um-hum.

 

Mine did exactly what your video shows. While cleaning up my engine I actually saw the pressure go to nothing after hard acceleration and let it drift to a stop. Thats why I was convinced the engine was crudded badly. It did clean up. I would like to see it higher but its better than nothing and after a year and over 10,000 miles its still O.K. I definately see it is lower than the 3.9, 89 we have but its not knocking or giving me any problems. I have trusted it to tow 1200 miles so loaded it should have died!

 

Just thought I'd let you all know that to my surprise the oil change absolutely fixed my problem. I honestly thought it wouldn't. The filter was as heavy as a brick though when I got it off. I am going to open it up and see just how much gunk is in there. Oil was also blackkkk.

Now just to tackle the horn problem and add an external transmission cooler and try to slowly and steadily cycle out my brown tranny fluid. The man who I bought it from obviously didn't realize it was like a quart low on tranny fluid and kinda killed the tranny fluid. Tranny still shifts nice and the fluid doesn't smell burnt but it is pretty dark.

Thanks for all the help guys.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe8CaarpdQk

 

So maybe I was wrong my problem returned just before when I was driving. It's definitely not as bad as it was that is for sure. Only when changing from park to drive does the light appear and the gauge drop momentarily then recovers. After that the light just lightly flickers. The gauge wont drop out of the normal zone now anymore so that's a plus.

Perhaps there is a lot more sludge then I thought and it is going to take a couple of oil changes to really get that crap outa there.

Edit: Thought I'd add this bit of information. Before I did the oil change the very first time I noticed that an increase in rpms completely made the light go off so i added a small medal clip to my throttle body to give it just a little increase in an idle. The video above is taken WITH the clip on and only AFTER take the clip off did the problem resurface. In that video you can see my truck idling at 800 about. With the clip off it idles at 450 and the light just flickers slightly.

 

Okay well... This is some seriously bad news in my opinion. I decided that today since I didn't have work and the water outside wasn't frozen that I would check the tranny fluid and add some. So I drove up to dodge and bought some ATF +4 and then drove home. About 20 mins of driving tranny was nice and warm.

Pulled the dipstick out after going through all gears and putting it in neutral... NOTHING on the dipstick.... I was like woah. Added the entire quart of tranny fluid. Drove it around the block a couple times to cycle it in there.

Check the fluid again... Still nothing on the dipstick... Is this even possible or am I losing my mind. In park with the engine off the fluid level is just below the bend in the dipstick and above the crosshatched area. Is the fluid level suppose to decrease with the truck on and in neutral?

 

im no auto tranny expert but every auto trans ive ever seen said check while running in park. most older models were to be checked hot but many of the newer ones have 2 cross hatch. one for hot check and one for cold check. checking with the engine off would be a waste of time as i wont tell you where the fluid is when its running. maybe you have the wrong dipstick ? hek i dont know. seems like you would notice something abnormal if your that low on fluid. keep adding fluid until it hits the full mark i guess. cant imagine where its going except on the ground

 

Fluid level is checked with the engine running at curb idle speed, brakes applied, transmission in Neutral, and the transmission fluid at normal operating temperature (hot).
(1) Transmission fluid must be at normal operating temperature for accurate fluid level check. Drive vehicle if necessary to bring fluid temperature up to normal hot operating temperature of 82°C (180°F).
(2) Position vehicle on level surface. This is extremely important for accurate fluid level check.
(3) Start and run engine at curb idle speed.
(4) Apply parking brakes.
(5) Shift transmission momentarily into all gear ranges. Then shift transmission back to Neutral.
(6) Clean top of filler tube and dipstick to keep dirt from entering tube.
(7) Remove dipstick and check fluid level as follows:
(a) Dipstick has three fluid level indicator levels (Fig. 1) which are a MIN dot, an OK crosshatch area, and a MAX fill arrow.
(b) Correct maximum level is to MAX arrow mark. Correct acceptable level is to OK mark in crosshatch area.
(c) Incorrect level is at or below MIN dot.
(d) If fluid is low, add only enough Mopar ATF Plus to restore correct level. Do not overfill.

Straight from my manual for my transmission. I just find it kinda odd that my fluid level is so high with the truck off in park but not even visible running and in neutral. Although I think it's damn near impossible to get the fluid to 180 degrees. Especially when its 19 degrees out but still you should be able to see something on my dipstick. Fluid doesn't expand that much.

This is from the maintenance section which says how to check when cold.

(6) Install dipstick and verify it is seated in fill hole or tube.
(7) Remove dipstick, with handle above tip, take fluid level reading. If the vehicle has been driven for at least 15 minutes before inspecting fluid level, transmission can be considered hot and reading should be in the OK area. If vehicle has run for less than 15 minutes and more than 60 seconds transmission can be considered warm and reading should be above MIN mark. Add fluid only if level is below MIN mark on dipstick when transmission is warm (Fig. 6).

 

Because of the age, and the posibility of a tranny change by a previous owner of our Gen 1 trucks, I always read the dipstick. My 89 had two possible transmissions from the factory according to specs so I rely on what the stick says. Printed on the metal should be either neutral or park along with fluid type. I do all the thingsmentioned on another post here and laugh at me I always check when I am out where there is a level parking lot. Only takes a minute but level as important as warmed up and the run thru all gears.

 

Back to the post about oil preswsure flickering. You could be talking about my 94 exactly. It is fine now just keep changing the oil and filter to get rid of crud. I even run synthetic oil in it now at 136K

 

I was always told that if you didn't start on synthetic to not start using if halfway through your motors life, and vise versa. Maybe I will put in a blended oil in I'm just gonna change the filter a few more times before actually drain this oil.

I'm also going to go buy a new sending unit sometime this week and throw it in there. Is it possible for the sending unit to be clogged with sludge and get funky readings?