Engine/Transmission (1998.5 - 2002) The A/T Blues

[Turbo Terry]

Wish I would never have bought a auto. At 17000 miles I spent about $2000 to BEEF it up. At 39000 it completely failed. A $4000 total rebuild and now at 59000 I,M GETTING SECOND GEAR STARTS AGAIN. I have replaced the govenor pressure soleniod and sensor so many times ( maybe 6 ) I,ve lost count. The fluid has always been clean and I baby this truck. This morning I have a 2nd gear start right out of my driveway and when I pulled it into 1st gear it came to a sudden STOP with a shutter. I did the shutdown and all was fine. So what causes this do you think? Also is it time to sell this truck and go back to a stick? I also have fuel sytem problems with this truck? If its not a fuel problem its a A/T problem. These are the only two problems I,ve ever had with this 99 Dodge at a whooping 59. 000 miles. Please give me your open and honest opinions. Thanks

 

[John - K5AWO]

Hi Terry,



It would be very helpful for the TDR members to be able to see your truck profile. We have no way of knowing what bombing improvements have been added, if any at all.



What make of transmission rebuild? what features did you have put in it?

HP add on's?

Your driving habits? easy on stuff? like to hit it hard?



JIMO



John

 

[SEmerson]

Alot depends on what the $2000 was spent on. It also seems that if you don't go with a major vender that they don't last. You also need to do the whole trans the first time. I would say bite the bullet and do the whole thing right and get it over with. It will hurt but only once. And will also run much better. I have 2 trucks both with DTT trans in them. Both run great and I haven't had any problems with them. But it sure did hurt to put them in.

 

[snowracer69]

I have 2 trucks both with DTT trans in them. Both run great and I haven't had any problems with them. But it sure did hurt to put them in.

The second time around hurts worse... . I skimped the first time and though "I can get by w/ just the basics... no need for billet. " Well, I don't want to quote a price, but after this time the total figure for my transmission will start with a 6 and end with three zeros.



Of course, I'm only missing one thing DTT makes and there will be NO weak link in my transmission. Racing, pulling, whatever... the transmission isn't going to be breaking on me.



Do it once, do it right... no matter what vendor you choose. Buy once, cry once... or like me buy twice, cry more the second time around. But after it's done I'm gonna be all Oo.

 

[jimk]

Wish I would never have bought a auto. At 17000 miles I spent about $2000 to BEEF it up. At 39000 it completely failed. A $4000 total rebuild and now at 59000 I,M GETTING SECOND GEAR STARTS AGAIN. I have replaced the govenor pressure soleniod and sensor so many times ( maybe 6 ) I,ve lost count. The fluid has always been clean and I baby this truck. This morning I have a 2nd gear start right out of my driveway and when I pulled it into 1st gear it came to a sudden STOP with a shutter. I did the shutdown and all was fine. So what causes this do you think? Also is it time to sell this truck and go back to a stick? I also have fuel sytem problems with this truck? If its not a fuel problem its a A/T problem. These are the only two problems I,ve ever had with this 99 Dodge at a whooping 59. 000 miles. Please give me your open and honest opinions. Thanks

I am wondering how going to a major vendor will help as far as the pressure soleniod or the sensor. I have not replaced those but the TPS switch has bit me so many times I dont even know how many. Is trash getting into those parts or they just failing like my tps switch. Did you have that much problem with the standard transmission? good luck Jim

 

[Stefan Kondolay]

Terry,



We believe we have a solution for you but cant guarantee it. We have dealt with swampdonkey on this a while back , new electronics in , works for a while then back to the same . Darrin one of the guys that works here got a screaming deal on a truck he just bought as the owners were having a similar problem with their OEM transmission and got rid of the truck. Darrin thought, great I will buy it and put a new transmission in it and new sensors and it will be good to go. Well it was good to go for about 2 weeks, left for a family vacation and then same problem came back. 2nd and 3rd gear starts, we shipped all new electronics and he changed him all new electronics he changed and good to go again.

When he got back here , same problem started again. . We spent a fair amount of time chasing this, only code we could pull out of the computer is 1763(governor pressure voltage too high. ) At that point we knew it was not sensors as we verified it. We tried a brand new pcm in it and no more problems since. Since we had the old pcm we decided to cut it open and send it out to an electronics guy to have it checked out. Once it was open we did not need to send it anywhere. We spotted the problem. See the picture below. I have left Bill’s cell phone # on your phone. Give him a call he can help you take the pcm apart and have a look at it, you can actually put it back together . By the way on swamp donkeys truck , a pcm solved his issue too, it was just so long ago that we had all forgotten about his scenario.







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[y-knot]

Regardless of what other believe, the Automatic transmission that Dodge has selected for use in the Dodge Ram 2500 and 3500 series trucks is under-rated for the task at hand. The torque converter is the weakest link, the stall speed is to high and it is not capable of handling the loads that many expect and require for a diesel powered pickup. The trany itself is not bad, it has been used by Dodge for almost 40 years in one form or another. From what I can see, low oil pressure and lack of oil circulation while in park are the two major flaws. These then of themselves are not that bad, but coupled with the troubled torque converter and all the heat it produces, early failures are not so uncommon. The torque converter just does not have the grip needed to do the job many buy a heavy duty truck to perform. Towing large and heavy loads with a diesel powered truck, puts alot of strain on the torque converter. It has to have enough friction area to hold the torque produced by the diesel when the torque converter locks up, these clutches are two small on the stock Dodge automatic transmission. As the load increases to the point of over-powering the amount of grip the TC has, slippage is produced. This produces very high temperatures at it's source, which only helps to further weaken the ability to hold torque. The end result is damage to the clutch area and damage to the entire transmission from heat and it's associated effects.

I don't think there are any cheap and quick fixes. You only waste your money by purchasing shift kits, pressure-locs, valve bodies, etc. These may work great when combined with an overall plan to up-grade the transmission, but do little when used separately in hopes of a quick fix or band-aid. I think the number one and most important trouble spot to tackle first should be the torque converter. It is seldom on that "first fix" list, because of it's expense and hard to reach area. If this is not possible, then I would refrain from spending anything till it fails and then fix it right. There are several good options for replacements available, most of these address the entire transmission as a whole, and will provide the user with many miles of increased performance and durability. Hopefully Dodge will offer a newer and more capable transmission soon, one that may even be fitted into the older trucks, till then save your money for the forthcoming expense.