97 explorer tranny issue, OD light flashing

Hello, I have a 97 with some sort of tranny issue. When the light is on the symptons are hard shift from what I think is 1-2 and 3-2. All else seems to be fine. O/D light is flashing so I took it to a local mechanic to have the code read since a generic reader didn't work. The code he got was 741 which he stated was related to in the tranny. He said he saw fluctuations in the pressure. He thought either the fluid pump or the valve body, if I recall correctly. He suggested since it has 145K to rebuild whole tranny and said $2311 to do it. Obviously I just want to fix what needs to be fixed and spend little as possible. Any ideas? I will be changing the fluid today along with filter and potentially inspect the EPC solenoid. Could it be related to SS2 (shift solenoid) or TCC?

Thanks much for the help!

I've had the same problem.
Finally I said to myself "mabye I've been babying this thing too much, so I took it up to 3500rpm
on a long hill, and held it there, until I hit 85.
I think that moved whatever obstruction that was there out of the way.

741 is a torque converter clutch code. I know there's a TSB for the solenoid on some explorers. They are pretty easy to replace. Some of them, when you take out the solenoid, you can actually see where it has failed. The TSB was for part of the solenoid breaking and causing it to stick.