2000 Lincoln LS - Where do I go from here?

Black_Sunshine

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Everyone,

I purchased this car from a friend several years ago, and have loved it as a fun, low-cost commuter vehicle. I had another friend who had a car lift that helped me repair the transmission, alternator and other items as they went bad.

Last week, the transmission slipped out of gear and won't go back in. It won't go in either Drive or Reverse. Unfortunately, my friend with the car lift is building a new house, and his lift and other repair tools are in storage. I have no place at my house to drop in a junkyard transmission, and with my son also needing a car, I really don't have the budget to pay for a large transmission rebuild or new transmission install. I do have a newer Nissan truck, so its not critical to have this car. The options I see for myself are as follows:

Option A - donate the car to charity.

Option B - put the car up for sale as un-drivable. What could I get for the car? $500?

Option C - sell the car to a junk yard. What could I get for the car?

Option D - send the car to scrap metal. What could I get for the metal? Would it cover a towing fee?

Option E - Pay a mechanic $1,000 to drop in an $800 junk yard transmission, with no warranty on labor. If the transmission is bad, all I can do is return it.

Option F - pay a mechanic to either do a rebuild on the transmission, or drop in a remanufactured transmission. I see this option as costing well beyond $3,000.

What would you do?

I don't know if its an option to offer the car for sale on this forum, but I'm open to offers if you send me a PM.

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just out of a wild hair does this car have the select shift transmission? a buddy of mine bought an LS with a bad trannny and ended up driving it for months, he said there standard slap shifter would shift thru the gears just fine but it wouldn't work in automatic mode. not sure but worth it to try. and that is a beautiful car, please don't scrap it ill buy it just to not see it go to the grave yard. how many miles is on it?
 
just out of a wild hair does this car have the select shift transmission? a buddy of mine bought an LS with a bad trannny and ended up driving it for months, he said there standard slap shifter would shift thru the gears just fine but it wouldn't work in automatic mode. not sure but worth it to try. and that is a beautiful car, please don't scrap it ill buy it just to not see it go to the grave yard. how many miles is on it?

Linc615 - When the car was disabled, I forgot to check the manual side. Not sure why. Maybe I was flustered. :) I should have tried that.

Just an update, the car is at a local transmission shop, trying to get more information on what the problem is, and if there is a cost-effective repair available.
 
I recently swapped the tranny from my dead '00 to my new '02. And that tranny was $320 from a junk yard years ago, still going strong on its third+ car. It would be a shame to see such a clean LS like yours go to waste. I don't have a lift, but I bought 4 Harbor Freight 6 ton jack stands and an $80 floor jack tranny tray kit and did the job with a buddy. I did have a tranny shop take care of the fluid fill and check for any obvious install errors, as I am not a mechanic by any means.

If you are willing to dump the hours into it and have some common shop sense, I would recommend taking a crack at it. Maybe your friend with the lift could assist? And even if you install a junk yard transmission that ends up having a problem, after the initial investment in tools you only lose on fluid cost if the tranny is bad (assuming the junk yard will warranty short term). That was my logic at least.

Shoot maybe I'll buy it from you and do it myself.

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Edit: Don't mind the cutoff exhaust. That was from the old car, the new one was put back together completely and properly.
 
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A full rebuild/swap may not be necessary. Keep in mind that these transmissions are electronically controlled.

Plus the Gen 1 version had some valve body issues and internal spring breakage.

Check for a blown fuse or a bad transmission range sensor first.
 
Thank you guys for the reply. Just an update that I have sent the car to a local transmission shop for them to evaluate. They are backed up with work, so it will be a couple of weeks before I get any word.
 
Throw a used transmission at it, my LS at 324k was on it’s 4th or 5th transmission. Don’t remember already.
 

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