i recently bought a 94 dakota 4x4 with a 5.2 and auto tranny. i drove it an hour home and it shifted fine. About a week later i pulled a trailer for almost 2 hours and it started shifting in and out of overdrive and then just kept going in and out of gears and shifting crazy and it i was having a hard time taking off from stop signs because i would have to rev it up to get it to move and then it would drop into gear and spin the tires and take off. Its not slipping just shifting very weird. Ive checked the fluid multiple times and i keep checking it and its fine. The only thing i can think of is someone put a t between the two trans cooler lines right in front of the cooler (but some fluid still goes into the cooler as the return line is a bit cooler than the feed line) and it got hot pulling the trailer? but now it does it withing 2 minutes of driving it but it shifts fine before that. Any ideas?

heres a video of trying to take off from a stop sign
http://vid567.photobucket.com/albums...ps46kbhsz1.mp4

 

I'd start by removing that T in the cooler lines. The cooler in the radiator is barely adequate to keep the transmission cool, you sure as hell don't want to be bypassing it.

 

it should have NOT been shifting in and out of ODrive... could be some damage or worsened the condition it was in. Best to hope for a trans. fluid, filter, adj. fixes it.

 

Alright thanks guys. Sorry it took so long to respond, been super busy at work. When I get some time I'll try running an external cooler and such. If all that doesn't help I might just end up parting it out

 

Have a shop diagnose the problem. Your trans sounds similar to what mine was doing. My truck drive fine till one day going 60 mph it dropped out of overdrive. When going 50 mph or more it acted like it didn't know weather to be in 2nd 3rd or overdrive. Took it to the shop and my speed sensor shorted out. $80 I. The shop it she runs just as new

 

The truck isn't worth the shop bill haha. Unfortunately the truck is in pretty rough condition. If something simple like a fluid change and better cooler doesn't fix it then I'm pretty sure I'm keeping keeping the engine for my other truck and parting out the rest.

 

Sorry that was a type error. It cost me $80 NOT $801. If it was that much I'd be getting rid of it.

 

A common problem on the A500 and 518 is the overdrive accumulator spring breaking. That will cause it to jump in and out of OD.