4L60E's disappearing steel ball ... URGENT PLEASE.

[seza]

Hi all,
Please forgive me for starting a new thread about this because there is another related but I wanted urgent attention,

just to recap ... my 1994 suburban started to give me problems of late: when in OD sometimes the vehicle lose power that went on for few days
then last week it decided it won't go into reverse,
Due to an oil [ATF] leak she was short of fluid - not dry but it did drop below level.
We pulled out the trany, fixed the leaks, changed some gaskets and welded broken bit on the housing,
we put it back together again, tested it while cold she drives fine but as soon the fluid reached operating temp she showed the same symptoms as before ...

One of the boys helping me - noticed that one of the THREE steel balls at the base/bottom of the planetary gear was missing [see arrow pointing to where it should have been in first pic] but at other end of the shaft that goes into the torque converter there is a steel ball???

is this normal?
is our missing ball meant to travel that far up the shaft?
if so how comes it go there? more to the point would that cause our problem?
do these steel balls get worn and they go where they are not suppose to?

please help as soon as you guys can, I am totally stuck in N Africa with no one to turn to apart from yourselves?

 

[seza]

I think I can answer my questions - may be for the benefit of others ...
The input shaft does have three check balls a the base one the end which is what we have here,
so it is ok in that respect.

 

[stutaeng]

Here's a good resource for putting in everything back together in order:

http://shop.ukrtrans.biz/wp-content/uploads/catalogs/4L60E.pdf