My 1997 Plymouth Grand Voyager won't kick into the passing gear.

Well guys, the solution to the problem turned out to be $68.00 for the labor and it actually was a frozen horizontal linkage on the back of the top of the transmission that had rusted over time and was not easy to spot from the front. Seeing as this was an Ohio vehicle, the salt they use in the winters up there tends to rust a lot of undercarriage parts and components. I had oiled up all of the linkages(at least that were visible from the top looking down onto the tranny but ad anyone who owns a Chrysler or Dodge or Plymouth minivan knows, it is not easy at all to get to the heart of the problem when the problem is in such cramped quarters. These vans are a pain to replace the rear sparkplugs on and those who've replaced the rear sparkplugs on their V-6 Grand Voyagers know what I'm talking about.The mechanic hoped it wasn't an internal transmission problem and I'm grateful to the mech. for getting right to the source of the problem without charging me to unnecessarily rebuild the transmission. The van shifts into 3rd(passing gear) without a sweat now. Not having to step down on a rigid gas pedal either like I used to have to do instills me with confidence too when I need that passing power merging onto an interstate with 18-wheelers bearing down on me. So the moral of the story is that you always want to check, repair, and/or adjust the little things (first) before you throw all kinds of money into major repairs which you don't even need. Always helps big time to have an honest mechanic as well. Good luck to all of you out there who might have any similar problems like this.