By newbie 2 cents yet again, Not sure about all of your symptoms as I have yet to experience most of those.
But I think replacing your TSS with a new (and improved) one would be a good idea. It might just solve your problem, or most of them.
Personal experience - Owned this car (95 Contour) for about 5 years and about a week ago I noticed it shifting REALLY hard, particularly between 1-2, 2-3 and 3-4 a little rough but not terribly jarring. The TSS on my CD4E is factory OEM as far as I know, ie: 9 Years old. Rather than go to a Transmission shop and let them decide a thousand dollars or more would fix my problem, I thought i'd at least try to fix it myself.
Long story short, searched CEG, read a lot, called local ford parts place and ordered a new TSS. Took them 1 day to get it and thankfully it came with a new bolt for the new design. Pulled the old one out (Drivers side wheel at a hard left, removed splashguard, wd-40 and some pulling by hand) and put the new one in it's place after lubing the o-ring with transmission fluid. Reset the computer.
Good news - It shifts like I've never had it shift before in memory. Smooth enough that you can barely feel the shift between any of the gears, I'm happy, real happy - Thanks again CEG.
Bad news - I wish I had done this a long time ago, although it always shifted as well as I thought it should, I think that having the old TSS in for so long could have been causing unneccesarily hard shifting for the past few years that could ultimately lead to a shorter CD4E lifetime.
New TSS is 30$ and 15 minutes worth of labor is all goes well - Much gooder than having a transmission guy tell you the only thing he can do for you is a rebuild with you covering the tab. Try it, worse case scenario you'll have a new TSS to put in your rebuild/reman in the near future.
P.S. Anyone else who read this, I noticed that both my driver and passenger lower wheel well splash guards are no longer there. I thought I at least had the drivers side one a few weeks ago, I guess the fell out. Question is are these terribly important? I realize splashing water on hot metal can lead to cracking, but do any of you drive around without these for awhile with no ill effects?
