Well I will say this.
I went ahead and added another quart of fluid to the transmission after I checked the fluid level by opening the drainplug. The fluid is already extremely dark/black. Thought that was kind of odd, but I realize we're not doing a complete flush with this method, so some of the original fluid is still floating around. Regardless, fluid level wasn't what I recall the drain out to be when I cracked it open from OEM's fill. On a hot transmission, I got less than a quart out without removing the plastic straw. I recall at least a quart, if not more before.
Added the fluid, and now the transmission seems back to its old behavior (pre-fluid change). I reset it and it felt great for a while, but started driving it aggressively and it adopted some of the old behaviors. Not nearly as pronounced though as they have been. The reverse to 1st hesitation... stutter... issue seems to be gone (fingers crossed), and there is zero hesitation from stop to start now. I don't hear the gear changes nearly as loudly either, except when I was hard braking last night to see if I could get it to act up. Seems like that's really the only time I hear a loud "CLICK" which I feel is normal, and may also just be the subframe (I have the tyrol deadset kit installed, but there may be a little shift still... not sure since I don't dead stop often with the radio off in complete silence)
The only complaints I have are that I can feel the shift from 1st to stop slightly (which was there before) and it's almost like I'm dead stopping and skidding a little. It's not nearly as rough, though. Still get the slight dead zone when coasting to a stop and then taking off again, but that has been there before too.
Suffice to say, the serious quirks appear remedied by adding more fluid, which was probably my foul up, but it's still not buttery smooth in the lower gearing, which it never really was.
