Ford Repair: Does This Mean Impending Tranny Failure?, 1993 mercury tracer, pan gasket

Question
Hi Erik,
I own a 1993 Mercury Tracer,4 cyl.,1.9L.
Milage:unknown.(odometer says 37,000 so not sure whether it is 137,000 or 237,000.)
I've had this car for 3 months and the engine seems to be in great shape;it is reliable and uses only half quart of oil every 3,000 miles.
However I am concerned about the transmission.
Ocassionaily when I am in the 50 to 55 mph range I can feel a "shudder" but it disappears after a few minutes. RPM seems normal;it reads 3,000 at 55 mph.
Also,sometimes when I am going up a steep hill,it seems to lose power til I reach the top then it quickly picks up speed then.But I can avoid that by extra acceleration just before I attempt to go up the hill.
The transmission fluid was brown so I had my mechanic to change it along with the filter and pan gasket.But it made only a slight improvement.
The problem seems to occur only when I am going uphill;I can get up to 70 mph quickly on a level road.
Does all this mean the transmission is going bad?
Or what else could be causing this?
It has been doing this for 2 months now,it is not getting worse since then.I am very gentle with the car and don't know what caused the problem to initiate and when the transmission was serviced before I had.By the way,the tranny does not make any noises.
Thank you for your help.  

Answer
Hello and thanks for the question...I'll try to help.
What I would suggest is that you have a transmission shop test drive the vehicle and give you their opinion. It sounds like tore converter shudder, but with out driving the car myself, it's difficult to say. Also, it wouldn't hurt to have the transmission serviced.
Erik