- Joined
- Nov 11, 2007
- Messages
- 761
- Points
- 3,101
- Age
- 43
- Vehicle Year
- 1994
- Transmission
- Manual
Well I got REAL lucky with this abomination of a mini-van! One of my local u-pull-it yards was having one of their transmission sales a week ago and what do you know, I go up there and they JUST get in a 98 windstar that's wrecked up pretty bad in the front end. At first I was worried because the thing had over 200k on the odometer, but the trans was way cleaner than the motor, so I took a chance on it. I ended up having to drop the subframe with the van on jackstands and it was a sight to see! I had one cherry picker supporting the motor, another cherry picker for raising up the replacement transmission, a floor jack on the passenger side of the transmission for support, and another floor jack keeping the rear passenger side of the subframe supported so that I could get away with not having to remove the exhaust. The job took 7-8 hours with a food break somewhere in the middle. For some reason it seemed to me that alot of the process seemed VERY similar to replacing the tranny on a Buick LeSabre, even the shape of the transmission looked almost the same. Even though the transmission shifts smooth and everything I am actually contemplating getting rid of the thing after all of the problems with them that I have been reading about lately. It's pretty bad when a mini van with only 65k miles has a transmission fail out of nowhere. My aerostar which I just recently retired to the junkyard had 214k on the odometer and according to the original owner who I purchased it from it had never had any work done to the transmission at all. If it wasn't for the body rotting out from underneath it I would have had no reason to get rid of it and even though they are known for weak transmissions I would much rather swap out a transmission in an aerostar than a windstar. It seems almost as if the car companies are discontinuing the stuff that's easy to work on only so that they can come out with something that's almost impossible to repair.
