Engine/Transmission (1998.5 - 2002) Transmission 2nd opinion rebuild

[wyatt1672]

Awhile ago I posted about having trouble with the transmission shifting out of 1st gear. i was not driving the truck much so I did not look into it real hard. To recap, I have an 01, 315k on the original transmission. Right now its being driven around town, towing a 7k gvw trailer about 40 percent of the time. Most, but not all the time, the truck will get up to 2200 rpm and wont shift out of first into the the next gear for a few seconds. The problem has not gotten much worse since it started about 20k miles ago.
So I took it to a shop. They hooked it up and no DCT. The tech did not find any electrical issues. He dropped the pan and the magnet was barely visible with the metal particle sludge covering it. When he shined a flashlight into the trans fluid, which looked good, you could see the metal particles sparkling in it.
The diagnosis was that the shifting problem was do to a blockage or worn part i.e. solenoid, and the particles were from the torque converter which he said is a common problem in the 01 ram diesel transmissions. The repair would consist of rebuilding the transmission and replacing the torque converter. The cost is $3100.00 with a regular torque converter or $3800.00 with a medium duty triple disk converter. All done by a shop that specializes in transmissions.
Does the diagnosis seem accurate?
Is the price reasonable?

 

[fox]

Did they do a pressure test on it? Especially look at the gov. pressure.
Most of the time this issue is either Gov pressure transducer or solenoid.

 

[wyatt1672]

Did they do a pressure test on it? Especially look at the gov. pressure.
Most of the time this issue is either Gov pressure transducer or solenoid.

No they did not do a pressure test. They told me they would not know if the solenoid would need to be replaced until they did the rebuild, which was not included in the price. The diagnosis was made solely on a test drive, computer hookup and the metal in the pan. The shop did not say they could not do more tests but if it was a minor part repair, the metal in the fluid would wear the part out again. A rebuild to clean out the metal particles and replace the worn parts was the only option they gave me to repair the transmission properly.