the trannies arent that bad. they could use a few key upgrades that sonnax offers but the real reason they fail all the time is that NO ONE does the proper maintenance and they cant handle it. now back in 87 everyone was putting the wrong fluid in the 4-speed (dex/merc rather than ATF+3 and +4) and that killed them and some might still be doing that but the real reason is maintenance.
i know many folks that have 180k+ on the 4-speed and all they do is change the fluid and filter every year whether it needs it or not. i had one in a kcar hooked to a 3.0L sohc for a while.
brian