Bypassed Aftermarket Exhaust Brake

[carone]

I am interested in buying a 99 F250 7.3 that is 5 hours away. Before I waste all that time on the road I wanted to get some input. The truck has 125K miles and had the transmission rebuilt less than a year ago. The truck has an aftermarket exhaust brake that the owner said always took about 3 seconds to kick in. He also said that after the transmission was rebuild that it still seem to shift hard. He took it back to the shop that they found that two wires for that transmission somehow related to the exhaust brake had been cut. The shop reconnected the wires and bypassed the exhaust brake by keeping the butterfly open. He said that it shifts great now but I don’t know what kind of damage if any could have been caused by this. Thanks in advance for your help

[dieselcrawler]

It's all relitive... if the price is right, the cut wires and any other issues may be worth dealing with... it has reasonably low miles, does have a rebuilt trans (a known issue), and seems to be working ok. If the exhaust brake is after market, and non-operational, then the truck's original operating systems wouldn't know any difrence, and every thing should be fine. The hacked wires and the exhaust brake not working could be bargining power for you, meaning a lower price... you can always walk away if the deal doesn't feel right to you, before or after you make the 5 hour trip.