Well I bought this 1985 dodge b350 van, and It has a few problems. The first being that it is really hard to start in the morning but after it runs for a while it starts up like a champ. The second problem is that the tranny behaves oddly, it feels like it slips when its in drive but when its in 1 or 2 it dosent slip.

I bought the van for 800 bucks and it has 145,000 miles. I bought it because I want to use it to haul carpet cleaning equipment to jobs, but I dont know if I will be able to depend on it fully.

What do you guys think? Should I stop paying for repairs and just save for another one?

 

I use my van to carry my tools and materials to jobs as well so I hear you about the need for reliability. If you think you're going to end up doing a tranny rebuild then you're better of replacing the van with a newer one. Add to that the money you'll be saving by not doing the other repairs and you'll find yourself driving a newer van for the same cost.

If you keep your eye open and are patient, you can end up getting a deal somewhere. I got my 2000 15000 with only 88K miles for $1,300 because they couldn't keep it running.One $40 crankshaft position sensor and 30 minuteslater and I was down the road.

 

Yeah. Ive discovered that the tranny isnt slipping, it just has a hard time shifting from 2nd to 3rd gear. When its in gear it dosent slip. It shifts into 3rd if I get up to speed and let of the gas, but if I keep my foot on the pedal, it will just rev up trying to shift into 3rd. Im going to take it to a tranny shop and get a fluid and filter change, and see if that helps.

 

Maybe your kickdown cable is just too tight.