Help! Weird transmission issue 1997 Lincoln town car cartier

[MBertrand98]

Hey everybody its been a little while since ive been on the forum but Im having a pretty frustrating issue with my transmission. Yesterday I was driving home from work, while I was stopped at a light, and as it turned green, I noticed my transmission suddenly wouldn't shift into second. Its about a 4 mile journey at that point where it would rarely shift into second which I couldn't find any kind of pattern on how it was getting into second. The transmission showed absolutely no signs of going out, no slipping, no hard shifts, nothing. It just happened all of a sudden. Trans fluid looks clean and appears to be at proper level. Could this be some kind of solenoid? From what I understand theres a couple on this car? Thanks- PS. The car has almost 180,000 miles but again, trans showed no clues of quitting

 

[slowmkviii]

So will it go into 3rd or od?
What happens if you put it in 2nd manually from a stop?

 

[MBertrand98]

Sorry for my delayed response, So if im in park and shift it immediately into "2nd", it goes into gear no problem and can be driven like that, while im driving in "2nd" i can shift it into "Drive" and it goes into third no problem, but when I go from "1st" to "2nd" while driving it takes forever to shift if it does. It down shifts no problem in drive, at none of these times does it shift ruff or anything, I am stumped

 

[slowmkviii]

My best guess is (if it doesn't need a rebuild) the mlps could be failing