90 transport won't downshift after its warm

i've got a 1990 pontiac transport. it runs very nicely for the first

15-20 minutes. after that period, it won't downshift when coming to a red light (can't we just do away with red lights?). when braking for the light, i can feel that it's not going to down shift, so i put it into neutral, and it idles fine at the light. i put it back into drive and have to floor it hard while shifting it to keep it from stalling out because it's in a high gear. if i leave it sit for a while it seems to be ok again for another 15-20 minutes.

i haven't taken it anywhere to have it looked over, and really dread taking it to a trans shop to see if that's it. a couple of potentially unrelated points. the van doesn't like to start when its wet outside. just after or during a good rain. sometimes i notice a gas smell from under the hood. when it's wet outside, i can put a hair dryer under the hood and eventually after a while it'll start. still has the downshift problem though.

any ideas on why this van might not be downshifting properly? hopefully some electronic parts, or somesuch outside of the transmission?

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Have you ever changed the tranny fluid and filter? How many miles are on it?

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FBR

it has about 180k miles. i had the tranny fluid and filter changed 5k -

10k miles ago.
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mark

your torque converter clutch solenoid is shot, replace it or have it replaced....to be sure it is the TCC solenoid you can unplug it, it should be on your transmission.

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WHO??

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