99 Lincoln Continental

I bought my Lincoln on Saturday and by Wednesday of the next week my transmission went out...my car only has 83xxx miles on it...the local transmission shop says $2000 to rebuilt it I dont have that kinda money right now I just bought this car!...My question is now who knows about the transmissions in this car and what are my options, I looked at used trannys and didnt know if there is a big difference in the 4.6 and 5.3L trannys...and if there is anyway to convert a floor shift tranny to a column shift...please help im clueless!