1- i will be changing the fluid tomorrow and i've read i takes 6 quarts atf +4, is that just dropping the pan and changing the filter? is there anyway to drain the torque converter. some how i was expecting it to be more.
Bought the Filter from the dealer by our house and they said to use atf +4 sylicone for a gasket, what exactly does that mean? i didn't think of asking them when i was there. is it like rtv gasket maker

2- For about two weeks the transmission has been holding 2nd gear, it won't shift into 3rd gear, at first you just had to let off the gas for a second, but now it seems more stubborn, i have to shift to neutral and bring it back to D, that takes care of that. It doesn't do it all the time, sometimes at the begining of our drive then it will be ok, sometimes at the end of our drives. I will adjust the bands and see if that takes care of the problem.
Any other suggestions on this problem.

Thanks it's a 98 durango with a 5.2 engine and 4 sp auto

 

I don't like using RTV on the pans. NAPA sells a rubber gasket and all you do it put a very thin grease (wheel grease will work) on the gasket (just to lubricate it and make it nice and wet) and install it. Then you don't need to scub the RTV off and all that not to mention it doesn't stick and that's what OEM uses. What they are talking about is just a Silicone RTV that is resistant to oil. 6 Quarts ATF+4 should do a filter change. You can't do a torque converter change without a flush and you don't want to do that. Just drop the pan, replace the filter, adjust the bands, then button it back up and don't forget NOT to over fill it. You check the fluid while in neutral with the engine running.

 

and check the fluid AFTER a drive(transmission is warm that way), parked on a nice LEVEL surface

 

How fast do you have go for the trans to upshift in 3rd gear? And do you have high mileage 70k plus?

 

You may need to check your governor actuator switches. It may be soon going out.

 

thanks for all the replys,
Master tech at first it was going to about 40-50 mph, but there at the end it was pretty much staying in gear, the D has 216,xxx miles on it, I know the transmission was rebuilt about one year ago, not sure how many miles on it since then.

I got a new filter in there and changed as much fluid as i could, man was it dirty. it had a lot of steel fuzzies in there. i wish i could change it all, i'm not satisfied that it only has 6 new quarts of fluid in there and the rest is the old dirty stuff. i'll be trying again in a few weeks.

Note. after I worked on it my check engine light came on, went to auto zone and they told me it was the governor pressure, but then it went off the next day. so far everythign has been working ok.

 

I bet it's the metal shavings hanging the sensors up.

 

Replace the governor and transducer sensors, filter and adjust the bands if needed. And then ck your kick down cable adjustment ( throttle cable).