Originally Posted by calypso

Thanks for the responses guys. I took the car out again today and I found:

The transmission seems to shift way to soon when is cold and as a result the car strruggles in too high a gear. Once the engine was up to temperature it appears to work fine.

I have checked the oil level in the tranny and it was just above the high mark when cold and way above when hot. It looks like somebody has overfilled it.

I put the car on some ramps and with the engine running I had a look underneath. The leak is very slow (a drop every few minutes) and it appears to come form the mesh that covers the torque convertor. Does this point towards the transmission front seal?

I had a look at the vacuum lines. Gosh! it looks quite complicated, not sure where to start.

The car has a new battery but after sitting around for five days it is gone flat. I jumped with my other car and it started fine, drove for 20 minutes and now it starts fine. I guess it must have a short somewhere that slowly drains the battery. Any likely culprits?

The good news is that there is absolutely no rust, the subframe looks almost brand new, the bushes are pretty good as well.

Thanks for the responses so far, I will be very grateful for any further advice. I would like to stick with the transmission for the moment as it is still usable. I will try to change the oil and filter myself and may use some leak stop type fluid. It has to be worth $100 as a first step.