Not a good week for vehicles in my family

[chevychic]

Warning: Long RANT

Monday smoke starts pouring out from under my husbands 98 Mitsu Eclipse. He takes it straight to the mechanic and they find the metal tube that supplies water to the turbo had a rust spot that had broken through. Price to fix?...$500...not bad considering...BUT we had just finished paying $600 to have the 60,000 mile maintenance done on the car 2 weeks ago. Now this'll be $1100 on this car within the month.
Thank God we have 3 vehicles....so now he's driving the cabriolet and I'm taking the truck which has been mostly parked since it came home from the tranny shop.
Wednesday I get a call at work...my husband had gone out to start the cabriolet in the morning and it wouldn't start. So I drive 30 minutes home to pick him and our daughter up to take them to work and daycare. Well I've known my alternator has seen better days and will need replacing soon but I know the tricks of my car to keep it going for now. Well my husband didn't know these tricks and had moved the dial to a/c the day before so the alternator had to supply more power to ac and accessories and didn't have enough left over to charge the battery. Got home from work Wednesday evening and give the car a jump and it's running fine now...whew...
So Friday I had just picked up my daughter from daycare and we're on our way for some girl time at the mall. I switched lanes and hear a grinding coming from the tranny @#!%...so I ease off the accelerator and am ready to make my break for the side of the road if it starts acting up. Well it seems ok so I continue to take it nice and easy trying to get someplace closer to home so I can stop and check it out. The problem is, I knew as soon as I stopped, all hell was going to break loose. I managed to make it 2 miles before a stop light...as it downshifted, sure enough, major grindage from the transmission. So I make it over to the side of the road and nothing...no gears AGAIN!!! Reverse feels like it's engaging, but it won't go anywhere. So I'm sitting on the side of a busy highway with my 3 1/2 year old, we're waiting for a tow truck for about 30 minutes + and NO ONE...not ONE person stops to see if we're ok!!

Here's a pic of it coming off the tow truck at the tranny shop:


So I'm watching it unload off the truck and thinking at least it's under warranty. Then when it's on the ground, the tow truck guy puts my truck in park...well the front wheels are resting against the tow truck sled...so the guy starts to pull the sled back up onto the truck and my truck starts rolling with it. CRAP....so I'm pretty sure I lost my transfer case, which is NOT under warranty....
So if anyone knows where I can get a decent transfer case without spending a ton of money I don't have, please let me know. I have a 208 in there right now and nows as good as time as ever to go to a different transfer case if one would be better than my 208.

Thanks for listening to my rant

[1FaastC10]

Heather, i've got a complete 465/205 setup i'll sell ya. eliminate those automatic problems altogether.

keep your chin up, its not the end of the world, its just a little setback. is the tranny shop going to warranty the repairs on the truck?

[plumbcut]

I would put a np208 back in there, its going to be the easiest, quickest, cheapest route and for what you do with your truck its perfect... Im not insisting that you dont wheel your truck because from what I know, you do. But you dont abuse it. Keep the np208!

Anyways dont rule out the transmission.. Just because it rolls doesnt mean its not the tranny... If you sheared off the output shaft or broke something internally that took the parking pawl with it, the same thing would happen. Keep us posted on what the mechanic tells you is the problem..

You could put the standard transmission setup in there but first you have to overinflate your ego and become a pompous jerkoff that talks down to everyone you encounter that doesnt have a dana 60 and front & rear detroit lockers and 38 inch or larger tires. oh- and you have to live to speak the praise of jesse @ high angle driveline and dont forget that anybody that doesnt have a rear shackle flip sucks. thats all.

plumbcut

[Grim Reaper]

I doubt there is anything wrong with the t-case unless it's all Tcase. Then it would probably be the input adaptor and it might be the tranny shops fault.
Take a peak under it and see if the case is even still bolted up to the tranny.

[swervin ervin]

Dang Heather. Seems you can't have good luck for all the bad. Didn't you just have the tranny worked on?

[chevychic]

Yep. Tranny was just fixed a month ago and I have driven it maybe 10 times

I checked in with the shop today and it is the transfer case. They're going to find out exactly what's wrong and let me know the cost to fix. I'll post prices to rebuild and get your all's input before I give them the go ahead to fix.

I'm thinking that the PO ran this truck into the ground and now I get to fix everything

By the time this truck is done with me, it'll have all new parts. Sometimes I think of selling it and getting a different 73-87, but at this point, I've taken care of a lot of the expensive fixes so I might as well keep going and be proud of having a great running truck (I hope) when I'm done.

[swervin ervin]

You are right, most of the time, folks who buy these year truck drove them hard. The ones who didn't wear them out would do some crazy stuff to them. Then folks like us come along and have to fix what others have done.

Good luck with it.

