ok, yes I feel like an idiot now
I implied by reading Joe Black's article that I could run through the gears w/o the pans simply b/c in his article you could run through the gears w/o the drain plug or I guess the little hoses up near the radiator unhooked.
I will happily reinstall the pans and continue the process. I still need to get those dang bolts out of the main pan though. I took them by Advance and Autozone and a tranny shop. None of them knew what the heck they were. I'm perfectly willing to have someone drill the miserable things out and put "normal" bolts in.
Thanks for the info from everyone!!
Joe "amateur mechanic" Isuzu