gw ,

I spoke with him today as well. Very helpful and I will most likely do business with him again. Since it appears that after talking with David that none of the adaptors will work with our test ports on our trans , I guess our only options are :

1). Install the inline manifold on the trans line going to the cooler.

2). If servicing the trans for fluid change , having the pan welded with a drain plug port and a sender port.

#2 requires , for me , taking it to someone to have this done , I do not have a welder etc. #1 involves ordering the manifold from David and cutting the line to install it.

I was hoping to avoid each of those and get lucky with the test port. I'll still try the adaptors that come with my gauge. Will not hurt to try. I have a hard time believing that anyone of the adaptors will not fit. I have read on other posts that folks have done this , granted it was a Ram and not a dakota , however my understanding is that they share the same trans. I guess if the trans port does not work , I'll go with #1. There is always the method of purchasing an aftermarket trans pan that has both the drain and sender plugs already in it , however they are not cheap. About $240 for my truck , most likely the same for yours as well.

Boy I hope the trans port works , I am not holding my breathe though. David did say the ISSPRO gauges are the best and great customer service. Great thing about David's shop is that it is only about 1/2 hr away from me. Maybe I'll pay him a visit sometime. My gauge and stuff will be here tomorrow , I'll see about taking some pics prior and post install for all that are interested. Hopefully we have helped others here in the forum with this issue.

Mark

 

Marko,

I am with you. I will place my order for the ISSPRO after I hear back from you once your arrives. If it does not fit the port I am going to go the in line route. I do not have a mig welder handy either, and I can not tie up the truck running around with the pan.

Just curious, what are you going to be pulling? I'm picking up a new travel trailer in a couple of weeks and want to be sure I am not cooking the tranny on the way home. Its not real heavy, but it is a long run with some steep grades.

gw

 

gw ,

I have a 16 foot dual axle belmont landscape trailer. I bought in new about 5 months ago. I have horse farm and the ability to get large quantities of hay / fed etc , is more cost effective. I also have a 2001 John Deere utility tractor that I use for barn chores and do some side jobs with.

The trailer is 1800 lbs empty , the machine with loader is @3200 lbs , total trailer weight will be about 4900 lbs . Give or take. I think the dakota will do just fine. It has the 4.7 Liter V8 , same motor that is in the Ram 1500 , only the dakota is a smaller frame. I like the daktoa alot , this gauge setup should help with keep me informed on how the trans is doing. Small amount to pay for a better sense of insurance.

What are you pulling ??

Send me a PM with you email address , I'll send you some pic's of the gauge etc. and a couple of the trailer and machine ....

Mark

 

qw ,

I just received my gauge from David at Diesel Manor. Great quality gauge. David included extra wire for both the sender and the power / ground from the box to the gauge. I still need to provide the wire for the gauge lights. No big deal. I also ordered two green bulb covers to change the gauge lighting from standard white to green in hopes to match what my dash color is today. I crawled under the truck and removed the plug. The 1/8 inch sender is too big to fit into the plug port. I called David and he suggested maybe finding out what thread size the plug bolt is. We can take that size and try and find an adaptor to fit like 1/8" NPT female to whatever bolt thread size [male]. Autometers site has these metic adaptors. At least I think that plug size it metric , you were correct that it was 8mm. I do not have a thread gauge so I can not tell what size it is. Do you have any idea ?? I would to explore all adaptor possiblities first before I go cutting into the trans cooler lines. But I have a feeling that I should just bit the bullet and get the temp manifold and be done with it.

Mark

 

Marko,

Glad you like the gauge. Knowing it is the same sender size, I am pressing forward with the one I already have. Although I was looking forward to the ISSPRO lighting, I got the call to go get the trailer and I am out of time.

Here is some encouraging news for you though, as a take off from what Dave suggested. I met with a guy today that had tried to weld the tranny pan and said it was a mess. He ruined his pan and it cost him a lot. Then he found a "pan plug kit", made by B&E at his local Autozone. This kit requires no welding and simply bolts on inside the pan. It has the right thread for the sender and a hole large enough to put the sender through. He swears by them now and it makes the job easy enough for even me.