[1972C10]

Originally Posted by plumbcut

You could put the standard transmission setup in there but first you have to overinflate your ego and become a pompous jerkoff that talks down to everyone you encounter that doesnt have a dana 60 and front & rear detroit lockers and 38 inch or larger tires. oh- and you have to live to speak the praise of jesse @ high angle driveline and dont forget that anybody that doesnt have a rear shackle flip sucks. thats all.

plumbcut

Sounds like you've been browsing pirate?

[gchemist]

Sorry to hear the news. I have detailed pics of the NP208 just incase you want to rebuild it yourself!! Rebuild kits are not too pricey either. Just a little wrench time and dirty fingernails is all it takes to get it back on the road.

[chevychic]

Originally Posted by gchemist

Sorry to hear the news. I have detailed pics of the NP208 just incase you want to rebuild it yourself!! Rebuild kits are not too pricey either. Just a little wrench time and dirty fingernails is all it takes to get it back on the road.

Hmmmm...you know I like a challenge....send any rebuild info my way....how hard is it and is it as difficult as I've heard rebuilding a tranny is?

Fingernails??? What fingernails Between a bad fingernail biting habit and whacking my middle finger on something a few weeks ago....I remember it hurt something fierce but I don't remember exactly what I did ...now it's growing out and has decided to dismember itself from my finger. It kinda hurts you know??? So I don't think they can get any worse at this point

[Grim Reaper]

That's a farce about a tranny being hard to rebuild. If you pay attention and have some directions it's not hard at all. The problems is there are some special tools to do some ofthe work.

Case is pretty simple. I have done a 203 but not a 208 but I think it's all simple tools. Honestly if it's anything internal in the case your probably cheaper just to find a good used one. $50 for a Used 208 is pretty much the norm. Not much demand. for them.

[PHOENIX]

Sorry to hear Heather. I know the feeling. I only have the one truck so it really sucks when something breaks and things seem to break in groups. The clutch, then the distributor. Whats next?

Best of luck getting it fixed cheap and quick.
Keep us posted.

[Slonaker]

That is so true. I paid extra money to get a really clean truck, and I am finding that I still need to replace everything anyway just to get it right, and fix all of the stuff previous owners screwed up. I wish now I had just bought a worn out truck with a clean body. It wouldn't have been much more work, and might have saved me some money in the end.

Good luck with the transmission Heather. Mine has remained intact, but I just keep chasing leaks all over the place. I finally just pulled the damned thing and had it resealed, but now it leaks around the torque convertor because of a worn bushing that I didn't have replaced because it wasn't leaking. I figured it would get me by until I could decide whether or not to go with an overdrive, but it didn't. I swear, this crap is neverending...

Slonaker

Originally Posted by swervin ervin

You are right, most of the time, folks who buy these year truck drove them hard. The ones who didn't wear them out would do some crazy stuff to them. Then folks like us come along and have to fix what others have done.

Good luck with it.

[SanitysBane]

yeah on my truck the 305 and 700R4 were toasted, the eltrical was a mess. but that just ment a good canident for a 454 and 4L60 conversion.

[swervin ervin]

Originally Posted by Slonaker

I swear, this crap is neverending...

Slonaker

Yeah, but ain't it fun? NOT!! I don't mind working on my truck or doing anything to it, but I want it to be when I want to and not need to. It's fun to do stuff when you're just replacing and upgrading. When it's a must have it fixed in order to have something to drive on Monday, it sucks for sure. I remember those days and it wasn't any fun. I've burnt the midnight oil many a times over a weekend to get a car fixed back in my younger days.

Heather, sorry to hear the bad news. I hope it doesn't end up being totally bad. Keep us informed on how it all turns out.

[1FaastC10]

Heather, good luck with the truck, whatever the outcome, im sure you'll be happy in the end. if you do decide to rebuild it yourself, please remember us and get some greasy pics for us. some guys like that kinda stuff you know?

[gchemist]

Ebay kit starting at $132.50. Feedback on seller is very good.

This site is probably the best for a kit.

I just e-mailed the pictures of the NP208 case.

If anyone wants a breakdown pic of a NP208 or NP 205 just let me know.

[1FaastC10]

G, can you sent the 205 breakdown to me? OneFaastC10@aol.com i'd very much appreciate it!

[KShortell]

Hang in there!

I've had my truck for over ten years now. I bought it with 60,000 miles or so on it. I've had a couple of problems over the years that drove me nuts. The warped flexplate that Swervin helped me figure out comes to mind. But, I've always been glad I kept my truck once I got those problems ironed out. It's a cash-flow thing with me, too. But, it's definitely been an economical vehicle to own and a lot cheaper than buying something new! I refuse to spend 2/3 of what I owe on my mortgage balance on something that can hit a tree! :p