<VV> RE: PG Tranny question

[Norman C. Witte]

Thanks, Keith and John, for your replies.  I was leaving the office so I
didn't have time to go into more detail, but here's what I have going.
(This is on my convertible.)

If you shift into reverse or park, the car will go in with a bang.  In gear
the car will stall if you hold the brake and it runs really rough until
about the time it is shifting into second. Every now and then it will bang
into second.

I think I have two things going on.  The first item, the hard shift, could
be the vac modulator or crap in the torque converter as Keith and John
suggest, or something else in the trans.  The rough running issues are
either related to carburation or ignition, I think. The story here is that
the carbs came with the original motor that I blew up last spring.  The
wires and plugs are who knows how old--I used the plugs that were in this
motor, which I purchased used.  It feels like a cylinder is not firing.  I
checked all the plug wires, and everything seems connected, but I will go
through them again.  I thought tonight I would start by taking the air
cleaner off and using my hand to block each carb and see which side is doing
the work at idle.  I also thought I should sync the carbs, and maybe run
some Gumout through them.  Other steps would include tearing down and
cleaning the carbs, and new plug wires and plugs.

Any more specific suggestions as to what is going on here?

Thanks.

Norm Witte