I'm thinking I'm going to try to rebuild. I bought the book by Tom Hand and I've been studying it occasionally over the last few months. It looks like something I can do competently. Maybe I'll convert the dining room table to a workbench! :)
It's slowly been going out over the last year. Coolant in the fluid did it in (trans cooler leak).
Funny thing was is that it was working OK and I was about to take a 360 mile round-trip and decided to do a fluid and filter change because I knew it was shedding clutch plates. It was pretty clean this time and got it all buttoned back up and immediately realized I had lost reverse and Drive. The particles in the old fluid must have been giving it just enough friction to function. Either way I'm glad it went out immediately rather than getting stuck on the highway over Christmas.
The fun part was carefully pushing it up the driveway with my truck. The whole time I was cussing at my dumb *** because I just knew the bumpers were going to slip and I would bust up my nearly perfect grille. Good thing I'm luckier than I am smart sometimes.
