97 GP GT Transmission problem

Hello people,

Today I was driving normally until I came to a stop at a red light; after it changed to green and I started to accelerate, the engine slipped for about a second and it harshly went into gear (like shifting from N to P while stepping on the throttle). I knew something was wrong so I kept driving until I was able to find a spot to park; while trying to parallel park it did the same thing while backing up into the spot, I had to try revving it up several times until it finally slammed into gear and it started to move.

I checked the fluid level, it was fine, no burnt smell; last complete fluid exchange was 4k miles ago (new filter was also installed, all done by me) and, back then, the pan looked normal with no big chunks or metallic particles in the fluid.

After I resumed driving, it was lacking power and would take a lot to shift from 1st to 2nd; when shifting into 3rd gear it was slipping, I couldn't tell if 3rd is completely gone OR it just taking long to engage (it would catch up as I was loosing speed, not sure if it was downshifting into 2nd or actually 3rd gear).

I had to limp it home by manually shifting as that seemed to help more rather than using D; maybe just a placebo effect?.

Thinking that it might be an engine problem, I decided to disconnect the MAF
and see if anything would improve, but it didn't.

Not sure what else to check, I know my way around engines but, other than fluid replacements, I'm in the darkness when it comes to transmissions.

Has this thing gone down the toilet or is there something else I could check? I plan to check resistance across the solenoids tomorrow.

Thanks in advance for any insight,

Oscar.

Sounds like a bad tranny for sure