delayed engagement in first and reverse especially on an incline. once in second there is no proplem all the way thru to overdrive

Could b a clogged transmission filter or low/burned fluid .check the fluid on the ddipstick and if its brown and smells burnt its time to change it

I have already dropped the pan,changed the filter.cleaned,new fluid.Fluid was not brown nor black. still have delayed engagement

After a lot of research I found a ATSG on line for my tranny - Free. I read it and solved the problem. I was ready to buy a service manual when I stumbled across the manual - again I can now tear it down ( which wasn't needed) and all the info was out there in cyber- space;just took a lot of looking. Just thought I'd up-date the question status. I knew ; by the vagueness of their answers, that the mechanics I went to were not up to diagnosing a tranny problem from examining the symptoms.