2000 4runner limited with 180k miles. I've done a drain & fill every 30k miles on it. Fluid has always come out nice and red, never burned. Never milkshaked.

I work in the hills of rural WA and have been taking the 4runner into work more and more recently. It has started behaving weirdly when downshifting while going uphill. When it downshifts into 1 to go up a steep hill, there's a hesitation with no shift and no power for a moment, then what feels like a pop, and then it engages the gear and is fine. I'm getting no codes from the OBDII port, and I did new spark plugs and wires 35k miles ago.

I've also attached a picture of my line pressure ("kickdown" as it's referred to on here) cable from the throttle body. The little nub is inside of the rubber boot. I've moved it outside of the boot before and the shifts are pretty rough so I moved it back inside where it was before I started messing with it.

Has anyone experienced this before? What should I explore doing next?

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Just a guess. Could be the lockup solonoid not functioning correctly.

Just curious, but do you run a ScanGauge or any type of tool that reads transmission fluid temps? Do you run an external trans cooler?

I replaced my radiator with a new OEM one, but don't have an external cooler. I do have an OBDII reader that can read out the trans temp. It never goes above 200, even under load. Typically 180-200 F range.

That's good you did the radiator replacement. 200 is pretty warm I'd say, but you mentioned going up and down hills in Washington. I'd consider throwing in an external transmission cooler. You have a few options. Hayden, B&M, etc. You could run the B&M 70268 or the 70264 (larger than the 68) and see if maybe lowering the overall temps of the fluid has any type of affect on it overall.

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Having used the B&M 68 I'd opt with the 64 I'm shopping last night price $170 plus.

Agreed. Funny you say this, because today my temps got up to about 170. Which is fine but it was definitely warmer out than it has been all year. If I recall correctly I think I only paid about $80 for mine, but that was in 2016. Have been rocking it ever since...

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You came out alright with 2016 price I paid that in 09 slid on the roof in 18.
68 limits showed slow 4lo 1st gear stuff, new truck new stuff.