First time rebuild problems-trouble upshifting

There's one other thing. The large check ball in the valve body must be 11/32" diameter. A 3/8" ball will fit in it but you won't have 3rd gear. A 3/8" ball is used on the shift detent and sometimes gets mixed up because their so similar in size you can't hardly tell any difference.

Did you install the spring in between the TV and gov valve that you said was missing and make sure the sleeve on the TV valve is on correctly so it lets the TV valve come out all the way?

With the issue your having using a ground down TV valve like the instructions say might work fine.

Just noticed the part about no spring in the governor. All governor assemblies have a spring or they won't work right. Were you able to drive this car before tearing into the trans?