car won't go into 2nd gear with overdrive engaged

Looking at your Stealth’s problem it’s pretty clear that, while you may not like hearing this, that the torque converter is failing over. Since it most likely is the trouble-spot, your only move is to replace it at a cost of about $1,900 without labor.

You can be pretty certain the problem isn’t with the solenoids because your vehicle does go into gear, albeit not easily, but it still does. If the solenoids were shot, then you’d lose the gears in question and it really wouldn’t shift at all.

It is possible that the clutches and their related bands are shot but I don’t think this is the case because your Steath’s tranny is still going into first, second and other gears, again, a bit stiffly, but it is doing it.

And, yes, it could be the valve body. A check valve may have failed and the transmission fluid isn’t reaching the right spot so you could be losing your tranmission here.

Given the major probability and the other possibilities, it makes sense to replace the transmission. A good rebuilt will cost you about $2,300 or so, however, you’ll be adding in another $800 of labor on top since the transmission replacement is rated as an eight-hour job in the labor guides. The total cost should be about $3,200.

I know you probably wanted to hear that you could simply swap out the solenoids or some other easy fix like changing the transmission fluid. However, that’s not the case. Instead, you are looking at replacing the tranny with a rebuilt.

Let me know what happens, I am interested.