1987 chevy suburban

I have a 1987 chevy suburban with aprox; 150,000 miles on it. It has a 5.7 liter 350 fuel injected eng. My transmision stoped working on my way to work one day. I was in the process of passing someone when it happened, there was a loud pop and then a clanking noise that sounded as if it where in the bell housing. I have a few questions, and they are, how do I tell if my transmision is a 700R4? And how do I find out if it was my torque converter and not my trans, after the trans has been pulled? I mean is there any way to test the converter without the trans being in the truck. And how do i tell if my trans is bad? I found no metal in the pan.