We have an old '87 Maxima, automatic transmission.  We start the car.
It runs reasonably well.  Upon putting it into gear, either
drive or reverse, the car lurches briefly, then the engine immediately
dies.

We suspected the converter lock-up solenoid was not working.  Ran some
"click" tests and were mostly unable to hear any clicks
(except once, weakly).  This lock up solenoid has been giving symptoms
of going bad for some time.... lurching at stop lights, etc.

Does anyone have any experience, recommendations with the lock-up
solenoid?  Just some moral support would be helpful, as we intend
to dig into the tranny and see what's going on with it.  Anyway to
bypass it, like tinkering with the valve body or something?  The
cheeseball solenoid itself is over $100 dollars!