I have never owned a vehicle with an automatic transmission before, but recently I bought an automatic 04 Dakota because I love the trucks and know that finding a 5 speed is impossible, so I don't really know much about auto transmissions. The other day, in a merging situation, I had to get on the gas pretty good and when I did it was like the trans shifted into neutral. The engine just reved as if I was in neautral. Once I heard this I lifted my foot, then gently accelerated again and it was fine. I never shifted it out of drive during this time and it was in overdrive. The tranny fluid is new and level is fine. I'm just wondering if this is some kind of saftey feature or if something is wrong. Thanks for any help.

 

Same thing sometimes happens in my truck have no clue why it does it. I ignore it cause when it goes im doing a 5 speed swap

 

Filter clogged maybe?

 

that would be sweet. How difficult is it to switch to 5 speed?

 

Depends what you know and what tools you have they say if you get all the parts you can do it in a weekend. Most of the time it takes longer because you have to find parts for it. I figured why spend 1,500+ to rebuild my auto when I can do a swap for around 6-800

 

Wow, yeah I will definately keep that in consideration for the future. I only have 55,000 on my 04 so hopefully it lasts a while longer. How is the reputation of the auto transmissions in our trucks? Any major problems?

 

Depends how well you take care of them. I got 89,000 miles on my truck but all dodge trannys suck.

 

Hey dodgeramguy85, I think my auto tranny might be starting to go out and I was also thinking of doing a switch to manual. Where would you buy the parts for something like this, just an auto salvage place or what? Also how much do you think it would cost to have someone do the swap for you? (I dont know much about transmissions and dont feel like taking on too big of project)
Thanks

 

Im going to try and get most of it at junk yards. I got 8-10 of them with a in a 30 mile radius and they all have a good selection. Im also really good friends with ebay so that should help too. I can give you a estimate of what it would cost because I have no clue myself it also depend where you are at. Some place might do it for cheap where somewhere else in another state might cost you a grand to do it. Im going to do mine myself and with the help of my buddy shouldnt be too bad to do.

 

If there is a junkyard near you where you remove the parts yourself( e.g. Pull-A-Part) you could get the parts to do a swap for a little of nothing.The pull-a-part near me charges like 60 dollars for a transmission.