The clunk happens very rarely and only when the tranny is cold. I have not been driving it much at all lately since the neutral thing between 3 and 4 freaks me out. No shop near me wants to touch it. In fact, I have not been able to find a shop that will work on this transmission at all that seems even remotely reputable (I've even tried AAMCO). Believe me, I only started this replacing the solenoids project because of that fact.

There wasn't much crud in the pans and the fluid was nice and red. Very little mud on the magnet. The truck has less than 113000 miles. I've had two Rodeos, and a Trooper with more than double the miles on the same kind of tranny (4l30e) with out ever needing a rebuild (or solenoids, maybe that is a bad sign) so, hopefully it is just a part failure not a total loss (rebuild). Currently it is not in a drive-able state as it has no fluid, is missing two front solenoids (one is some kind of Borg-Warner part) and no front transmission pan.

After doing more research, it looks like the washer is from the pump assembly behind the bell-housing. It also looks like it is the only place it could have come from to end up in the front pan top hole. I think, all I need is to pull the tranny, get one of these https://www.sonnax.com/parts/2182-th...asher-shim-kit, take off the bell housing and put it all back together. It all looks easier typed than done but worth a try. If that doesn't work I will just look for a pre-rebuilt transmission. If that fails, I probably will say good-bye to my VX. I love the truck but, parts and people willing to work on the truck are getting hard to come by and I just do not have the time or the needed knowledge to do it myself (mostly time, knowledge can be acquired)...

- Now, I have got to go get me a transmission jack.