I would suggest you get in touch with Todras and get yourself a Ford Service Manual on CD. Best $8 you will ever spend, even if you don't end up doing this.
Checking pressure, well unless you have some pretty spiffy tools and a pressure gauge that can check tranny pressure's, you are really going to be out of luck even if you did know what the pressure's are suppose to be.
My second suggestion, go through all the links on my
CD4E Links page. Within those links, there's article's that can help you out A LOT. There's also several articles that troubleshoot several different problems based on symptoms, which is very helpful.
After you get the Service CD and get more comfortable with the CD4E, if you are still planning on pulling the tranny and gutting it, I would get a CD4E Manual from someone like ATRA. They have the best rebuild manuals, hands down.
I don't want to come off like I am blowing you off, because I'm not. I just want to point you in the direction of the best information possible. Currently we are at a point with your car that we would have to run tests to fully determine what your problem truely is. And since we don't have that equipment, anything that I tell you from here on will be a shot in the dark and I would hate to guess at something only to have you go outside and tear into your tranny only to find that you are over your head and that I was wrong.
Best luck to ya and if you have any other questions, please feel free to let me know. I will help you anyway I can, to the best of my ability.
