Lost acceleration 1999 Neon

My 1999 Plymouth Neon with 45000 miles has lost the ability to
accelerate. The gas pedal is now hard to push. It moves freely for the
first inch or so, but offers a lot of resistance for the remainder. If
I force the pedal, it will go however the car will then stick in a
lower gear (usually second) until I pull over some where and shut the
engine off, and restart. The car will generally drive fine, however
under the lower acceleration it takes a while to get up to speed. Also
on deceleration the car will noticably downshift. If I decelerate to
fast the car will be stuck in the higher gear. Upon re-acceleration it
will slam into the lower gear and begin accelerating normally. Any
ideas? Can I please have suggestions? I have taken this to the dealer
and they have been no help. I have also flushed and refilled the Trans
fluid.

Please Help

 

Your problem is mechanical in nature if you're talking about pedals being
hard to push; the trans fluid wouldn't have helped. First place to look is
at the cable that runs from the throttle lever to the transmission; this
is what tells the transmission how far the accelerator is pushed so it can
decide what gear to be in. You'll probably find this cable binding, bent,
crimped or not secured properly. If everything's in order, you have a
problem in the valve body of your transmission.

Find and fix what's binding. Shouldn't be too hard to home in on it. If
the dealer was no help, you didn't want his help anyhow.

DS