Hi all,

So i have decided to do some work to my dakota before I try to sell it. I want to fix the brake pressure and the trans leak. However it's been sitting all winter long and now that the weather is getting nice I want to get this worked on.

What are some things I should do to the truck beyond the brakes and trans leak to get it road ready again after sitting all winter long? I assume some major fluid changes and such are in order.

thanks for the advice!

 

regular tune up like distributor cap, wires and plugs, and a nice wash since your tryin to sell it

 

I did the plugs before the winter and didn't drive it much/at all. think i should still do new plugs?

 

at the least clean them.

 

I took the battery in to class wednesday and got charged it up. I might wait til monday to do a load test on it to and just make sure it is all in working order. Did I mention to anyone that i am taking automotive technology classes? Perhaps I forgot that! lol.

My plan was(is) to charge the battery and get that all in working order. then when I have a day off (yea right) go through and drain the oil, check the coolant, clean the plugs (no since it was recommended) check the state of the trans fluid level (surely low) and brake fluid (also probably low/gone) etc. Once all that is done i'll replace the engine oil. I believe dodge recommends 10w30 for this engine, i'll double check.

I have a question with these transmissions. I have the 46re in this truck. Just to verify, the bellhousing is a 2 part deal, right? The bottom of it comes apart for inspection and such? I thought I read that somewhere but just want to doublecheck.

The leak appears to be coming from the bellhousing area. I have not 100% tracked down the leak so I am going to try and find it first, but I suspect bellhousing area leak.

Alright, I'm off to get coffee so I can function. I'll keep people posted as this progresses.

Cheerz!

 

No the bellhousing and transmission is 1 piece on the Dodge automatics. Most manual transmissions have the bellhousing as a separate unit.

 

If you didn't put any type of fuel stabilizer in your tank before you parked it, you could run into an issue where your fuel could be contaminated with moisture. Fuel has a tendency to break down when it sits for an extended period of time.

 

Well boo and hiss to the 1 piece thing! lol. i thought there was some inspection plate; oh well.

Good call on the fuel thing. i should probs look into that :-/

thx!

 

Got the truck started yesterday. I checked the oil, coolant and trans fluid. hooked the battery up and would crank but not start. long and short the fuel pump had bad connection so i fixed that. after it got fuel it fired right over.

nice. Next i started working on finding the trans leak. i cleaned the trans up with some brake clean and gave it plenty of time to evaporate and everything. Topped the trans up w 3 quarts of fluid and took it for a quick drive down the road and back. shifted fine, reverse no problem, 1-2 and 2-3 shifts were good.

got home, cleaned the trans a bit more and put some cardboard under it. while it sat i started reinstalling the radio. was not too bad of a job at all to reinstall.

after all that i checked underneath and could see a drip forming on the exhaust pipe again. I cleaned things up a little more and i can see a slight line of red form right along the pan gasket.

I think I should try and snug the pan bolts down. seems like a silly thing but hey if it fixes it i'll take it, lol.


Brakes are still jacked, abs and red light are on. I assume i need to bleed the system and that the differential switch is engaged causing the light illumination.

cheers