Well, not all of us are fortunate enough to have the knowledge base, or all of the proper tools to rebuild our own transmissions. That's why I prefer a professional do it.
First I'm shocked
@Cudafever doesn't know how to rebuild his own transmission! Certainly rebuilding that Holley carburetor was much more intricate...
So first of all let's just start by stomping out this automatic transmission Boogeyman. Probably perpetuated by transmission Folk who will tell you that there's things you don't know and say all kinds of Boogeyman scary stuff to make you not try it yourself... remember the old days the tranny starting to slip so you better sell the car?..
First off when I rebuilt my first transmission a couple years ago I had no book and just some YouTube videos and a very gracious member sent me a Factory manual DVD...
Second 99% of my tools are from Harbor Freight... There was only one special tool needed and I actually used a bent piece of c bar and my vice in lieu of it... If you want to get super crazy you might buy some bushing setting tools which is just a round piece of metal the same size as the bushings to pound it in straight..
Taking off the tail housing I think was four bolts and a c clip. Then tighten the front band adjuster which is the only bolt sticking out with a set screw so the guts don't fall out when you pull the pump off the front... Valve body is the two or three screen bolts and the 10 bolts that hold the valve body on... The standard way to take the pump off the front is to take all 6 bolts out and to the side boats have inner threads to grab it by and slide hammer it out which I did that like a rookie the first time that watch the video and a guy just stuck a screwdriver from behind and gave it a whack in the pump flew out... then you remove the front drum by loosening the band and the rear drum comes out and then you can pull the entire shaft out and that's it... You take the snap ring off the front drum and replace the Rings clutches and seals it's obvious when you pull it off. You do the same to the rear..
I went ahead and put a transgo 3 shift kit making it a full manual shift transmission...
It was by far the best automatic transmission I'd ever driven... it was neat to look at my friends when I shifted the transmission and they look at me like wow that is the way it's supposed to shift nice crisp not banging but crisp and right on cue..
of course this blew my head up and gave me confidence to do my buddies 350 turbo for his 6. 6 Trans Am.. it was a little more difficult as it just had twice as much of everything it seems like for what seemed like the same results and he's enjoying his ta...
this hillbilly I watch new like 13 videos and they're dry very dry but funny because well he's a hillbilly.. so as far as space he was doing it in his kitchen LOL...
You can just see used a 2 foot by 8 foot sheet of plywood that I had ripped at the hardware store and set it up on two chairs as a workbench for this temporary project and it worked perfect...
Now if anything ever goes wrong with the transmission you'll know exactly what it is and why and how to fix it..
It was about $120 for the rebuild kit and about $85 or so for the transgo stage 3 shift kit...