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I'm working on my DD, an '86 F150 that has an (older) carbed 302 with a c6. Neither is original to the truck. The tranny has been very soft in shifting 1-2 when warmed up, (around 15mph) and the exhaust tone changes from "truck rumbling" to "high revs in neutral". I usually have to let off the throttle to get it to shift to 2.
I changed the filter and fluid (including the torque converter fluid) today, replacing with new Dex/merc. No change.
Also, reverse has a difficult time moving the truck against any load, from backing up in dirt to backing up an inclined driveway to backing up my home maintenance ramps.
Check the tranny fluid to see if its low, brown, or burnt smelling. If the fluid is ok, next thing to check would be the vacuum modulator on the side of the tranny.