There wasnt much to take pics of lol. Put the lockring from the other tcase into mine(it was a pia) It fits a little loose on there but is locked in none-the-less. Reassembled everything, put some new fluid in the tcase and she seems to be working fine! Noise in 2hi is gone, 4hi works as it should, and 4lo is back.
Now looking at my spare tcase, it seems like water got into it because the barn its in leaks, so that's junk.
I may pick up a cheap used tcase off marketplace to rebuild, and if this one ever blows then I can throw a rebuilt one in. I am a bit worried with how much slack is in that chain on my current one. I'm willing to bet it's the original tcase at 232,000 miles.
Thank you to everyone who helped me diagnose this problem and supported me!