'87 Auto GL: It's alive and running again. Swapped in a tranny pump that has
~122k miles on it, and the pump shaft from that same tranny. Cleaned it
internally (not that it really needed it), but I didn't see anything that
would make me think it was choked up anywhere. In looking over that dead
pump it doesn't look like it was starved for fluid/lube. No metal
discoloration, no flakes or obvious scoring. I wonder that after ~360K miles
it didn't just say "screw it, I'm done".

I want to fully go through the other trans and have it ready to go in case,
or for when I get to my '86. I'm gonna need another pump and shaft of
course.

Now I'm wondering about the rest of the hard parts in that thing that are
just as used as the pump was.

I had the infamous lifter ticking on one cylinder (pretty badly). The oil
was just above the lower mark and I need to change it soon, so I put enough
MMO in to bring up to a little below the top mark. I let it idle while I
replaced coolant and got my tranny fluid level, then drove it around gently
for a bit. The engine smoothed out and quieted down after maybe five miles.

All that work to just get back to where I was. : /

One of these days I'd like to get to my "want tos" instead of my "have tos".
I guess that's life.

Cya,

Robert