I need some help with a 1997 Chevrolet Express Van 1500. The van had been running great all summer long. Late in the fall the van started having trouble accelerating. When I step on the gas peddle you can hear the engine rev up but when I take my foot off the break and accelerate the van doesn’t move very fast. The van sounds like it wants to change gears but to do that I had to really go fast which isn’t good for the van. I am thinking that there is a problem with the transmission. I had searched this website for transmission problems and found a couple but I don’t know if they address the problem with my van. Am I having with the screens in the transmission being plugged or could it be something else? I would appreciate any help.

For the past few years I have had uneven wear on the front driver side brake pads and am not able to figure out why it is happening. The outer pad seems to wear much faster than the inner one and both show uneven wear (I believe the top is more worn than the bottom on the inner one). Passenger side is fine. Both pins move freely - no sign of binding. Can a faulty caliper cause this. Rotor looks fine and I used a dial gauge to looks for any problems - nothing obvious.