<<rpms hold steady - almost as if frozen in place.>>

This one statement leads me to believe that it is NOT trans. related. If it were your trans. I think the RPM would increase in much greater proportion to any speed increase you would experience. My 2 cents worth.

Alll those things are why I'm scratching my head over this. The symptoms act as if the engine has stopped running, but with no loss of power stearing, no dash lights coming on, etc., that would seem to say that it is still running. It would also seem that if it were something like the TPS (similar to the old carb "flat spot") I'd see the RPMs drop off as the speed does.

The mechanic I talked to said that if the tranny threw itself into neutral, the rpms would hold steady (why i don't know) but admitted that if that did happen, I should have at least a short surge in rpms shown, or at least heard...and that doesn't happen. No strange sounds. The drop in speed in the only symptom.

Thanks for any, and all ideas.

Sounds like a long-shot, but has anyone checked for proper operation of your throttle cable from the throttle body all the way back to, and including the linkage at the gas pedal?

I'm wondering if some throttle linkage anomoly isn't causing the throttle plate to disconnect, somehow, dropping the throttle plate closed to idle position. That situation might cause your RPM to remain constant, but low enough that you decellerate. The tach would tend to stay in position until movement of the gas pedal caused things to "hook back up" for normal throttle linkage operation again. Now that I think of it, transmission shifing out of drive and into neutral momentarily might give the symptoms you describe.

Time permitting, I'm going to try to tackle the intermediate shaft today. While I'm poking around there, I'll check that out too. It would seem the boost would stay steady to0, but I'm giving every idea a shot.

Thinking back to when this first started there was what could best be described as a whine or hum at virtually any speed. The sound remained as a constant tone that I thought was the right rear wheel bearing. It sounded different from what I've heard when front bearings have gotten noisy. I've replaced that bearing and the sound has not returned...but thought I'd throw it out there anyway just in case it was somehow related, and someone has had a similar sound with transmission or other problems. Thanks again for the ideas.

Just an update. Stopped by the tranny shop today. He did a full scan, tranny and engine, and found no problems. All cables to the throttle are ok too. Guess I just wait for it to get worse, or go away...hopefully, the latter.

The car finally threw a code today - P0134 for the oxygen sensor. I had replaced that with a new Borg/Warner sensor a few months back. I got it replaced under warranty, so we'll see if that makes any difference.