It gets a little worse, and more urgent.

The last few days it's been shifting more normally, but I noticed a good-sized pool of trans fluid under the Durango yesterday. No sign of leaks before. I didn't have time to crawl under, so left it where it was. Today I jacked up the front right corner and crawled under. The fluid is weeping from the side of the pan, about 1/2 way up from the bottom. The pan is rusty over quite a lot of it's surface, and must have developed a pin-hole leak there. I searched the forum, and that doesn't seem to be a common problem.

So now I really need to locate a shop to give me a quote on adjustments and new pan, gasket, filter and fluid.

 

I called a couple of tranny shops, all seemed too busy to take on the job in less than a week. I had a free day on Friday so did it myself. I didn't want to try one thing at a time to see if it fixed the intermittent shifting issue, so I checked the throttle valve cable, adjusted the bands, and replaced the governor solenoid and sensor while replacing the rusted tranny pan. The local dealer had all the parts in stock. The on-line Mopar parts dealers didn't seem to have the internal parts I needed, and I wanted to just get it done right away anyway. Autozone etc might have had a filter, but I'm sure they wouldn't have anything else, and I don't think I want aftermarket parts inside my tranny.

The parts guy needed the last 9 digits of the VIN, which told him exactly what was on the vehicle. Confirmed it was a 46RE transmission.

Tanny pan: $75.35
Gasket: $18.60
Filter: $20.85
Solenoid: $118.00
Transducer: $82.10

A lift would have been nice, but raising it on stands made it doable.

There are links to good how-to's for throttle cable adjustment, band adjustment, and governor sensor/solenoid replacement in earlier entries in this thread, so I won't repeat them here. I'm assuming you have already looked at them, and maybe printed them.

Dropped the skid plate (catching the overflowing tranny fluid in a large tray).

First I lubed the throttle valve cable at the lower end. It wasn't returning under normal spring tension prior to the lube. No adjustment needed, it was still spot-on. By the way, the upper end of the cable slides forward off the mounting post with a little pressure and rocking action.

Dropped the tranny pan into the large tray (only minor spillage). Bolts are 1/2". It would be nice if there was a drain plug. Also dropped the filter; the two retaining bolts need a T25 6 point torx bit. Then let it drip for a while.

The front band adjuster is a bit awkward to get to, I clamped the upper end of the throttle valve cable to hold the lower lever out of the way. The how-to guide shows using a regular wrench on the lock nut, but no way will that work. Need a 3/4" socket with a universal and appropriate extender. Adjuster screw needs a T40 6-point torx bit and extender.

Rear band adjuster lock nut needs an 11/16" socket. Adjuster screw is square, I used a 5/16 8-point socket. A 12-point might work OK, but I don't know what size would fit best. The adjustment made a noticeable difference in the free-play of the rear band lever. No excuses, but this is only the second time the bands have been adjusted in 173K miles.

Then I unclipped the electrical connectors on the governor solenoid and sensor/transducer. I didn't need to cut any zip-ties. The block that holds the solenoid and sensor is held with 6 bolts; 4 need a 7/16 socket, two need a T25 torx bit. Both the solenoid and sensor can be removed from the block once the retaining plate is lifted away. With the later style sensor (all black plastic), there's no additional clip holding it in place. My old sensor was a fairly loose fit in the block, the new one was much better.

Reinstalled the solenoid/sensor block, and reconnected the electrics.

Installed new filter.

Retrieved the magnet from the old tranny pan, cleaned it off, placed it in new pan.

The old parts guys at the dealership said no sealer was needed on the gasket, so I installed it dry. Added tranny fluid, and went for a short test drive. Everything worked.

I've only done about 100 miles since, and it shifts the way it should under light and heavy throttle. I'll check in a couple of days to see if there's any leaks. Only time will tell if I fixed the intermittent shifting problem.

Took a bit longer than I had hoped, but I was up and down and back and forth to the tool chest to get the right tools as I figured out what I needed. And I needed to go warm up a couple of times (unheated garage in Massachusetts in early March). Hopefully my tips here will help someone else get everything together before starting.