Car trouble: I think my transmission gave up the ghost

[Harmonix]

I think it's the end of the line for my humble 92 accord lx automatic. It's had transmission problems, hard/rough shifting since my parents bought it.

2 days ago I drove it ~450 miles from L.a to Davis, ca and about 10 blocks away from my apt going down then up the only dip in Davis I stepped on the gas and there was nothing. The engine just revved. I let go of the gas and let my momentum carry me to the stop light. When the light turned green I stepped on it and the car moved normally for about about 2-3 blocks shifting thru all 4 gears. I then slowed down for a yeild sign and i'm guessing I was in 2nd gear at this point and stepped on it. The engine revved. I took my foot off the gas and moved transmission to lock it into d3 while I was still coasting. The car drove fine again until I stopped at a signal. This time I stepped on the gas and I went thru gears 1 and 2 then just had the engine rev high. When I let the rpm's drop to 2ish thousand RPMS the car drove ok, but would not shift up out of 2nd gear. At this point I was 2 blocks from home and just locked it into d2 and limped my way home.

After about 2 hours I checked the oil and transmission fluid then drove the car for 10 minutes on streets and on the freeway. It drove perfectly fine, not a single hint at a problem.

The next day I took it out for a trip and it drove fine until I got onto a downhill freeway onramp. I was probably going about 40 and accelerating when the engine just started revving. I let go of the gas then tried to reapply and got up to about 60 before the engine started just revving again. At this point I pulled over, stopped then tried again to accelerate. Again I got to 2nd gear before it started revving. I pulled over again and stopped, shut off the engine and waited about 30 seconds. Restarted the engine and the car drove normally. I got off the freeway and headed home. As I was driving home the car started revving again. I think it was just after a turn. A block from my house the car completely stopped taking orders. I coasted to a stop and while still in d4 revved the engine as if it was completely in neutral. I turned off the engine and restarted it immediately, and again it drove like normal.

I'm confused as hell about these symptoms. I don't see how a mechanical problem can be intermittant in a transmission. But I admit I don't understand them that well.

When moving the shifter in an automatic transmission does it move something mechanical or does it simply tell a computer to move the transmission's gears? I've had problems in the past with a sensor in my transmission shifter.(Became extremely difficult move the shift lever, usually after a very long drive, and another problem which still persists where I can push the shift lever past park to a point where none of my gear dash lights will be lit. When this happens I can't remove my keys from the ignition. I solve it by just tapping the lever back until "P" is lit up.

I'm hoping it's a somewhat minor electrical problem, but I doubt it.

Is my car dead?

[Necros]

I'm not an expert, but the planetary gears in an auto tansmission do all the work and the torque converter does all the interfacing with the flywheel/flexplate of the engine. So, you're going to end up dealing with one of those two parts. Replacing the gearset means a new transmission. Replacing the torque converter is cheaper and a lesser deal, I think.

But a question, first. Have you checked your automatic transmission fluid? I would think a lack of tranny fluid could cause slippage in the torque converter.

Of course, I'm mostly talking out of my ass, here. I'm mostly a manual guy. Hopefully GaryT will stop buy to help.