Little Help New Transmission.?

Ok so check it out here's a few things. I had a 92 700r4 transmission that was in my 92 z28 Camaro 5.0L TPI 25th Anniversary Edition well it ended up burning out so I dropped it and replaced the transmissions. first off a few things. When I pulled the pan to replace the filter and gasket in the new transmission I couldn't seem to keep the filter up due to a band fitting so would that affect me not being able to move secondly is everything is adjust correctly but I am doubting a few things. firstly is whenever I pulled this transmission it came out of what I believe was a 91 chevy astro 4.3l van. It was blood red so I wasn't worried about it not working. I had to swap out the tailshafts and I noticed a slight difference. on my original 700r4 there was a rubber fitting on the rod that my driveshaft ran into. well when I swapped out the driveshafts this astro 4.3l 700r4 did not have that fitting. it seemed almost like a gigantic twizzeler on the rod and the tail house. so am I going to have to interchange those parts or can I get away with it like that. Thirdly is when adjusting the shift linkage on a camaro where is the neutral position located on the actual manual shaft of the 700r4 you can give me like from the drivers side you need to kick it 3 times to the left or that kinda thing because my chiltons doesn't tell you anything like that so I can get the gears right and maybe that will help out alot. I would appreciate any help.