I have a 2000 Dodge Durango RT with about 115,000 miles. Now i have read several threads on transmission problems and dont think i have found the answer i need. Currently my Dodge will shift just fine when COLD (not Hot like alot of other threads) My Doge just started having a problem shifting into 2nd when HOT, and it gets worse the more i drive it that day. where it wont shift tell i get upwards of 3500-4000 RPM. Now i am no Dummy the first thing i did was drain and flush the tranny and put a new filter. (no burnt smell or odd discoloration) It worked fine for a few days but now it is doing the same thing again. Any Suggestions? Shift Sol? or could something else be causeing it?

 

i will have to say that you misspoke, on multiple counts,

1) you just answered your own question, that flush did more damage to the trans than was already done, if it was a simple repair before it is likely going to be a more expensive one now,
2) while you had the pan down you should have adjusted or had the shop adjust the transmission bands
3) you posted this in the wrong section, you wanted the 1st generation section (ill move it there for you)

also check the TV cable, although that is more commonly out of adjustment when the issue is on the downshift, not the upshift.

 

Like sharps said, make sure you get those bands adjusted, you can do it yourself if you have a torque wrench and know what you're doing.
Your tranny might be up for a rebuild if bands, cleaning the valve body and new fluid doesn't do anything for you, mine needed a complete rebuild at 126K and wouldn't upshift, then soon after none of the gears worked at all.

 

What was in the bottom of the pan? Any black sticky muck? All the fluid runs through the solenoids, if there is particles of worn bands in your fluid then when it goes through the solenoids and it sticks and they clog up and are rendered useless eventually, they do not read the parameters correctly and begin to give you erratic shifting, these solenoids are a major problem with Dodge trannies. I think when you changed the fluid you may have brought some new short term life to the solenoids but now they are acting the same. It doesn't take much of the black sludge to clog up the solenoids, so depending on how much you seen may be a indicator as if you have bad solenoids.

 

I'll echo the previous replies. I listed prices of Mopar parts in another thread, replacing the solenoid and sensor is not expensive while you have the pan off. And adjusting bands is free, just a bit of time. Throttle Valve cable needs to be at correct adjustment and needs to move freely through its entire range of movement, so might need some lube where it attaches to the pivot arm on the tranny.

 

Replace the 1st - 2nd shift solenoid.

 

Ok Fluid looked fine on the original change...Had to special order the shift sol But thought i try the band adjustments...Here is what happened.. Ohh and thanks for moving this thread to the right area.

My Durango would not shift into 2nd until 3.5K rpm so i did the band adjustment out of my Haynes manual.

Front Band (outside the Transmission)
Torque to 72 in/lbs
Back off 2 7/8s turns

Rear Band
Drop pan
Torque to72 in/lbs
Back off 2 turns

After doing these adjusments I lost 2nd gear all together. The Front Band adjustment was odd...I had to almost screw it in all the way to get it to seat and get 72 in lbs.

The Rear Band was odd too. when i started the lever had about an inch of play to rock back and forth. now there was no play to the lever.

Also i noticed other threads have different back off ammounts (not sure where they got them) 1 7/8 to 2 7/8 for the front band and 2 to 4 turns for the rear band...(I didnt use these yet)

When i first drove it it tried to shift into 2nd but when it did it was like putting the brakes on and after that I shifted back to 1 and cycled back to drive. then it would shift into 3rd about 4.5K but no 2nd.

Did i mess something up? What could be the problem? HELP PLEASE.

 

Ok One note i just thought about.

When i adjusted the front (kickdown) band I had the pan off and fluid drained. Will that make a difference in the bands adjustment? Should of i did it when the fluid was still in the transmission?

 

^^^^^^^^

Double post: https://dodgeforum.com/forum/1st-gen...t-or-cold.html

 

I have the same truck, 2000 Durango R/T except mine has 96000 on it when I started noticing tranny issues. I too took the pan off and drained the fluid and changed the filter. Only once the pan was off, there were two pieces of metal stuck to the magnet. Come to find out the were a snap ring for the overdrive. Mine would shift fine except every now and then it would clunk into gear when lugging around. Also every now and then when "kicking" down on it, it would slip a little. Mine does have a Jet power control modual that does somthing with the shift points but it still wasent right. I just had a complete rebuild done. Costed a crap load ($2000) but it was worth it.