I have a 96, 318 Dakota 4wd. Been a fantastic truck though the body is sure going to Hell. I've had it coming up on 8 years.

I don't drive it much anymore but the proverbial dump run, when I have to go mowing, and occasionally to work (70 miles round trip) I drive the shyt out of it daily in the winter, though.
Got it with a dead trans at 170k, I rebuilt it and it's been fine til yesterday. Now has 248k. I thought I'd noticed some weirdness the last couple of times I drove it off my driveway, but definitely yesterday on way home from work.
The past couple of weeks I have just used it to pull a utility trailer in n out of my garage and over to the other side of my 2 car wide driveway so I can get to my lift when needed. (Trailers full of stuff that would be even more inconvenient for me to unload at the moment, nother story) easier to leave what I have on the trailer "on wheels" so i can move outta the way when needed.
My 12 has a bed load at the moment as well, got home late and it was easier to jump in the 96 and head to work instead.

Anyway back to my issue. It is winding out when it shifts, and hitting a little hard. Even if I lift my foot off the gas it won't shift til 2800-3000. In town cruising about 35, instead of hitting 3rd it'll scream along in 2nd if I don't let it hit 3000 rpm. It will hit all 4, and OD does seem to work at the speeds it normally does, BUT no matter how easy I am on the throttle it won't upshift until 3000 from 1-2 and 2-3. I don't seem to have to wind it out that far to get 4th, which has been hitting hard more often than not even before the delayed shifts started. Which was for the most part on the way home from work, and it did it every time I had to stop and take off again.
The fluid looks as red as does fresh fluid off the shelf, and is full. I can't say how long since I've had to add fluid probably last summer some time even though pan is continually wet/ damp, even though I clean it off every oil change. It's not leaking bad enough to leave spots in the driveway.
There is no check engine light, which I would expect being as how this truck is OBD2.

I'm thinking (hoping) this is no more serious than a governor solenoid what does the moparts trans guru crowd think? I don't think I'm gonna drop it and overhaul it again at this point, if that's the case this truck may unfortunately be done again because of the body condition.

Output speed sensor, left rear side of the trans case. Twenty dollar part, 10 minutes to change out. Check the wires to it though...

Yep, what he said. That little part tells the computer what speed the truck is moving. its getting old, and isn't telling the computer the truth. Checking the wiring is another good call. The wiring on these things tend to get corrosion in them pretty bad.

Forgot about that sensor.call it CRS maybe.....
I don't remember which one of my Dakotas it happened to (think it was my 99) but I remember on one of them something got kicked up off the road and snapped one of those off. And I forget how that one acted, but I DO remember it threw a light on the dash when it happened. Now that you guys mention it I gotta go look.,... Might still have a couple of those in the garage.

Check to see if the return spring that pulls the kickdown lever forward broke. It can easily be seen by crawling under the truck. It goes from the kickdown lever to a bracket bolted on the the ear of the bellhousing area of the case. If it is still there, make sure it is pulling that lever all the way forward.

pretty sure I got this one solved. I put an output sensor in and it seemed "better". sometimes.
but I got to looking at the kickdown lever. The spring is intact, but it wasnlt always springing back, it was "hanging" a bit. so i found another of those springs on another trans I have here and added it to the existing one. Took it for a pretty good ride afterwards. probably sticky in the valve body im guessing, from not being driven so much lately.....
Much better. the truck's 27 yo and real close to 1/4 million miles.... Im hoping for "only" 20k more so that I can say that I put 100k on it myself.... but Im gonna run it for all I possibly can while I look for a "younger" twin, I want another 92-96 318 dakota 4wd, that's not showing its age quite as bad.....
I've forgotten alot about these transmissions since I don't see them much any more.

now to dig into the 46RE in my wife's Durango.... somehow I'm thinking I won't be so lucky on that one.... I have a post on that one here, as well.....
but with this one fixed I'm back up to 2 running, 4 wheeled vehicles out of the 3 that I have licensed and insured.... sounds like the weather will be kinda dicey for the ride to work tomorrow if I would have had to take the sportster/
rumor has it maybe golf ball to tennis ball sized hail... yikes. was nice on the way home today but c c c cold on the way in this morning.....