Lean me: flat towing an electronic automatic

The specific transmission is question is an AX4N Ford tranny sourced from a '97 Lincoln Continental.

I have been told dragging it around in neutral and ECU disconnected will 'tear up your transmission' but I'm just not entirely understanding why, and everyone who has told me that has given me the answer of "that's what I've heard". If I physically put the tranny in neutral, and all the solenoid clutches are disengaged(?) (there is no electric power to the tranny) in my mind, all that is spinning inside the tranny is the diff, which is over half submerged in a pool of ATF. Obviously no significant torque is being handled. What gets torn up?

Lets just suppose I intentionally dragged one of these trannies some 3000 miles at 60mph in neutral. I say it's fine. Tell me why it's cooked. (it makes no weird noises or smells being dragged) Hopefully once the motor is working later this week I'll see if I got away with it or not. But in the mean time, I would like to know what my chances of survival are.

Find an owner's manual for the car, it will specifically describe what to do for towing. Autos have a lot of stuff that spins that's attached to the output and is designed to have fluid pumped through it (and an oil cooler) during operation. If the engine isn't running, the pump isn't pumping and the oil isn't cooling.

With autos, it's usually safe practice to use a tow dolly or remove the drive shaft(s).

Bryce

in MOST auto trans you will tear the tranny up because they are pump lubricated, unlike a manual trans, which I guess you could maybe call splash lubricated.
some honda autos are not pump lubricated, such as the one in the "honda vue" aka vue with honda 3.5 and trans. and of course the crv and whatever else with that combo.
this is why people who do alot of rv'ing buy these cars, you can safely flat tow them.
I think you still need to drive the car around a bit every few hundred miles to get the juices going though, iirc.

So what part is likely cooked? All of them? Just go looking for another transmission all together?

Numbers 7-23, 87, 120, 174-180 and 207 will be cooked whereas 63 will only be lightly smoked and 140 will be perfectly blackened and should be served with a nice pilaf.