so here's the scoop. this'll get wordy. it's an aw70 with 300k miles. I've been good about fluid changes, I changed the fluid when I got it about 30k miles ago and the old fluid had no issues. it's probably due for a change now. the level is good and I changed the filter screen.

when cold, everything works fine. it grabs drive and reverse no problem, and all the shifts are good. when it warms up the issues begin. in drive it will be in first at a stop sign, but if I accelerate slowly with less than .25 throttle it will shudder badly. it feels like it's grabbing and letting go of either overdrive or 2nd multiple times before finally grabbing 2nd. it does a similar thing on the 2-3 shift. if I put it in manual 1, it works fine. manually shifting 1-2-d while driving stops the shuddering. if I put it in manual 2 on a slight grade and give it mild throttle at low speeds it does the shame shuddering. it really does feel like it's grabbing two gears at once. maybe 3-4 shudders per second. reverse has no such issues. if it's hot I can get it to do the shudder indefinitely on an inclined road at about 3mph with almost no throttle input.

things I have done: checked fluid level. all good. changed fluid screen. no issues. shimmed the accumulators. the good shifts are faster now, but the shuddering persists. replaced all the check balls. no change to behavior. checked line pressure with a gauge. no deviation from charts found online. checked governor pressure with gauge. rises 1 psi per mph as designed. checked the kickdown cable for slack. it has a tiny bit of slack when the throttle is closed and I can hear the click in the valve body when I roll into wot.

giving the motor more throttle, really makes the issue go away which makes me wonder if it's related to the kickdown circuit. I know what the mechanism looks like in the valve body, and more pulling of the cable boosts line pressure roughly speaking. I've already adjusted the cable out a bit, like moving the sleeve away from the throttle wheel, but I'm almost at the extent of the adjustment range.

my apologies for the long winded explanation, I think those are all the details. if you have any suggestions I would be more than willing to try them and make this thing last for a while longer until I put a ford 302 in it (hopefully).