Today I was cruising in the car and I came to a stop sign after about five minutes, the car felt like it went into neutral. I revved it a little and it came back in. Started for home and had to pull over because it was slipping so bad, shut it off to maybe let it cool. After a minute I started it up, put it in gear, and it felt good, went about a mile and did the same thing. Reverse was gone too. This car hasn't been on the road in ten years, but all of the shifts feel solid. Is it common for the filters to plug up and lose line pressure? Has anyone had a filter come apart or sludge up from sitting. This is a secondary project car, and I know that if the filter is plugged its probably from internals failing, but if I could get a summer around town out of it I would be pumped. Any thoughts?

Maybe drop the pan and see whats going on?
Whats the dipstick saying?

Sorry, dipstick shows there is fluid within specs, but I didn't compare when the trans was working vs. not. I was happy to make it home. I probably won't get to drop the pan until Wed. night,(work, homework, bla bla) and that was going to be my first plan. I was going to replace the filter, torque the valve body, check the band adjustment and cross my fingers.

My gut feeling is you will find the oil pan full of converter crap which gets sucked up and clogs the filter. let it sit it drops away and allows you to move again.

could be a bad pump or broken pump gears
or
could be low on fluid but my gut tells me torque converter.

Filter plugged with sludge.

Sheldon

Update! Filter was sludged up, and had remnants of a speedo gear that was lunched. Drained, refilled, and threw a pan with a drain plug I had laying around on it, and it shifts great again. I drove it around for about 20 minutes and had no problems. I know I am not out of the woods yet, I will probably drain and refill again after I drive it around for a while. There wasn't any shavings in the pan or filter, but I am still scared of what may be helping to plug the filter. Thanks for the advice!

Put a magnet in the pan...

If you want to do a good flush, follow the forward cooler line to the rad and disconnect it and put a clear hose on it into a bucket. Start the car in neutral and keep adding while it's draining, if you have a clear hose you can see the color of the fluid. Flushed!