Sinking Creek 4WD Association

At home my dad has a 1986 2.4 liter four cylinder hardbody pickup with an automatic transmission with overdrive. But about a year ago the tranny just blew up on me when i went to go to school and now has only a forward gear and no neutral. And this weekend im looking to go home and help him pull one out of a junkyard but what i was wondering is what do i need to do/look for to ensure a proper fit of the junkyard transmission? The engine in the truck was the same and it has the same shifter setup so all i should have to do is just unbolt everything and take the transmission and put it in our truck, right?

count the transmission pan bolts, and inspect the shape of the donor tranny. Inspect the bolt pattern on the two transmissions, I would make a cardboard template of the bellhousing on the blown tranny and compare it to the new one. In other words do anything you can think of to insure that it is the correct tranny if you cannot confirm the type is the same. Also, the used one could have a few gallons of fluid in the pan and torque converter, so just keep that in mind. Look up some information on this truck and its transmission and see if you can get a guide (chiltons/haynes manual) on how to remove/install it if you are not familiar with the procedure. This will help insure that it is a smooth operation.

Don't forget to check the tailhousing length and output shaft splines if it uses a slipyoke. You should be able to swap tailhousings and output shafts if its the same transmission, but it could be an indicator of a different one.