New member here. I have an 04 Dakota Quad cab 4x4. After having the trans. serviced and "flushed" it won't go into gear after sitting over night.This has happened severly on 2 diffrent occasions,to the point it wouldn't move and when it finally did the check eng. light came on. The second time it finally moved however it acted like it was stuck in 2nd or 3rd gear. I've read about a "anti-drain back valve" and an "cooler return filter" as possible problems. Any more suggestions??

 

Try letting the truck idle in neutral for like 30 seconds before putting it in another gear or trying to move the truck.
Also, check your fluid level.
Sounds like what happens when it's low on fluid.

 

Thanks,however I let it warm up for 15 min. and the fluid is full (checked it after they did the "flush").

 

How does it shift after it finally gets into gear? Does it have any problems, like, after driving it for a while and than shifting from Drive to Reverse, or Reverse to Drive, or does it have this problem*just* after it's started after sitting for the night?

Please note: for fluid to circulate in the transmission, it MUST be either in a gear, or neutral. Fluid DOES NOT pump when in Park. For this reason, starting the truck up, letting it sit in "Park" for 30-seconds, 15 minutes, or 5-hours, doesn't do any good for the transmission fluid. So, unless you warmed up the truck in neutral for those 15-minutes, it did no good.

To clear up common confusion on the subject, the PROPER way to check transmission fluid levels on all automatics installed in Dakotas are:
(1) Engine and transmission at operating temperature (ie, after being driven several miles)
(2) Vehicle parked on level ground
(3) Transmission in neutral AFTER being shifted through each gear with a couple-second pause in each (P,R,N,D,2,1, back to Neutral)
(4) Now you can get a proper reading.

 

did you check it with the truck on level ground, in neutral, engine running? hopefully they put that filter on right and made sure only 1 o-ring was used to seal the filter to the valve body.

 

Thanks guys...and YES to all of the above. Except checking for proper install of the trans filter,which will be next since I'll have to pull the pan to find that one out.Guess this is what I get for letting someone else work on my truck.

 

As I was gonna do earlier...

Lol, yea right!