If you decide to have the tranny rebuilt, I could probably save you a $1,500. I recently rebuilt a CD4E and shipped it to a friend. Turns out that the 99 and 00 Cougar trannies are not swappable due to different VSS locations.
Here is my for sale thread on NECO:
http://www.fastcougar.com/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=6&threadid=119886
I just want you to know that my advice is in no way related to the fact that I have a CD4E for sale. In fact, I'm not the one selling it, the person who bought it from me is the one selling it. I just thought that I could point you the direction of saving a few bucks. I'm sure that anyone here can back up my advice ... the mileage on the trans is just too high to try and do a bandade fix like replacing the valvebody.
All you would need is a new pump shaft ($12), rebuilt Torque Converter ($199 from
www.bulkpart.com), a trans cooler ($50-60 from
www.bulkpart.com), fluids, a weekend. If you can pull the engine/tranny, you can replace it just as easily.
