Hey folks looking for some input here. My 94 Dakota, with the 5.2 V8, had a massive trans failure. I ordered a reman and installed it. The new trans came with the converter and external cooler. I installed everything, and for the first 50 or so miles is shifted fine. Now it's acting badly. When it's cold you can pull it in gear and it will move. But if you try to drive it, the tranny slips and carries on . Also it feels like you have to rev up quite a bit in reverse for it to move. Almost as if the converter isn't engaging. Not a Trans guy, I did the swap with no problems but I could use some advise here.

 

Triple check your fluid levels.

Did you check and adjust the bands?

How did you adjust the TV cable?

RwP

 

Keep in mind, you need to check fluid level in neutral. Checking in park gives you an artificially high reading. (engine running, preferably after you have driven it for a bit.)

 

The revving up to move sounds like low fluid. It's hard to have reverse not work, it's only a band and planetary. I guess with the overdrive there is the overdrive spring and direct clutches that are needed for all gears except 4th.

Check shifter adjustment. If that's good and fluid level is good in neutral you have to drop the pan and see what's in it.

If it's hurt there are a lot of things that could have gone wrong.

 

I'll add that you need level ground, and that you should run through all gear positions (P --> L --> 2 --> D --> N --> R --> N is the pattern I use) to make sure the fluid is pumped into all passages.

RwP

 

Checked and double checked the fluid levels. They are spot on. I haven't made any other adjustments yet, to be honest didn't feel I needed to, with a reman. But I'm gonna pull the pan this weekend and check the band adjustments and was thinking I might bump up the line preasure a bit.

 

Does the fluid look red?
Does it smell burned?
You mentioned an external cooler. Was it put in line with the orig. cooler, or was the orig. bypassed?
Did you flush the lines?
FWIW some coolers cant be flushed if they are the stack fin style. I have no idea what Mopar used......

Last, its likely you got a bad transmission, it happens.....

 

The Fluid is beautiful , no issues there, the system is full, The stock cooler is bypassed, it was pretty stopped up. So I just ran the lines to the new one. I have considered the idea that it could be a bad trans, but after the first reman, just grenaded with 95 miles on it, I was really wondering about the low line pressure. From what I read, most companies set it about as low as you can get away with. But I'm going to pull the pan check all the adjustments and put in new fluid ( again ) Hopefully this will help. If not someone can come get the damn thing, for cheap. I've had it up to my *** with it. Second re-man in 3 months, combined mileage 147 miles!

 

If it was me, I would go ahead and throw in another filter when you drop the pan.

BTW, if you dont mind saying, what brand reman are you using?

 

It's really odd to blow up 2 fresh transmissions in such a short time. Are you getting warrantee on them?

The shifter is adjusted correctly? Even if the TV cable was not hooked up it would not burn out this fast.