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The most important thing on these trannys is the fluid - they DO NOT take Dextron - they need the new ATF+ fluids from Mopar - some aftermarkets just recently showing up.
You could also look at allpar.com - there is some good information there for your reading pleasure.
There have been a lot of upgrades to these trannys and engineering change orders over the years - if they are rebuilt and maintained properly I believe they are a good transmission. I have rebuilt two myself - the ECO notes come with the rebuild kit or seal kit - that is where I learned about them. The guts of the tranny is the same as the minivan which was the first one I did - the last one was just in January on my 1995 Intrepid ES 3.3.
These ECOs were issued as late as 1997, but the most significant ones were around 1995 - so if you got an early 1995 model year tranny from the bone yard and it was original it may not have the upgrades in it.
The other thing is in 1995 Chrysler used a plastic 2-4 accumulator piston in these transmissions for a while - a technical bulletin in September 1995 was issued to replace them with the more usual aluminum on any service. 2-4 refers to the clutch engaged in both 2nd and 4th gear so if your problem is 4th gear overdrive related that could be the cause. That was ultimately what happened to mine - the head of the plastic accum piston shattered so there was no hydraulic pressure on the 2-4 clutch so it would slip in both 2-4 - one way to check is 2nd is the limp in gear - if I floored it in limp in the tranny would noticeably slip - engine revs quickly but car's speed increases slowly. If that is the case, you can replace the 2-4 accum piston without removing tranny - it is in the valve body.
The 92 minivan tranny I did previously had a 1st gear clutch seal that acted up for a long time in cold weather - finally decided to rebuild it at 225,000 kms - up to then it was original - the seal that was acting up was changed in a design change also in 1995.
By the way, even the parts in both cases cost me about $1000 Canadian - even with a decent discount at the dealer.
I don't know about what years are interchangeable - or what is different in the auto stic - I heard there were problems in the early auto stics - and they may use different electronics.
I would rebuild it completely like I did mine - but I agree if you have to pay someone for a complete rebuild - its a lot of coin. If you don't do a complete rebuild you may just find the next weak spot that was not upgraded.
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