<VV> Powerglide again

[Joy L. Witte]

This is Norm Witte posting from his wife's computer.  I feel like Pasty, er,
Dave...

I found one of my shop manuals at home tonight and started reading up on
'Glidectomies.  To preface this question let me backtrack and explain
exactly what the problem is.  Last summer I put a fresh motor in the car.
Rather than pull the whole powertrain as I had in the past I decided to take
only the motor out.  This went well.  My big mistake was in installing the
torque converter to the flex plate before I put the motor back in the car.
When we mated the engine to the transaxle we managed to pop the front pump
out, a problem that John Cole astutely diagnosed.  At his direction, I
dropped the front of the transmission down, removed the front cover, pushed
the front pump back in, reinstalled the front cover.  The transmission
worked and I drove the car to Detroit for the Homecoming that weekend.

However, I had two problems.  The first is that due to a beam-style
inch-pound torque wrench and inadequate clearance, it's pretty unlikely that
I properly adjusted the low-band adjusting screw.  The second problem is
that unbeknownst to me, when I pulled the front cover off, the front pump
priming valve fell out into the bucket I was using to catch tranny fluid.
Since I didn't  know it had fallen out, I did not reinstall it when I put
everything back together.

The transmission did not operate as smoothly as it should; what's worse, it
gradually got to the point where the car would not move forward at all from
a dead stop.  Fortunately, I lost all forward power about a mile from home,
so I could have my wife drag me home with the Firebird.

At this point, my options are to (1) get back under the car, reinstall the
priming valve, which I found when I emptied my bucket, and readjust the
low-band adjusting screw with a click-type torque wrench or (2) pull the
tranny and have it rebuilt.  This is an option because I have a client who
has offered to rebuild it for me on (he has a transmission shop).  At first
I was going to go the latter route, but as I read the manual I think that
there is a lot of potential for mischief in misaligning a shaft as I
reinstall the trans, or screwing up the rear selective thrust washer
business that I was reading about in the shop manual.  So now I am thinking
about the original plan of trying to just fix the known bad things with the
trans in the car.

My question this time is, what would you do in my shoes? Any tricks to
adjusting the low-band adjusting screw with the trans in the vehicle?

In replying, I would appreciate it if you reply ONLY to VV, as I am sure
that your answers will be meaningless to Joy, and I will get your VV posts
tomorrow at the office.  Thanks!

Norm Witte