the rest of the story is as follows..

bought the car, tech in the shop wanted to buy car badly. Tech had removed the conductor plate and fluid. Bought a conductor plate... filled the trans, car shifted well, then ...drove 100 miles out of town...pulled off I40, when i did...trans fluid leaked out of the front somewhere (near the exhaust crossover?) , then the trans would not pull at all in any gear...

Towed it back home...trans acted fine...with a slight flare in the 2-3 shift.

drove on the expressway ...did it again..

trans is slightly over filled per the mb dipstick.. could this be the culprit?