Thanks for the great tips. That's the sort of info I was looking for. To answer 2 questions, the fluid is still light brown even after putting in 3/4 of a gallon of fresh fluid. As I recall, the 2nd gear problem persisted even after I manually shifted through the gears with the solenoids disconnected. NEW INFO. Today I went to where the car is stored and noticed I left the ignition o which drained the battery. I put in a fully charged battery. Before I drove it I took out fuses #1 and #2 which control the headlights. I didn't want the battery to drain too fast. Lo and behold, I drove the car for 45 minutes without the tranny slipping! It went right through the gears. I took it to a second Autozone where they did another alternator test with the car fully warmed up. No problem with the alternator or battery. The whole time I drove the car no codes or battery light came on. The dash was clear. Now the bad news. I drove it another 10 minutes and the trans started slipping again! At the same time I heard a loud buzzing under the dash. I reached under and felt a connector mounted on the steering column vibrating. I don't know what it is because I don't have a '96 shop manual. I decided to turn the headlight switch on (I was trying anything) and the buzzing stopped. If I put the marker lights on only it started buzzing again. I kept the switch turned on and drove a few more miles with the trans acting up like it did before. I then plugged the 2 fuses back in. Fuse #2 sparked when I put it back. Fuse #1 didn't. The buzzing was now gone in all modes. I drove 15 miles home and no codes or warning lights lit on the dash. When I was 2 miles from home the trans was really acting up. I had a hard time keeping it in ANY gear from a dead stop. Once I got it to 3rd and stayed over 20 mph I didn't have any slipping problems. When I got home I checked the battery and it was fully charged ater driving 35 miles so whatever was draining the battery stopped. I will repeat the manual shift test with the connector seperated tomorrow. I have a feeling it's an internal trans problem and that the thinning out of the tranny fluid after it gets hot is causing the shifting problem. Possibly not enough internal pressure for the weak seals. Just guessing. One important question, please. Is it best to disconnect the solenoids and leave it in the 3rd gear default mode while I try to solve this problem? I was told that tranny slipping is what burns up the trans. I'm guessing the 3rd gear only mode will cause less damage than the constant slipping even though the car has to start from a complete stop in 3rd gear. Thanks very much!