legacycentral bbs

I've got a 90 auto with almost 160k miles. It's been goin through some odd things lately, I've had it for just over a year now, bought at an auction in Modesto. I havent been taking good care of it thats for sure, so this probably could have all been prevented. At anyrate, when I go driving around fora while midday and stop at a store or something for 5-10 mins, sometimes the car will start back up no prob, but when I shift to reverse it dies. Or I can get in reverse and back out but once I go into drive it dies, or I can go in reverse then drive and get out into the street get up to a good speed and once its ready to shift into 3rd it starts to jerk around? I dunno how to explain it but it feels asthough it loses power and most of the time does and just dies in the middle of the street. If I pump the gas a few times it usually gets back power or whatever and will drive normally. I only really notice this when it is hot outside, like above 85-90F It didn't happen in the winter and didnt happen last summer. If it's night or pretty cool out it never happens. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do or where I shold look. I'm sure you'll probably need more info so just ask.

might be that the torque converter is not unlocking properly....

alrighty, how should i go about testing that? Also could that cause the left front and rear tires to have slow leaks, i remember reading that the same side tires had soemthign to do with each orther or soemthing like that. Or could this cause really rough shifts between 2nd and 3rd gear? The reason i ask that is sometimes it doesnt go into 3rd right away (only done this 3 times that i know of) It feels like its goingto shift then sort of stops then revs again liek its going to shift then stops again does that like 5-6 times then it finally gets in gear.

Sorry if that made no sense but thank you for helping.

So what should I do about the torque converter and how can I be sure this is causing the problem. Also here lately I've been noticing the smell of gas more often while its idling in the garage. Could a leak or whatever be causing the funny driving?

Also I decided to pay really close attention to my tranny today. From a stop with less than half throttle it shifts up to second, then to third. After a few seconds or a set distance(this part is wierd, you can kinda feel when its going to happen) it downshifts, or so it feels, the rpms go back to about where second is but it doesnt have the same power or sound as when it was in second. After some time goes by or I left off the gas it shifts up again. I rarely can even feel it shift into fourth. Is this normal?