09 Caravan Shifting issues and shutting off when battery disconnected

Hi, Its been a while. My 09 Caravan is having some serious shifting issues and I think it may be related to the alternator, not slippage, but SLAMMING into gears sometimes, no always. for example, taking my son to school, when it downshifted to first pulling in it threw both of us out of our seats basically. I thought someone hit us. I have read these have issues with harsh shifting but not like this. It does have hard/delayed/ shifts going up most of the time.

Now, ALSO the other day, I was turning around ( pull into driveway and reverse out) and gently accelerated forward like normal, maybe to 5mph I let off the gas, and the van kept accelerating, i put it in neutral, and the engine revved up to 4200rpm and sat there until I restarted the engine. Hitting the gas pedal did nothing but ADD to the rpm, not reduce it.

I’ve checked the reading from the pedal with a scanner, and its a smooth transition from 3.9 to 91 percent, one spot shows 0.00 for a split second, but its random not in one specific spot. the scan tool itself shows the van charging at 14.5-14.6V, if I rev at all, it goes up to 15V.

Now, I thought I would disconnect the battery to maybe reset the PCM. I Also wanted to check the alternator so i did this with it running. The van kept resetting the interior lights, as if i were turning the ignition on and off, until it died 10 seconds later. Did this again, and it died almost immediatly. However, It still shows a 14.5-15V charging voltage when connected. When the van idles ( battery connected) I get flickering, and when accelerating there is a clear difference in the light brightness, and the fan blower motor. When I did this test, nothing was on other than the ignition.

I have read when an alternator fails, it can do so in many ways. One being it leaking bits of AC current into the system, which is what causes the flickering ( I have read anyway). Is it possible for this to be happening, and to also be throwing off the other electronics in the vehicle? all these issues started really close to each other recently. I’ve also started having bulbs blowing out( like tail lights, turn signals etc).

Anyway, Thanks for the help!

P.S. No need to mention I shouldn’t unhook the alternator while its running.