The push pull zooms I've met have all been manual focus & most of them wouldn't sell now for anything like $150!
You list the lens as AF & f/2.8 which do put it in a different bracket
Which body are you trying to use it on? Older Nikon AF lenses use a screw drive system that's not supported by many of the current bodies. Apparently metering can also be an issue. So you may a different body rather than fixing the lens!
I'm not a Nikon user but I believe the more basic bodies only work properly with G series lenses, which weren't made till well after 1988.