I've been trying to sort out the transmission on my Ram with no luck. The trans is a 2wd 1978 mounted behind a 440. My father in law supposedly rebuilt it but could never get it to work properly. His memory is slipping about as much as this trans so the details are a little fuzzy but he claims to have successfully rebuilt a couple before this one. Here's what I've got so far...

• Starting off in D,2, or 1 seems fine, but it doesn't even try to shift into 2nd until about 30/35mph. At that point the engine is pretty wound up, if I let off the throttle it will weakly seem to go into 2nd but if given any throttle at all will start to slip (I am assuming the kickdown band is slipping to the point of practically being in 1st again) I have pushed it to about 40mph and it has never hit 3rd. Not sure if that's something to do with my problem, or just not going fast enough.
• Reverse works ok, but seems to slip once it's warmed up and is very slow to engage.
• There is a pretty loud whirring sound in any gear that can be heard at idle

I have checked:

• Fluid level warmed up in neutral is good.
• Kickdown band is adjusted to 72ft/lbs and then backed off 2 turns
• Kickdown linkage has been adjusted to multiple positions and doesn't seem to have much effect
• Tried the "throw it into reverse at 30mph" trick to free up the governor

My next move is to pull the valve body and begin air checking the bands and clutch packs. Is there anything else I can look at while I have the pan off? I'd like to find a good diagram of the valve body to make sure nothing was put together wrong in there but so far I haven't had any luck. The slow reverse engagement and slipping kickdown band makes me wonder if I have a sticking accumulator or a low line pressure problem. I don't have any pressure gauges but suspect I may be investing in them soon. Any thoughts / suggestions?

 

I would check to see what kind of line pressure you have. The sound may have something to do with it.
https://www.sonnax.com/tech_resource...pressure-ports

 

Ordered some gauges. I'll report back with my findings when they arrive.