Rescue from the grave?

[Yellow mellow]

Hello all, so I possibly have this opportunity, my folks just bought a 1996 international 3800 t444E, I believe I attached a picture but I'm new so hopefully it worked, he payed 1000 dollars for it, and had intended to cut the top off and use for a calf shelter😭😭. They are from North Dakota and I'm just across the border in South Dakota, I went out yesterday to look at it and kind of fell in love, it started right up, no smoke, good oil pressure, runs great, all the filters look new and current with dates from just last year on most of them, no rust to mention but of course I would need to see under floor but thinking it's fine, new tires...it was still in service when the tranny started dumping fluid, school decided it was not worth fixing and it was sold, the bus has about 230,000 miles showing, 😬my question is, is the tranny worth a rebuild? I'm a good ol Dakota boy and could have the tranny ripped out in an afternoon, I might know a "guy" that works for ford who does tranny rebuilds on the side, havnt talked to him yet tho, I was currently going to turn my 24 foot cargo trailer into a tiny home, but the timing of this bus seems kinda like fate, opinions? Too high of miles on engine?

[cadillackid]

thats probably an AT545 allison transmission... those are pretty easy to come by cheap... or you can rebuild it... the allisons have no bands, the valve bodies are pretty straightforward and otherwise its your standard 4 speed auto gear box.. tear it down get a rebuild kit.. re-seal it and put it back together.. the cases rarely crack on them.. though the cooling line fittings on the top are sometimes a but of a pain and leak..

while the 444E us very similar to a ford 7.3. , the transmission is not a ford transmission.

any idea where its dumping fluid from? front seal? cooling lines? tailshaft?
-Christopher

[Yellow mellow]

That's what I'm not sure of, crawled under it yesterday and it seems mostly from the front but of course it's kinda everywhere at this point, pretty dark oil, they filled the fluid and drove it home before it died again, obviously from lack of fluid, yikes,..i have good mechanical ability but rebuilding a tranny is one thing I've never done, why I'm leaning toward taking it out myself and taking it some place, probably go out again today to look it all over a little closer and get some numbers off of it

[cadillackid]

yeah I guess id fill it up, start it and see where it drips from when its just running and not moving.. a leak that bad it should get wet pretty quickly..
-Christopher

[2kool4skool]

If your trans guy can do a TH400 he can do the 545.