Totally a hypothetical question ;)

Rainy Day Auto said

I would say the transmission is absolutely hurt. Without the kickdown linkage the default is minimum line pressure. And the detent could have been doing some strange things.

I would pull the transmission pan and see if it is full of clutch material. Maybe you got lucky.

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So I did that a couple of weeks ago mainly because it needed it anyway and had been seeping ATF from the gasket. and was happy to see nothing in there. Not even as much fine metal fillings as I'm used to. Nothing has changed in the way the transmission worked since I picked it up. The day I drove it home it was cold and on a cold start there was a little slippage, but as soon as it warmed up it was fine. I'm not sure how long the linkage spring had been off. I'm hoping it came off without me noticing when I changed the carb.