Auto question

[Street Sleeper]

I have an EF 94 4.0 auto with 190k on the clock.
Just lately the auto has been behaving a bit strange.
Sometimes (only sometimes) it doesn't seem to matter what gear I lock it in (eg 2nd) it just keeps running up the gears like its in Drive.
At first I thought no problem 'it's just a linkage problem' cause it was going into 4th when I had it locked in 3rd.
But today I dropped back to second (at about 55kmh) and it goes no where (stays in 3rd) and continues on rolling along. I thought thats strange so I come to a roundabout and at a full stop I put it in 1st to see if would hold it. It didn't, it ran all the way back up to 4th as I accelarated while still in the "1" position.So when I stopped at a stop sign I ran it all the way up the rail to the Park position and then back into 1st and only then did the transmission start acting as it is supposed to.
Now apart from the auto doing this, it is fine. It still changes gears smoothly and downshifts when it gets a boot full. I'm thinking it might have something to do with electrics of the system. I know that they will not change down if you going "too fast" but this is not the problem.
I did disconnect the battery about a week ago and I know they take time to learn where they are again, but nothing like this. I followed the workshop manual on how to make the auto learn its settings after changing the battery like I have done previously.
Any ideas on the what the problem might be will be appreciated.