I just pulled off the oil pan of my 2000 Dodge Durango's automatic transmission. When I was cleaning the donut magnet, I
found a small wedge shaped cast-iron part. On the small end of the wedge was a small slot. On the larger end of
the wedge was a circular concave area (something that looks like a push-rod may have been inserted into it).
The transmission is not shifting out of first gear much of the time. Once it shifts, then it works fine through the
other gears. When I stop and start, again it does not want to shift out of first gear. Has anyone else run into
this issue. Do you know what the part that I found came from? I've attached a picture of the part.

Thanks!



[IMG]local://upfiles/55380/B243259BCAD74409BC16D671D4963737.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/55380/0923093A5FE94A8D8309C019870AFB52.jpg[/IMG]

 

i'm no tranny guy but have pulled a few ford and chev's apart
looks like an adjuster end for one of the clutch bands
found a pic of a tranny outlined the part in red
and the link http://www.secondchancegarage.com/ar.../autotrans.htm

 

^ That is exactly what it is. My friends Durango had the same problem. We didn't know what to think when we seen it laying in the pan. We were scared to drive the truckl so we ran up the street to the local transmission shop and they told us what it was.

 

You guys are right! I stopped by the Dodge Dealer and they said the same thing.
They also indicated that the tranny would NOT need to be pulled to replace the item.
The said that the pump housing would need to be removed. They quoted me
a total time to fix the issue of 3 hours or $318.
Should I dive into removing the pump housing myself. This is new territory for me :-)
I don't want to pull it off and find a lot of springs and bearings dropping all over
the place. Has anyone done this before?

Thanks a LOT!

 

Buy a service manual and enjoy the experience of working on a tranny first hand!

 

Well, I got the valve body off fine and see where the band component is missing.
However, the band is metal on metal. Shouldn't there be some kind of friction
component between the band and the rotating drum? This may explain why
the band tightening component fell out in the first place. Can the band be replaced
without pulling the transmission?

Thanks!
ps: Is there a better forum location for these type of technical questions? :-)

 

this is exactly what happen to me, the shop just replaced mine and said the band was fine, i dont know about the metal on metal issue as i did not pull it myself, they did say however if the band is done just suck it up pull the tranny and go thru it. The shop i went to said this happens when the bands are not adjusted during serives which most people do not do these days.

 

Nice to hear you didn't have to preplace the band. In my case, it was metal-on-metal, so mine
had to be replaced. It's funny though, the Dodge Service dept. also told me that I had to pull the
tranny to replace the band. This is not so! I was able to remove it with a little work and
get a new one in place. Not an easy job, but probably saved me at least $1,000 :-)