I have already spent the time to redo the lower intake gaskets, replaced the upper plenum. I don't know if the water pump has been replaced or not. One of the hubs was replaced. The body is in good shape and the interior is in fairly good shape as well. It drives well. I was planning on replacing the struts to improve the ride. The things is, without a transmission it is worth maybe $250 for scrap. The average price for the car is around $1800.00. It is one of those money things; going to be hard to come up with the money to replace the car.

I understand what you are saying....

Sometimes it'* a tough decision whether to invest money in a vehicle with this many miles/years on it....

Welcome to the land of the poor because this is what we do. We have to "chewing gum and baling wire" our vehicles. A little bit of humour there The engine is still fairly tight on this car; if it wasn't, then I probably would try to find something else. These older 3800 engines were good; the old '83 had over 333K miles before I junk her and the suspension was worn out on that car. Even at that mileage she was not an oil burner. Plus, the '98 is not a junker as far as the body goes. Therefore, if I don't have to put too much money in the car I want to keep her going. If a reman was the only way to go, then yes, I would take the money and add to it and start looking for another car.

I decided to go with a low mileage used transmission. What solenoid kt is recommended? What else do I need to be concern with?

Refer back to Tech II'* post on 7-6 (last post on page 2). In addition to those items I would also flush the cooling lines that go to the radiator.

The car is in the shed, up on supports; secured. I have been doing some reading and I see where I need to support the engine from above. I also read somewhere on the interweb that the cradle splits. I have been under the car doing inspection and that seems to be true; that you can split the cradle on the driver'* side and drop it out of the way and then the tranny will drop out the bottom without a lot of effort. What do you guys think about that?

If there are any good tutorials on removing the trans out the bottom please point me to them.

OK, I called it a cradle but I see that is usually referred to as the subframe. Don't know where I heard it called the cradle but as long as we all know what I am talking about is important. So what is involved in splitting the subframe on this '98 Buick LeSabre?

Do I need to replace the pressure switch manifold?

I looked and I am able to get an AC Delco solenoid kit for $80.00; that hurts the pocketbook a bit. I am going to have two transmission. Would it be OK to test the solenoids for operation/leakage and if they are OK just continue with them? Or was there certain issues with the original that they should be replaced with newer units?

If you want to get by a little cheaper you could probably get away with a Transgo shift kit for the 4T65-E, it'* a pretty easy install in the accumulator easily accessed once the pan is off. It'* a set of springs and spacers that mechanically do what the solenoids do electronically, then you don't have to worry about the solenoids. If I remember right the Transgo kit sells for about $45. I installed one in the 04 Bonneville I used to have, worked like a charm to clear up the high line pressure harsh shifts you get when the solenoids fail. I've seen where people have used home-made spacers and gotten good results, really on the cheap. From what I've read, if you do go with new solenoids you want to use AC-Delco and avoid Bosch.