[James Lamb]

One of mine was ruined by someone I let work on my truck thinking it was basically a Th350 with overdrive, and drove it without the cable connected. Toasted it. One I had built by a professional shop where the "old guy" who owned the shop, and had seen a lot of them when they were common on the road, did ok. The next one, built by the same shop, but by then where younger guys did all the work, they did not tighten the cable clamp at the carb down tight, and it burned out literally on my drive home. I made them build me another one at their cost, they did not drill the hole in the pump correctly, got a few hundred miles on it, started cavitating to beat anything, would not stay in lockup and was always shifting in and out, leaking fluid, etc.

So yes, the improperly adjusted cables are an issue. Supposedly, the early 700r4's when new were very problematic, and by about 1986 this had been improved with better parts, which supposedly are all one can get nowadays for a rebuild.

But I've had two others that ran for around 45,000 miles then would quit staying in lockup, or burnt out 4th gear, or just got some kind of gremlin in them without any sign anything was wrong until they just quit working. Conversely, my wife's van, which had the same transmission (4l60e) but ecu controlled was still going when the engine finally gave out.

Had an old Blazer Chalet I wish I had kept with a TH350 that seemed bomb-proof. But other people have had bad luck with them too.

So yeah, maybe it's possible to find the right shop to do a good job, but they are so picky. If this one gives out I will never have another one.

Or maybe reincarnation is real, and in my former life I crushed cars for scrap and they are paying me back for it in this life.