I would put a manual valvebody in it and never look back.

Clicking gears is no bother on the street and gives me something to do when driving around.

I have a stock VB that I'm gonna put in it.. but
I want to know whats going on with the governor
pressure first... the VB in it now has a Transgo
shift improver kit .. other than that its stock

Line pressure test port is the plug in the middle "hump" on the passenger side.

Thanks John... what kind of pressure should I see..
and I assume that is the regulator pressure... in my
book it doesnt show a pressure for the front servo port
also.. any idea why my test didnt repeat itself.. just
came up with zero pressure

Dang that sux, I hope you get a handle on it.

So do I.. or I'll burn this thing to the ground...
John stated that it should be zero pressure with
zero speed.. it is but the pressure didnt climb
the second and third times I tried.. I dont understand
that it doesnt repeat

Mike can you get the trans tailshaft extention housing off while in the car? if you can then take it off and disassemble the govenor and clean it, sounds like it's sticking or it's got a piece of trash in it, and you don't want to hear what a trans shop told me how to fix it with out taking it apart,,,it worked but not reccomended. LOL

No way in hell to get it off... I spent a hour trying
to get a fitting into the governor port today and found
it couldnt be done.. I ended up pulling the carpet and
drilled a 1" hole in the tunnel so I could get my readings..
I did do the drive to park and drive to reverse thing...
nothing changed(I assume that is what you were gonna say
about the fix)

LOL yep, scared the bejeezus out of me, the only other thing I could suggest is dump a can of Sea Foam trans cleaner in it and drive it, that stuff will help clean them up and take any varnish and gunk out of them, had a Aries wagon once with the 2.2 auto in it and had some issues with it shifting and not shifting into 1st at a traffic light,put that stuff in and drove it for about 250-300 miles and never looked back, still worked good when I sold it 2 years later.

Sent a pm.
Gov pressure port for 518 is high/back

I didnt get your PM

Any other suggestions to what might be wrong with
this thing.. I'm gonna change the VB today with
the stock one I have
EDIT
Whats the correct procedure to adjust the TP cable
just so I know

I just got off the phone with John Cope.. glad
I talked with him... I was gonna put this other
VB on which is a non lock up trans.. the one in
the car is a lock up style that I changed out the
pump and input shaft on.. well the non lock up VB
wont work on a lock up case... so that takes care
of me changing the VB.. he suggested a trick on
freeing the governor which I will try today.. its
blowing air into the governor test port while the
engine is running.. it works sometimes if its just
small trash... but as he also said.. if its eating
itself up and putting trash in there it will just
happen again(which I knew).. so for today I'll put
the gauge on the accumulator port and get some readings
and try the air pressure on the governor port.. I think
I will drop the pan to check for trash.. I have a drain
plug but I want to see whats on the magnet... he also
said that A&A makes a manual shift VB for these.. so if
it doesnt have trash in it and the VB just doesnt want
to work right I will order the manual shift VB so it
eliminates the need for the governor
EDIT
Thanks John for the info

Mike,
If there is no pressure coming out of the governor at speed, it's because the governor weights are stuck blocking the flow completely.

From looking at the flow diagrams, the rear clutch feed in the case is the same circuit as the governor feed. Meaning if the governor didn't have any flow going to it, the rear clutch wouldn't apply either.

The problem does not appear to be in the valve body.

Didn't this thing have a stuck/burred governor weight in it the last time we took it apart? I remember you taking it home to fix before we put it back together. Is this the same trans, or the junk yard trans now in the car? (Easy way to tell... is it painted black? Or did you paint the junk yard trans black?)

If the governor pressure doesn't rise with speed, it won't make the automatic 1/2 shift like it should.

This is the one you did originally.. yes it had
a stuck/burred governor which I did fix.. I know
it moved freely.. I made damn sure of it...both
trans are black.. I painted the JY one also after
I cleaned it up

The "no repeat" on the governor pressure test is baffling, don't have a clue to a cause.

The front servo test port will only show pressure when the trans is in 3rd gear and should be the same as line pressure or a little lower. Line pressure will vary with the throttle, 50-100 psi....you can disconnect the linkage and operate the TP lever by hand to raise/lower the line pressure at idle.

Right now I've spent a hour and a half trying to
get a fitting into the accumulator port to get a
reading on the line pressure.. so far I havent
got the fitting in.. I had to take a break before
I burn that thing.. my hand and my foot have cramped
up... a word to people... DONT BUILD LITTLE CARS..
Im getting ready to pull the pass header just to help
getting to the port

....and people laugh when I tell them the main purpose of going to a tube K member, rack steering, coil overs, and removable section of floor is because I'm just that lazy and it makes the car a breeze to work on! Sounds like a real bear P!

It dont F-ing matter.. it has to come out..I
pulled the pan.. its got a pile of crap in it..
4 miles on it...........its getting torched

Mike sorry to hear that thing is still giving you fits. Hope you get it figured out so you can enjoy it. Like they say, if it was easy everybody would do it.