Hi all-

we have a '90 740 Turbo sedan with an automatic. We bought it at auction for $5000, and have put about 10K miles on it in a year and a half.... it has 112K on the clock.

Recently, when my wife started it and put it in gear, she got a grinding racket and the car didn't move much. She shut it off, restarted, and all was well.

However, now, when accelerating from a stop, there is a shuddering sort of grinding noise from the transmission.

A call to a local transmission shop gave a "sounds like the forward clutch going out" before I even finished describing the symptoms.

Bummer.

My questions:
1) I see these cars all over the place, many are lots older, and they're still going strong. What gives? Why would it fail at such a low mileage? Does the turbo's torque just beat things up more?
2) Is this a common, shall we say, disease of the 740ti?
3) Would swapping in a used trans from a junkyard be a good idea? How big a process to remove and install? FWIW, I have rebuilt just about everything EXCEPT an automatic transmission (M/T, engines, suspension, etc).
4) Or should a capable chap just rebuild the transmission? How big a process to tear it down and reassemble, and any special tools needed?
5) How long can we reasonably expect it to limp along? It doesn't always exhibit symptoms, and only when starting from a dead stop.
6) Any band-aid fixes we can try? Fluid change?

Many thanks for any help!
Kyle