95 Legacy Wagon 4EAT problems NA

Here's another (I think trans) problem.

Back story is I bought the wagon 9 months ago. It currently has 175,000 miles. I did NGK plugs/wires, fuel filter, valve cover gaskets, and a good amount of front end work.

The one thing I noticed after buying the wagon is the trans shifted poorly going from 1-2. The RPM's would go up to about 3500 until it would shift into 2nd and that is barely getting on it. Another problem is my steering rack is leaking pretty heavily. Which causes a lot of smoke and steering fluid everywhere.

Last night I was returning from a 4 hour 250 mile trip with 5 guys, the hatch completely filled and the roof rack filled high. On the way to our destination everything went great with the car. But on the way home last night something on the roof flipped up and created a 3 ft tall wind "jam". Sadly we drove like this for 175 miles without realizing it.

I couldnt get the car to go above 65 the entire time. Im not angry because I knew the trans was going to have to be replaced sooner than later. And I knew this trip wasnt great for it.

After trying my best to keep the trans from constantly shifting down and rolling with 4500 rpm's, all of a sudden the car started to "kick" (like it would with someone who isnt good at driving a manual). When it started to kick or jolt, it also lost a lot of power. It wouldnt let me press on the gas or it would just seem like it was bogging down. I obviously had to pull over because i lost the ability to accelerate.

I pulled over and stopped. Turned the key off and sat there. Smoke was pouring out from under the car. (it was dark so I couldnt see how much though).

I then tried to turn the car on again and drive but it would shudder and would roll in idle in drive but if I tried to give it gas it would bog down and stall out.

I did this a few times trying to figure out what it was.

I had gas

Do you all think this is my trans finally gone bad?

I just turned it on this morning. Struggled to turn on but finally did. Idled well until i put it into gear. It then slowly started to die under the load.

That shifting is "normal", mine does that as well.

You might be able to use power steering sealer to fix the leaking power steering.

Sounds like you over heated and might have blown a head gasket.

Well.... Sadly, there is absolutely no straight forwards answer to this problem you're having. It's going to be a mess, as you could have many different problems.

Where was the smoke coming from? Something lost a lot of fluid. Where did it come from?

Can you get a video of a startup?

Either you blew a head gasket or may have destroyed the torque converter on top of an already weak trans...

Or there's more issues underneath.