Avoid it. The Early 700's had numerous problems that weren't really sorted out until the early '90s. Many parts that got upgraded and so forth. If you're planning on keeping the vehicle and subjecting it to any real use, you'd be far better off with a new/reman GM crate transmission.

The trans can be gone through with relative ease, if you already are familiar with automatic transmission overhaul. Sorry, I can't really remember which special tools are needed vs just desireable. But again, I'd have to say, unless you're willing to pour money into it for all the updated parts, it's really not worth it. Even if you're willing to pour money into it, why not pour the money into a new one and get better performance, better reliability, and a warranty?

If you do happen to drag it home and open it up however, look for the original style solid band, if it's in halfway decent shape it's desirable for those building performance transmission, over the later split band. At least from what I remember, by now I'm sure performance companies have something better out there. I've been doing the german car thing for too long now to be up on all of it.

MV