Having balky shifting issues with my 1977 242DL. Background first:

-Pretty sure the transmission is an AW55 3-speed. Has a little over 100K miles on it but the car was off the road outside and no-operative from late 1999 until 2008 or so. Since starting the resto it's only driven between garage bays.

-I towed the car to/from body shop about 10 miles away twice with a rig that had all four wheels on the ground. Each time I made sure to have the transmission selector set to "N." Top speed while towing was about 50mph, but most of the trip was in the 30-40Mph range.

Symptoms:

-When I first got the car running again the tranny switched into R and D without any issues

-After towing it back from the body shop the second time I noticed a sizable lag when selecting "R;" it took a few seconds before the gear engaged and the car started moving.

-Today I pulled it out of the garage and noticed that it was even balkier going into "R" and it did the same thing now in "D," which is new. It seemed to shift into gear more quickly/readily when I goosed the gas pedal a bit.

Questions:

-What are the likely causes? Did I possibly hose the unit by towing it even though it was in "N?" Where should I focus my attention in trying to fix this?

-Also, my plan was to enjoy the car on the road this summer and then do a swap to an 82 vintage 4-speed with OD (already have the donor car in my barn). I don't really want to have to do the transmission swap yet....should I amend my plans??

If interested, photos of car at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11865416@N06/6928609237/in/set-72157628345519209