It is my understanding that taking this transmission to a modern automatic transmission rebuilder will tick both you and the service guy off. I got lucky and found a local shop where the owner was old enough that he was working on hydra-mayics when they were new. There are several specisal adjustment tools that may not be available in a modern shop. gp to
www.areds.com and get their 800 phone number. Speak with Leon. He should be able to advise you and help with parts and part services. I did not have mine rebuilt but did have trans guy inspect it internally and make recommendations of areas that needed attention. I am told that the trannies are almost bulletproof when properly adjusted. As mentioned, there are special tools for band adjustment, throttle pressure lever adjustment and others. I don't know what the rebuild will cost you but would be interested in the answer when you find out and have also been told that there are no published production numbers on 54 Chev hydra-matic trucks. 54 was the first year that Chevy trucks got that transmission in a half ton truck. GMC had them at least one year earlier. I switched my truck over to a hydra-matic driveline that I purchased from a guy that was making a srteet rod out of his original truck. There are many differences between the H-M trucks and the manual trans trucks but after driving mine as a hydra-matic, I could never imagine it ant other way now. Look up posts from tclederman and follow to his website.
http://1954advance-design.com He has much documentaion and great information that will help you out. Also khardy has scanned and posted several service, adjustment, and maintrnance manuals for 54 trucks and hydra-matic transmissions.
http://chevy.tocmp.com/index.htm And here is my webshots link with some pics that may or may not help you.
http://community.webshots.com/user/greg_h
