wrap. Tim told me in a PM "I will have to ask my shipping company about that because when I send a tranny after it's strapped down shrink wrap is put on it?" I looked at the trans before it was put in didn't notice anything wrong other then a broken VSS that was alittle dirty(most likely due to shipping). Tim said in a pm "As far as the vss I'm not sure why I left that on it, I don't usually ship them with the vss or prndl switch on as they aren't tested and are swapped out from the original trans unless customer ask for one, I usually get the diff and cover seperately from the trans because they are harder to come by the the case itself". Also "yes if anything is damaged in shipping I would most certainly take care of it". This was not a big deal to me personally, since all my bolt on parts on my old trans were good, however I figure i'd just make a note of it for you guys. In the end, i'm very happy with the outcome of this and hope to enjoy many miles of daily driving and once in awhile go pedal times.
Also, i'm just explaining my experience with buying a trans, in no way am I saying this is better then a vendors, or endorsing another forum. I just figured other people might want to be aware of this. Plus I think this was a good deal and if I can help some members out in getting the word out on a inexpensive rebuilt trans with some upgraded parts I'll feel like i'm doing my part.
