Just acquired a '98 Durango w/ 318 engine, I'm very happy with it so far as a project car. Couple issues I need to correct. It runs in 3rd on the highway, O/D switch seems to have no effect. It also has a miss on cylinder 1/8, I'm going to fix that (hopefully it's a spark plug/wire, it does not overheat) and I was fairly certain that there was a bad sensor, but the only codes stored in the ECM were only misfire related and an O2 sensor code.

So I'm hoping something else might be causing this because it does not slip or shift badly. I'm doing some searching here, looks to be a great forum like my home forum W-Body.com. Thanks!

 

The trans fluid should be changed (atf+4) and the bands adjusted. Personally if you are having spark issues, with the age of the truck I would do cap (brass contacts), rotor, wires, and plugs. Use the factory champions other wise there could be trouble and double check the gap on all of them. Also if one O2 sensor is bad then the other is most likely not far behind. Do the pre-cat O2 sensors. Also couldn't hurt to clean the throttle body, here's instructions https://dodgeforum.com/forum/1st-gen...ttle-body.html

 

This is my next step, tomorrow, cap/rotor/plugs -- wires look fine, but if the c/r doesn't solve the miss I'll do that too. I'm seeing a lot of different things to solve the 3/4 shift issue but I have to see if maybe the miss might be causing the shift issue. Thanks, adukart!

 

Another thing is the 5.2l should have a 44re trans and they were mostly mechanical with out to many electrical inputs. I would think that adjusting the bands would do it, if not It could simply be the shift solenoid.

 

wires should be replaced with the cap/rotor regardless of how they look, i had a set of new in box (never installed) wires of unknown age which were bad on install, so replace the wires while you are in there and just be done with it. i promise its worth it.

adukart, the only electrical on the 42 44 and 46 transmissions was the overdrive which is where his problem lies, i would get in touch with user mater tech about the transmission problem, he is the local transmission expert.

 

After driving it again on the highway and playing with it, it appears to lock up, but it does not shift, this is with O/D on and off on the shifter. We'll see what happens when I fix the miss. Thanks guys.