I really hope this was not the cause to my potentially ruining a good transmission:

Whoever touched the vent tube last was an idiot. instead of placing the plastic clip with the hole in it on the stud on the battery strap, they put the vent tube it self on the stud, blocking any venting that it was supposed to do.

DERR if there's a tube not goin' to anything, let's just plug it up! :smacks forehead:

I repositioned the vent tube correctly, and will post updates if this works/doesn't work.