Well, I've been awaiting the death of my gearbox for the last few weeks.
It started shifting like a pig about 2 months ago, and then about a month ago started playing a weird game, where if I held it flat, it would hit a brick wall at 4000 rpm, and refuse to shift until I backed off.

I adjusted the bands (kinda irritating, but doable in your backyard), which improved the shifts markedly, but failed to correct the 'brick wall' problem.
So, here I was, just waiting for it to die a spectacular death (I wanted to see trans fluid pooled underneath like a pool of blood).

Anyway, while waiting for it to die, I decided to do the usual, couple of thousand k's late Oil change. At the same time, I grabbed a new set of Spark plugs, and dusted off the timing light to have a fiddle.

It all goes well, until it becomes time to check the timing. I put it in diagnostic mode, and have a look. Jesus titty f**k christ, the timing was towards the cerebral palsy side of retarded.
Fix that up, and go for a drive.

The 4000rpm brick wall problem was actually due to timing being so retarded it could not physically rev past it.

A mechanic, that I will not be going back to, had failed to secure the dizzy cap properly, so it must have slowly been retarding itself over time, enough for me too only slightly notice.
Here I was thinking my 300,000km car was getting a bit tired.
Now it feels like a brand newy!

The lesson in all this?
Check your timing kiddies!

yea i had a similar problem after mucknig around with timing makes a huge difference

always nice when things cost less than you thought they would too!

Ain't that the truth!
It really goes to show that sometimes what you think is a big problem can be traced back to something not so big.

Check every possible cause in other words!

thats the best f**k laugh i've had in ages!