Second gear was slipping a lot. Got to the point one day that it wouldn't engage at all. Drove home in first gear while trying to maintain rpms so that it wouldn't shift to second.

Now I have the Trans all apart and this is what my main valve body separator plate looks like. I'm guessing it's warped and needs to be replaced. I know what happens when metal gets over heated. I'm looking for advice from anyone that has actually done a lot of transmissions and can give conceivable explanation orange other things to look at since this is blued. I have new steels for my clutch packs because yes, they are blued also. I know I should replace but I have denial because I don't know if I can come by this part brand new.

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Bluing to the plate is usually not a problem, and is more common that you might think on some teardowns. The biggest area to focus on is the oil pump I/O, which are the large openings on the upper right side. If you see circular marks around this area, it means the plate has distorted enough in an installed state to allow the gears to contact it, or the shafts supporting the gears are worn and allowing the oil pump gears to contact it. I would be more concerned about the linear scratches on the left side of the spacer. Those marks resemble nothing I have personally seen, and appears to be sandpaper like.

Does the plate sit flat on the torque converter housing?

 

how is the torque converter housing, pump gears and how the regulator valve body looks like?