$#!@ i can't afford this

["Edgar Allen Joe" <jab86@cornell.edu>]

last year i posted asking anyone if they thought my 1990 80q's third gear
grinding when i shifted into it accelerating was a gear problem or just the
linkage.  nobody responded, but i've read some posts since then which have
alluded to a lamentable third gear in the 80q's, so i figured it was in fact
the gear.  i decided that i should just not shift into third while
accelerating and have done that for the past year or so.  every now and
then, however, i would be absent-minded or mis-judge something and the gear
would grind.

i now have no third gear.

when i shift into third, it is fine until i give it gas, at which point it
promptly pops out, grinding as it leaves.  i have a couple of questions
about this situation:

i need to replace this tranny, as the price for just the parts from AOA is
in the neighborhood of $650, and that is a lot of money, especially since i
have never taken a tranny apart before.  i am banking on some lister having
a used tranny in good working order to sell me, but i am wondering if there
is a better, more robust tranny that i can swap into place instead of a 1990
80q box.  does anybody have such a tranny?

Thanks in advance for your replies and help.

1-2-4-5,

joe brown