You should be able to get a used low mile transmission for less than $400, probably around $200. Not much demand for them because they are super durable.

 

My search is turning up stuff in $300 - 500 range + another 300 for freight... Also trying to buy from "no salt" regions...

 

Nor Cal or Idaho should be "no salt" enough

 

I guess i can also buy a whole car (disco) with a blown HG for $700 off craigslist... That would yield a whole bunch of spare parts, though my wife would probably think i completely lost it...

 

I may be in need of a new transmission for my 2001 disco. Just curious where/how you searched? fB marketplace? Craigslist?

total newb here.

 

I usually start with ebay b/c they guarantee the part or money back. (The shipping gets expensive though, when you get a large part). My go to seller is ckarrllc.
So far I rebuilt the engine, suspension, brakes and cooling system using mostly ebay stuff and haven't had a problem yet. (I've put on around 45000 miles since the engine got rebuilt). One word of folk wisdom - if it looks bad, it is bad - don't buy it.

I know a few people in my area who own discos, who know more people who own discos, so I ask if they have any spares laying around. But rarely anyone has anything they would want to get rid of.

I order hardware (do yourself a favor and replace all the bolts and nuts), and "soft" parts from Atlantic British or Lucky 8 - not worth installing used ones. Also places like Rock Auto have all you will need. Prices are pretty much same everywhere. There is also roversnorth.com for rare and oem stuff, but it's pricey and i only got a few parts i couldn't find anywhere else or really wanted to go with oe (valve train).

I tried amazon for some parts, but it's either total junk or you will be buying from the seller mentioned above through Amazon.

I also went to pick-a-part once, but by the time i got there (literally two days after a disco showed up as available for scavenging) there was nothing left to take.

I don't want to install any parts of "unknown" origin, so I don't buy off craigslist.

It's the first time (except a couple of output shaft seals) I'm attacking the trans and I'll see if i can get to the tcase. I decided to rebuild the trans (just out of curiosity), so i won't be buying (knock on wood) a replacement a this point.

 

@nineyards the word on this forum is that the transmission should last 300k miles. I need to "rebuild" mine b/c most likely stuff came out of my shot torque converter and is floating around in the tranny. I'd first post the description of the issues you are having and see what people think.

 

so i finally got to pulling out the Transfer case and the transmission. One thing that seems out of order is that the trans output shaft is wobbly - is that normal or not so much?

 

Transmission output shaft should not move at all, my spare transmission under my deck both shafts are solid no movement.

 

Well, that's exciting news - thank you for confirming. I'll check if the bolt can be tightened, but it seemed pretty solid. Might be a new transmission after all...