First of all; someone should have warned me about how hard it is to get the side cover back on once you take it off! :-) I got it off in about 5 minutes and then spent about 30 minutes trying to put it back on. I thought I was going to lose my mind getting the shifting forks to line up with the shifting collars (or whatever they're called) inside the trans.

On a positive the, the inside looked excellent. Clean and well lubed with no evidence of chipped/damaged gears. If I didn't know any better I'd say it may have been rebuilt/freshened up lately. See pictures at:
http://i1053.photobucket.com/albums/s461/biglarry3/IMG_0683_zps86afb7c5.jpg
http://i1053.photobucket.com/albums/s461/biglarry3/IMG_0677_zps04261b4d.jpg

If you page through the album you can see varying shots of the transmission. You can also see the evidence of the 3-4 hours I spent with a putty knife, screwdriver and wire brush cleaning 40 years worth of gunk of the tranny. All cleaned up it looks pretty good. I may hit it with some engine degreaser and take it to the car wash to blast off the remainder of the grease. I'll be sure to tightly wrap the governor and solenoid so as not to get them wet.

I've got a few questions:

1. If I wanted to paint it to preserve it, how would I go about that?
2. With the tranny out of the truck is there any way to check the functionality/serviceability of the governor and solenoid? Is there a bench test procedure?
3. What exactly is different about the input shaft vs. the one I have now? How hard is it to change? Does the whole innards of the trans need to be taken apart?

Bottom line is I'm pretty psyched about my acquisition. I'll know for sure once I get it installed.

Thanks

Larry