I can give trans-x a shot... can't hurt. I just haven't been able to find a similar problem description during my forum search. Lots of 'flaring', 'slipping', 'early shifts', 'hard shifts', etc. but nothing like what I described in my original post.

-John

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1985 MBZ 300DT
1969 MBZ 220d
1984 MBZ 300TDT
1981 VW Vanagon