No, my mistake, I went back and checked the original posters profile, not yours. (his is an '88 which is why I mentioned all the upgrades may not be necessary)
It is my opinion, and my opinion only, (but I strongly believe it) that a rebuilt 700R4 is a ticking time bomb. For whatever reason, rebuilt 700R4's seem to be about 100% more likely to fail than a STOCK 700, as it came from GM. I don't intend to enrage those that have a rebuilt 700 that works great, and has for a long time, under hard use. I'm just pointing out the fact that you seem to be in the minority. Sheer numbers doom the 700 to this condemnation as well, I understand this. But the amount of rebuilds that fail is still disproportionate to other rebuilt items and their failure rate, even other auto trannies.
We can probably search this board and find 100 people that got over 100K on a bone stock, as it came from GM 700R4, that finally died. Of those 100 people, I wouldn't be surprised if 25-50 of them that had it rebuilt, had follow-on problems with the rebuild.
I don't know what the problem is with the rebuilds on the 700R4's, but I will tell you this. If an engine rebuilder had as many failures (or at least mistakes that are noticeable while driving) as the 700R4 rebuilders do, they would be out of business. However, on the 700R4, putting it back on the lift 2-3 times after the initial rebuild seems to be the norm. This has just come from observation on a few boards, and experience from a few people I know.
This is not a condemnation of the 700R4. (there are other things I dislike about them lol) My *theory* is that the 700R4 is more critical of tolerance than the "other" GM trannies (TH350/400) and when being rebuilt, the time just isn't taken like GM did when they were new. Especially since many of the hard parts WILL change (size, shape, etc) after 20 years of use. With the 700 tending to run hot, the problem of tolerance will be exacerbated.
50 miles a year, well, thats not much for sure. For the original poster, reliability daily seemed to be important, and thus I would certainly recommend not just throwing in new clutches and steels and hoping for the best every day.
For 50 miles a year, if they are easy miles, then no problem I guess. (any rebuild is still gambling obviously) But if it's hard use, (even if very infrequent) just like re-using an old camshaft, you have no idea when it's going to fail you. I wouldn't use the term "cheap insurance", but I might use "insurance". /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Again 50 miles isn't a big issue. But if you are 1000 miles away from home and your tranny lets loose on you, how much is THAT going to cost you? (mine was $1500)
