I paid 500 for a reman TC direct from new holland 7 years ago, havent had any problems with it at all. My TC metal flex plate/coupler exploded and destroyed the old converter, it was all beat up and dented from flying around in the bellhousing. The flex plate/coupler cracking and breaking seems to be pretty common on these machines btw.
I bought another beater ford 555a with a trans that wont shift, the shuttle valve is jammed thats where im at with it right now, tore into it this morning taking the hood, tank, top plate shuttle access cover out. Not sure if I will have to split it or not yet - it might actually just be a jammed shuttle
Also one thing i will say about the clutches is that they are the same ones in the ford tractors that use these shuttle shifters, you can buy them for around 12 dollars a clutch plate and 4 dollars for the metal plates, the new holland prices on the clutchs/metal plates are a joke. If you search on allstateag website and match up the part numbers with the new holland ones, they cross reference over.
I dont find splitting these machines very hard, to me the most annoying part is taking the hood and tank out, once you get to that point it is just some disconnections, remove the starter, the bellhousing bolts and the flywheel bolts. I made a plate that bolts the the back of the engine to wheel the front away with another machine.