transmission question , help please

[davidh]

could not sleep. these little diesel cars get into the brain and won;t go away. i have the opportunity to buy a nice little 83, 300D that has a basically dead automatic. it does work ok in reverse but in any of the three forward gears there is absolutely no response. i have searched and found that reconditioned or rebuilt trannys are available for somewhere in the 1200 $ range, have not or did not consider the torque converter but i certainly would if i got a rebuilt transmissioin. . . but the question im having is, is it possible that this is not as bad as it appears ? im mean, possibly a repair without taking the thing out and repolacing it ? and sadly enuf, last fall i scrapped one out that had a good tranny and a h.s. engine. of course its been in china already and probably returned as a yugo or something. . . .

the two biggest problems im having in my brain are:

1: im not in physical condition to do this myself anymore

2: im retired and living on a somewhat fixed income

they guy wants $1000 bucks for the car and the engine really sounds good but im reallly torn about getting way too much money in this little thing with no hope for recovery when the widow has the auction.

does anyone have some words of wisdom for this old guy ? ? ?

thanks much in advance,

davidh