The story,

My dad's truck which used to be mine acted up last month. My dad said it would rev right up and go nowhere. I told him to try with the Overdrive off, try 1, 2 and D and it did nothing. After it cooled down, it was fine for a little bit. really lumpy at idle.

The engine light came on too. It said Torque converter lock up solenoid circuit malfunction. Looked through some forums, they all said to have the tranny rebuilt. Checked the dipstick, fluid looked fine but there was a ****load of grey filings at the bottom.

Okay, bought a used trans from Ralph's on mitchell Island for $900 plus taxes and had a place that they recommended install it for $450. I'd do it myself but we don't have a garage to do it in. The place that did the install is also on mitchell Island, M&T Transmission.

After talking with the dudes at M&T they recommended installing a mild shift kit so this wouldn't happen again and to increase the used transmissions life. Extra $350.

**** gets done and my dad goes to pick it up. He asked why it still idles funny, and was told it's fine and that it's likely a bad plug wire.

3 days later my dad calls and said it went again. I checked it out. It shifted like it used to. No difference at all from the old tranny so I really didn't understand what the shift kit did. The check engine light was on and the exact same code pops up. I called dodge and they said all that circuitry is internal to the trans.

Taking no chances, I took it back to M&T.

They said the shift kit only involved drilling the valve body to improve fluid flow and would not affect the shift. I asked about line presssure and they said if they did that then the tranny would wear faster blah blah. Okay.

The tranny was covered under warranty from ralph's and they covered half the price of the install. Nice of them since they didn't have to cover anything at all for labour. M&T said they re installed the first shift kit in this tranny too.

My dad calls again and said the truck wouldn't run right after he gave it a tune up the day after he got it back. I said I'd take it to work and see what I could do about the engine. It stalled everywhere at idle. So I decided to take it to work and maybe change out the Fuel filter. Plugs, wires and rotor were done so why not right?

Plus there was a loud whining and wirring sound all through first gear that was never there before. I reved it up in neutral and the sound was there too.

On my way to work, ****er starts slipping on me. Right on the Knight st. Bridge. The only way it moved was to shut the truck off, restart it and boom, went into gear. 20 seconds later, slips again.

I almost got my *** beat down by a semi driver cause he thought I was swearing at him when really I was yelling and punching the dash. Got it to M&T and told them to deal with it. That was this Thursday and they said they really couln't do nothing intil Monday.

My dad rented a car for a week last time it went. He's got no other wheels now.
Including the original trans, if they change it out again, it'll be the fourth trans. the truck has had.

Here's the scary part.

Ralph's won't cover half the labour on the tranny which I kinda understand. They also might not cover the tranny either, said that they'd get back to us after talking to the manager but so far, no call back.

Is it the shift kit they originally installed? are the 2 trannies from ralph's bad? they both went the same slippin' way like the original. Do I even get them to put the 3rd one in? should I have it installed by some one else?

 

did they even bother replacing your torque converter and/or flush out the cooler lines? sounds like this shop is far from reputable.




.... and they should NEVER have to install a shift kit for it to perform normally. that sounds like theyre hiding problems IMO. my transmission rebuilder told me to stay away from a shift kit and theres no need to up the line pressure. and i must say after 40K miles on my rebuild (106K miles on the truck). the fluid is spotless. and to think i mash the throttle to the floor when i enter highways, while on highways, from red lights, etc. still runs like she was just rebuilt.

 

either a bad wire somewhere in your harness or a bad torque converter, no reason for two transmissions to do the exact same thing.

 

Thanks guys, I'm gonna take it to dodge when the weather here in Vancouver clears up. They said they'd test that 4 pin harness that goes to the tranny. The torque converter was replaced everytime. They did apparently flush the cooler lines.

Is there a seperate module that controls the tranny or is that harness straight from the Engine's computer?