I'm not trying to get my 96 ram pickup to a show, but I'd like it to run smooth and be reliable.

Right now I know of 2 problems:

1 - the tranny will overheat (I'm pretty sure this is what's happening) and basically I'll lose all ability to move. Slowly my top speed will decrease and I'll be stuck in overdrive to make it up a hill at 35 mph. This happened a couple of days ago after driving about 150 miles in ~80 degree weather on Rt 50 and 495. I ended up pulling off in Silver Spring (cicadas... ah!) and letting it cool down for an hour while we played in the park - then I continued driving (mild mannerdly) and it seemed to do alright from then on. My dad said a transmission tune-up should help, I just want to know if I should expect to replace the transmission in the near or distant future, or if a tune-up is even going to help?

2 - about 2 months ago i ran over a nail and got a flat in my rear driver's side tire. Luckily I had a full-size spare and got the tire patched quickly. When putting the original back on, I made the mistake of letting my roommate tighten the lugnuts while I re-hung the spare under the bed.

A few days later I thought I heard the sound of metal bouncing on the pavement while driving down the highway but really didn't think anything of it. I'm pretty sure that this was about the same time that the shaking started. Things seem fine most of the time but from about 45mph to 55/60 it feels like the rear end is kinda shaky. I don't know how else to describe it.

I noticed about a week later on a whim that 4 of the lugnuts were loose and the 5th was missing. I immediately tightened the 4 remaining and I've checked them every couple of days since then and they've always been tight. about 2 weeks later i found and bought a set of matching lugnuts (oddly enough, 4 in a set) and went to replace the missing one - only to find that the bolt had snapped off. Only now do I realize that the nut & bolt are probably what I heard bouncing down the highway.

A friend of a friend told me that the bolt itself cannot be replaced, that the entire panel/wheel thingy (notice my excellent car part vocab) would have to be replaced but it was a pretty simple process that I could likely do myself if I could find the part.

Is there a known good place to get a replacement, and what exactly is the part that I'm looking for. I used to drive an RX-7 and did replace some parts that I bought from a junk yard... I have a basic mechanical knowledge but really no training or vocab.

Thanks for your patience, and thanks in advance for any help!

 

these show the bolt snapped off:




and this, as far as I can tell, is the only place I could detach the plate that the wheel bolts onto. It's taken from the back - I could only get so far from the wheel within the well. hope it helps:



is that what I would unscrew to get it off?

 

I'm 99% sure you can replace that stud. However, driving it with it missing should be fine till you have time to get it fixed.