Hi Bob
As I am away next week my pal will have the pleasure of sorting this one out although I would love to have a look myself. We have left the sump empty as we don't get the parts till Tuesday. So any pointers I get I will print them off and pop them in his mailbox.
Anyway
I suspect that someone was in there before. To start with there was a bolt/screw missing from the ATF sump pan. What really flags this one up is, in the spec, for the part of the b2 gizzmo in question, the small retaining nut (no.25) should under no circumstances be used twice. Judging by other things that I have found on the car, I bet it was!!
It was overfilled by about 2" on the dip stick which even I know is a hell of a lot.
It did seem strange that the pin is very discoloured not at all consistant with the rest of the tranny, which suggests it has been in the pan for quite a while.
What really baffles me though is how can it run so well without this pin, as I have said it only flares now and again ie. changing up on high revs. On a long gradual ascent with constant gas at approx one third it's fine. It will change down and up again when needed without any prompting.
Here's hoping

Thanks
Adrian