How about the condition of the fluid?
I don't know for sure about this car, but on my Escort when you move the shifter, it's really pulling or pushing on something that looks like a bicycle cable, which operates a lever on the transmission. Can you verify that's working on your Alero, if applicable. Things like defective mounts or brackets can interfere with this.
Also, if there a way to check the transmission fluid pressure, do that. You could easily have a transmission oil pressure problem. I know on my Escort, the transmission oil pump is mounted on the side of the transmission and is easy to get to once you remove a tire and the plastic wheel well cover. I show the transmission oil pump for my Escort here:
http://www.feoa.net/threads/atratb03...ressure.61690/
If you have low transmission oil pressure at idle, your car is going nowhere.
I know at 200K you probably think it's worn out, because it probably is, but for what it costs to do what I suggest, it's at least worth doing for educational purposes. If you have a factory service manual (and you should, they are cheap used off of eBay) it should tell you how to do transmission tests. I have 224K miles on my 1995 Ford Escorts original automatic transmission (I bought the car new) and from what I can tell, a lot of people throw away a transmission that needs a simple repair because they for some reason don't want to repair their automatic transmission, but a lot of the time a simple fix, like this one can make your transmission work again, for years:
http://www.feoa.net/threads/how-to-r...tx-1991.82837/
Read the above thread for inspiration!
Linear Mode
