I have a 96 Dakota pick-up[ with around 140,000 miles on it. The problem is kind of 2 fold. When you put it in gear and take off it feels like it isn`t in 1st or 2nd ( Automatic). If you shift by hand it`s OK. When on the road passing gear won`t kick in either. I used the repair manual to adjust the Throttle cable without any change. On the throttle assembly there are 3 cables. One appear to be the pedal, one is the throttle and the 3rd one goes to the fire wall and a valve/actuator of some sort. That cable appears to have slack in it and doesn`t engage the part it`s connected to.. I`m not sure what this is or if it can cause the problem I have. The book shows how to adjuct the kick deown but don`t have the inch pound torque tool. My wife just said that it stuck in 1st the other day and after sitting overnight it was back to the problem listed.

 

There are 3 cables on the throttle body... the front 2 go to the pedal and to the cruise control solenoid. The 3rd cable at the back of the throttle body is your throttle valve cable that goes to your transmission. The throttle valve basically just forces the transmission to shift later the harder you have your foot on the gas. Try adjusting the TV cable and if that doesn't work, get the kickdown band adjusted. A link for downloading the '96 factory service manual is available in FAQ2 in this section and will contain all the procedures for adjusting these things.