1988 Lincoln Town Car gears switching randomly pls help!

Was the shop aware that this concern was why you brought it in?

I'm probably not the best guy here to answer this but, I will take a look and see what I can find on it.

How often has the transmission filter been changed on this?

i tried to get them to test drive it to show them the problem but they wouldn't listen i took it to a school its called haney its a trade school and its a bunch of kids trying to learn about cars beacuse it was cheap
and im on a budget so i don't know if they was aware that was the problem or not

and im not sure if the filter has been changed since ive had it
ive had it for about 2 years

thank you so much for your help

Well as far as the trade school goes, you can teach them an important lesson. Talk to the teacher and explain how their listening skills set you back instead of helping. Communication is so important in this industry, and they didn't listen. They made unwarranted repairs that ultimatley cost you money and time. This is one of the situations that gives the industry a bad reputation...and rightly so. You would be doing them a favor.

Anyways onto your problem. I have seen these trannys go bad from lack of maintenance..maybe this is the case. There were 2 different transmisisons that were put into this car, not sure which on you have. My guess is the 3-4 clutch is pretty well burnt out, which essentially means a rebuild or a used transmission is going to probably be the end result.
You need to get this to someone that is capable of diagnosing this problem.