I was right, I did end up taking the valve body off to inspect the frictions, and sure enough they were roasted. The steels in the rear drum had burn marks on them too, so It's probably a good thing I went one layer deeper in my repairs. I should probably do a full overhaul, but I don't have the time nor the space and honestly I'm over budget too. And the truth is that as long as this thing has fluid, it runs like a dream. The frictions would probably have been ok to go back in...but I found a Raybestos pack of just the 9 frictions for $28 so that seemed like a no brainer. I already had a set of new steels on hand. And since the vb is out I'll change out the shift selector seal too.
The band looks ok but I'm leaning toward replacing it as well. It probably didn't get worn TOO too badly by running low on fluid since it would never get to 2nd gear, but the drum it goes around spins even when in park or neutral, so if there wasn't enough fluid I could see it wearing. I found one that looks identical for $6 on amazon, but it was for a 727 and apparently this is a component that doesn't interchange. And I guess it wasn't prime, because it's going to cost me $5.32 to ship back a $6 item. I'll spend more in gas & time taking it to the post office.
The band looks ok but I'm leaning toward replacing it as well. It probably didn't get worn TOO too badly by running low on fluid since it would never get to 2nd gear, but the drum it goes around spins even when in park or neutral, so if there wasn't enough fluid I could see it wearing. I found one that looks identical for $6 on amazon, but it was for a 727 and apparently this is a component that doesn't interchange. And I guess it wasn't prime, because it's going to cost me $5.32 to ship back a $6 item. I'll spend more in gas & time taking it to the post office.