Well, 4 and a half months later, and I finally have the linkage adjusted right and the thing back together good enough that I can up-shift and down-shift into all of the gears.
It might be a bit slower to downshift into first than it was and overdrive isn't working for some reason, but I think everything inside is okay. It's only taken two transmission R&R's, six valve body R&R's and a few dozen tranny pan R&R's to get to this point.
Here's a picture of a beautiful woman.
The biggest problem now is that the last couple times I've reinstalled the pan, I can't get it to stop leaking. The old gasket was more of a corky material, these new leaky ones are a harder black rubber material. Has anybody had problems with crap gaskets?
Regardless, I'll probably get a new pan and a new gasket in the mail because I'm so damn tired of working on this thing.
I don't think I bent the pan. I DID strip out the two bolts that hold the shift linkage on, so I tapped and drilled those holes to a bigger size... I should probably helicoil them while I have the pan off...