The transmission in your car is a very robust, solid, durable design. They rarely need significant service before 250-300,000 miles. My '86 245 has 270,000 miles and shifts fine except when the temp drops well below freezing, and then the final shift is delayed about 30 seconds the first time in the morning.
On my car, the only major repairs I've done to the tranny are a new shift cable and a rear bushing and seal -- and these fall into the category of "routine maintenance" for a car with around 150-200,000 miles.
As the other posters have said, the cable adjustment is among the simplest adjustments on your car. The "kickdown" cable tells the transmission how far you're pushing the throttle -- or how hard you're accelerating -- so the tranny knows whether to delay shifting for stronger acceleration, such as climbing a hill under load. The kickdown cable also tells the tranny when you've floored the gas, so it knows to "kickdown" one gear for passing.
Tell your mechanic -- on rare occasions, the cable can become stuck in the "out" position (for several distinct reasons), which will always cause high, hard, delayed shifts (happened to my '86).
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Don Foster (near Cape Cod, MA)
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