[Shotimes] OT help for friend with Maxima

[Donald Mallinson]

A good friend of mine has a 19 year old son with a 1994 
Maxima.  V6 automatic.

about 125,000 miles.

I have tried getting to the Maxima lists/forums, but they 
must all be dead or stupid because they don't respond.

Hoping some of you can help.

He says the car, after warming up, going about 50 mph, 
typically getting on an interstate on-ramp trying to gain 
speed, but not asking the tranny to downshift, that the car 
just starts bucking and making noise, and it won't gain 
speed.  You can floor it and it will downshift and come out 
of it.

In a test drive, the problem would not show up for me.

Car seems to run fine otherwise.

Tranny is overfilled by maybe a pint.  Had a recent tranny 
flush/fill.  No other work recently.

A couple of mechanic friends think it is the tranny, but I 
think it sounds like ignition since low rpm, fairly high 
throttle position is a high stress time for ignitions.

Any thoughts?

Sorry about the off-topic, but I promised I would help the 
young man, he is almost a God-son to me.

Don Mallinson