My wife's 98 1500 Ram Van's tranny was slipping badly. She managed to limp it home. I may have added too much fluid and now it won't start. Is there some kind of safety feature that won't let it start if there is too much fluid? Which leads me to my next question: If so, I can't seem to find a drain plug to let some out. I've had vehicles before that the only way to drain the tranny is to loosen the pan bolts and make a mess. Checked the linkage and it seems fine.

 

something else wrong with the van (engine)

 

The engine always has run fine. Even when I was checking the tranny fluid it was idling fine. It wasn't until after I added the tranny fluid that it suddenly wouldn't even crank at all.

 

You sure you filled the tranny and not the crankcase by mistake?

 

Yup. Even if I did put it in the crank case, wouldn't it still turn over? It just seems like some kind of safety switch is keeping it from doing anything. All lights work (even dash) and stay bright even when I turn key to start. Not sure where the park/neutral safety switch is to check to see if that is the problem.

 

I think what alloro was saying is if you overfill the crankcase it's not a good thing. There's guys that can help resolve the problem here if you want to work on it and alloro is definitely one of them... give a better description of what's happening when you try to start the engine and it might produce better results Todd. So far it looks like the dash lights up but won't crank over???

 

Thanks, I'll try. When I turn the key all the dash lights come on but the solenoid doesn't click. Absolutely nothing but the dash lights come on. I kind of suspect the neutral safety switch but looking for other possibilities as well. The other question is, if I need to drain a little fluid out, is there a drain plug I'm not seeing or do I have to unbolt the tranny pan and make a mess?

 

At the left rear corner on the tranny is a switch with a 3-wire connector going to it. The center wire is the neutral safety wire and it has to see ground for the starter to engage. There are 2 easy tests you can do, the first is connect an ohm meter between the center pin of the switch and the tranny. The result should be a few ohms at most. The second test is to use a jumper wire from the center of the 3-wire connector to ground, which will allow the starter to turn if the neutral switch was the problem.

Oh and in case you were wondering, the 2 outside wires when connected together complete the circuit to the reverse lights.

 

You didn't say how much you added so I have to assume the worst. Adding too much oil into the crankcase will hydro lock the engine and keep it from turning.

 

Thanks Alloro, that gives me a good place to start. I definitely put a quart of ATF in the tranny. I had my doubts at first so I checked to make sure the funnel I used would not fit in the oil level check tube. it was too big and would only fit in the tranny fluid tube. If I need to drain some back out do I just loosen the pan?