Yes - this is a long post, and random, and pointless. But with all the help everyone here as given me I figured you would want to know how things were going.
Well I dropped the transmission out for the second time about a week or two ago.
I had to do some clean up on this tranny, noticed some stripped bolts that I drilled & tapped and found new bolts for these holes. Cleaned up the pan (clean enough to perform brain surgery Doc), the tranny, and made a gasket to go between the transmission mount and the transfer case (no one could find me a pre-made one). I also put a drain plug in the tranny pan (first time I pulled it out actually) if anyone wants pics I've got em.
Since I had both of the driveshafts out I decided to change all the universals. So far I have 3 of them changed. Two in the rear drive shaft, and the foremost one on the front drive shaft. I have yet to tackle the CV joint. I need to do some pricing on a rebuild-kit and what comes with it. I might just pop it apart and check for ware, degrease and re-grease.
I turned the torque converter over for a few days while I was attending little details like bolts and such. I did this to empty out all I could - didn't look like there was much of anything besides dextron in there, which is a good thing in my opinion :-)
Took about 4 hours putting in the transmission, cross member, transfer case, and rear drive shaft - in that order. It came out and went in allot easier than it did before. There are two reasons for this: I've now dropped this type of tranny 3 times, and put it in twice. I also 'broke down' and got a
151 piece set from Stanley as well as some ratcheting box-end wrenches. I LOVE them all! Had just a hand-full of fixed matched tools so it took a while the first time.I filled up the tranny with 6 quarts of dextron and brought over my 88' S10. I did an electron transfusion, and bit my tongue as I turned the key in the ol' K5. It turned right over - and didn't over-rev like it did last time. I took this as a good sign. I poured in another gallon of dextron for a total of 11 quarts and got in the truck. Put my foot on the brake - and put it in reverse as I held my breath. IT LURCHED BACKWARDS... needless to say my smile must have been from ear to ear. I put it in neutral and it rolled forwards a bit, then drive, and it LURCHED FORWARDS!!! I ran through all the other gears with my foot on the brake, and turned it off.
I then went over to the handy-dandy drain plug and drained out the dextron. Since this takes a bit of time, and I had a very good feeling that the truck should be working, I decided to do all the other stuff I had been putting off. I changed the wiper blades, drained the oil, ran out to wally world because I had the wrong oil filter, added oil. Dropped the tranny pan, cleaned it again. Changed the filter - reinstalled and filled the tranny. Probably added too much - 8 quarts. Assuming a gallon (4 quarts) in the TC that didn't come out -that's 12 and 1 more than I was told it takes.
Installed a prestone flush system, flushed the radiator, added some 50/50.
Things left to do: Install air filter housing and filter Install an after-market oil breather filter Drain and inspect front and rear differentials and refill. I'll probably clean off the rear diff and paint a smiley face on it with a hole in it's head. I also want to either clean up or replace the CV joint. Need to install the window-guts in the driver's side door so I can get my biggie-sized root beer from Wendy's. The usual body filler, but hopefully it wont hold me back from getting my Brake Tag. I also need to trouble shoot and fix my rear window Some day/year I would like to fix the tale gate so it opens and closes without the use of a tire iron. I've seen some rear tailgate pans for this truck, but I also saw a web page (which I promptly lost the URL too) that detailed how a guy used some steel tubing to fix his tail gate. Anyone got this handy? Haven't had the luck to find it again...
THANKS TO ALL WHO HAVE HELPED ME GET THIS FAR I OWE YOU A GREAT DEAL