Ok - this is fairly easy to answer for me, since I've done this last year...
Since you replaced the 1-2 (?) accumulator, you've had the pan off and have seen the valve body. I don't need to tell you about seized pan bolts, at least.
First - read the instructions that came with the kit. When you're sure you understand them - read them again - 'see / be the valve body'...lol.
Ok - the VB has bolts of varying sizes. The instructions tell you which size goes where - make sure you review that when you're putting them back in. A 10mm socket will work on these.
When you remove the bolts, loosen but DO NOT REMOVE the middle bolt, at first. That's going to keep the VB intact and level for you (and checkballs intact - all except one of them sit in the top end of the VB (the side you can't see). As long as you keep the VB even fairly level when you bring it down, the checkballs will be retained in their proper locations. Again - the instruction sheet is good at showing where they go back - but if you're worried, you can always take a quick snap of it before you remove them. When you're ready, remove the last bolt in the center, and be ready to hold the VB level with one hand, while you're disconnecting the shift lever rod with the other. This is probably the trickiest part of removing the VB.
As you're slowly lowering the VB, you'll notice that there's a metal rod connecting to it on the driver's side. It's easiest to disconnect it from the VB when you have it lowered about 3" or so - and if you move the VB slightly in the the front or rear direction of the vehicle (keeping it horizontal!), you'll be able to disconnect the shift lever easily (and remember this when you go to reassemble - the lever will easily reconnect if you have the VB in roughly the same position when you took it out. If you fasten the VB to the case first - you will NOT be able to reconnect the shift lever - this happened to me. Thankfully, I had not torqued the bolts down yet (more on the setting below.)
So - with the rod disconnected from the VB (and the little piston it attaches to in the VB may slide out - try to keep it from hitting the floor / ground - if you can get it to slide back in the VB housing, that will be fine. Lower the VB slowly and somewhat evenly. Have something ready you can set it on (newspaper) while you crawl out from underneath the truck. Then carefully drag whatever you set the VB on out from under the truck. You'll see the checkballs at this point, in their little recesses. Take a pic if you want, and put the checkballs in a jar (a magnetic pickup tool is useful for removing them one at a time). Time to count checkballs - how many do you have?
If you're 'missing' a checkball, check back up at the separator plate / gasket, to see if the 1-2 checkball punched through the plate (partially or fully). If so, you'll be able to retrieve it when you remove the separator plate, which is a good idea to replace, even if there's no wear on it.
Of all the checkballs, the 1-2 is the most likely to start wearing through the plate, due to the force of the shift. That could be contributing to the harshness of your 1-2 shift, so if you see the ball partially / fully punched through, you'll have a better 1-2 when you're done (you'll need a new separator plate that doesn't have a hole worn through it.)
Even if you don't replace the separator plate (which is advisable at your mileage), you'll still need new gaskets for it. When you remove the bracket on the one side with the 2-3 bolts holding it in - expect the plate it to drop a bit - so be ready to hold it up with one hand while you remove the hold down plate / bolts. Hold it level - because the
last checkball is on the TOP side of the plate. If you do this well enough, it'll be sitting in its little hole on the plate, pretty as you please. Add it to the others in the jar.
Now from here, you'll be cleaning / removing / installing as per the instructions in the kit. You can look for one of my earlier posts for tips on that - one of which was that one of the springs was in a different bag than it should have been (and others have experienced this same thing). Work slowly when you're working with the various springs, to make sure you have the right ones. Most are fairly obvious. I believe the one that was in the 'wrong' bag is one of the smaller ones - and there's another spring in a second bag that's very similar to it. So be aware.
Now you've got everything reassembled and ready to put back in (you did put new separator plate / gaskets in, right ?). Remember how you disconnected the VB from the shift lever rod - reverse that sequence, and it'll connect right up, easy as you please.
Torque setting for the VB bolts is about 9.5 FOOT lbs - use a 1/4 torque wrench for best results (and the measurements / markings on it will likely be in INCH pounds (I forget the inch - ft lb conversion, but I remember the result was right about 9.5 ft lbs. If you were to go to 10 ft. lbs, I really don't think you'd hurt anything. You can put them in and hand tighten them to the VB - and in this case - put the middle bolt in FIRST - again, that will help hold it in place while you put the remainder of the bolts in.
Now, once all the bolts are in and snugged up (you did check to see beforehand which bolt lengths went to which holes) - tighten the bolts in two or three steps, working from the center bolt, in a CCW direction from inner to outer (like a spiral). If you want to be really careful about it, set the wrench to a lower setting - say, 4-5 ft lbs, do all the bolts, and then come back to the center bolt. Reset the wrench to the 'final' setting. Again, starting from the center bolt, work inner to outer in a CCW spiral. Notice how some of the bolts are looser than when you left them in the first pass? That's why you do this in 2-3 steps, working from inside to out - best way to ensure
even clamping, as that's an aluminum VB you're fastening to an aluminum case, and you don't want to warp the VB (although at 9-10 ft lbs, that would be pretty hard, I would think).
Ok - with that done, make one more pass through the bolts at the final setting - because you noticed some were looser in the first pass, right? Same thing will happen at the final torquing - you do one more pass to make sure they're all at the proper torque, and didn't loosen during the previous pass.
And with that, it's time for a new filter, a new pan gasket (and make sure the pan magnet is re-installed in the pan) - tighten those bolts up in a criss-cross manner, again using 2-3 passes (I forget the torque setting, but it's easy enough to find), and done. Refill with fluid (and make sure you have 1-2 extra quarts), start the vehicle and after it runs for a bit, check the fluid - BEFORE you drive it. Depending on how long you had the pan off, you will likely have lost more than the 5qts of fluid as stated in the capacities section.
Drive it easy for the first few minutes. It likely won't shift 'normally' at first, especially if you used some Trans-Jel or vaseline to keep the checkballs in their places as you fastened the VB back to the case. As the trans fluid warms up / gets hot, it'll melt the Jel / vaseline, and then it should start behaving more 'normally'.
Note that if your 2-3 rev hang is not fixed - my guess is that your 2-3 clutches are probably a bit worn (or perhaps burned - but you said the fluid looked OK) Save your $, because to fix that, the trans has to come out of the car, and basically rebuilt. Decide what you want to do with the vehicle. But if you've got the V8 - keep in mind that the engine alone in that thing is worth about 3x more than what you paid for the truck, depending on whether you have the LM4 ('03-'04), or the L33 ('05-'06, which was last year for the EXT / LWB).
Ok - that's a lot of reading above - maybe more than you wanted / expected - but it hopefully gives you some good tips on retaining the checkballs. Search for the thread from either
@AWD V8 or
@gmcman (I forget which) on putting in the whole kit - it's well written and has pics galore - best thread on putting in this kit on this website.
Good luck! It can look overwhelming, but once you do one, you get the hang of it, and could probably do another one in 1/2 the time or even less.
