Installed wiring to the transmission and now it dies when you put it in drive

Reverse and all the low gears as well?
KC

Check the faults, let's see what ya got.  With the state of the wires it's possible that it cooked the TCM or the solenoids in the valve body.

The wires were missing the insulation like it had disintegrated, it is possible they were shorted, they were not plugged in  when I drove it home,  I also replace the selector switch,  but it had the wrong suffix,  correct part number,  the original one was leaking

Going old school,  got the 1551 working on the van,  and now for some wiring diagrams

Archives

ouch.

You should be able to check the solenoids with a meter.  Disconnect the round connector on the transmission and check for continuity between power in (Pin 1 on the diagram, it's hard to read though) and the other wire for the solenoid in question. 

My money is on a bad valve body conductor strip which also happens to include the other end of the round plug you just replaced.

Oh, I think I've got an old multi-function switch from a Eurovan laying around, I'll see if I can dig it up.

I was praising you today going though the old books and finding the eurovan manuals and wiring diagrams