I went and got two of the plug kits (@$10 each). As Dave suggested, one for the drain and one for the sender.

Tonight I pulled the pan and tomorrow I will drill the holes, pop in the plug and sender and be done. I am also changing out the filters (there are two in the tranny) and the fluid at the same time. I was tempted to go synthetic, but wanted to wait until I could do that right and have it drained completely. This way I can also get some temp measures with the organic to compare to the synthetic at the next service interval.

Now, this all sounds good, but there are some concerns. First, there are not too many places on the pan that you can do this. There is a lot of contoured areas and I need a pretty flat area. Secondly, you have to be very careful that the sender will not hit something and find a place that it will stay in the oil.

Also, with mine there was no gasket. This was a surprise. There was only a "create a gasket-type" compound between the pan and transmission. So I need to get the right stuff to put it back on---using the wrong type can cause problems if it gets in the tranny.

So if you can find the plugs, keep this idea in mind. So far, it has been easy. Hopefully by noon tomorrow I can tell you that it worked out ok.

gw

 

gw ,

Boy we are doing loads of work to get this gauge stuff taken care of . I guess the only issue I have with putting the sender in the pan is that the pan has fluid that has already been from the cooler and hence the pan will have fluid at a lower temp. Personally I am interested in what the max temp of the fluid is at that instant , before it gets to the cooler. I think that is why everyone we have heard from says use the test port or install the manifold in the trans line. I am going to have the dealer change out the trans fluid , as the skid plate stuff is all in the way and I do not feel like fooling with that. I have to see what types of fluid they offer and if they will install fluid purchased by me. I too want to get gauge temp readings from the non-synth oil vs. the synth oil

I also have a local trans shop that I could ask if during the trans flush , if they could install the sender for me. I have heard that some of the diesel guys have gotten a part from the dealer as the same concept as the manifold however it is a piece of replacement trans line with a sender port built in. I'll do some asking around tomorrow. Let me know how you make out and what kind of temps you are seeing .... Good Luck

Mark

 

qw ,

Here is a link on someone who has installed the drain plug on the trans pan. Good article ...

http://y2kota.us/atfdrain.html

Mark

 

Marko,

Mine is done. I opted not to put the second hole in the pan for the plug, because I could not see draining the fluid without changing the filters.

The plug idea worked perfectly. I found one perftect spot for the sender on the passenger side. I will post some photos here shortly.

I have not run the truck long, but at about 15 minutes it was warmed up to about 150 F. I am surprised it is not higher than that, but once I get some road time on it I will know the normal temp. Then I will see the difference a load makes.

The gauge looks good under the dash. Lights look fine for now. All in all, the research was the longest and hardest part of the job.

Tranny fluid has to be ATF+4. This was not widely available. I found it at a NAPA store. One question I could not find an answer to in the owners manual was how much tranny fluid it takes. If you have an answer for that one, I would like to hear it.

gw

 

gw ,

Great news !! Glad to hear you had sucess , I agree with your logic of not installing the drain plug , however it would make doing fluid / filter changes easier as you would be able to drain the pan prior to taking it off.

I went out yesterday and got the fittings in support of putting the sender in the trans cooler line. Got a 1 3/8 tee , 2 3/8 male on one end and compression on the other. The 1/8 sender came with a 3/8 adaptor that will go in the top of the tee. Total cost was $6.00 , the most nerve racking part of this install will be cutting the trans line , making sure I take out the correct length. Measure twice cut once From other post it appears I'll loose about 1 qt of fluid from cutting the line.

My owners manual does not have the capacity spec either from the trans fluid. My single gauge pod will not be here until Monday

I'll post some pic's and a breakdown of the parts when I am done. This should help other dakota owners who might want to do this.

Mark

 

Here are some pics of the pan installation. You can see there is really only one flat spot to mount it. The other concern was finding a position that was somewhat protected from underbrush. As you can see from the shot of the tranny interior, there were also obstacles there to watch for. You can see that the sender does not extend beyond the interior nut and is no danger of touching anything other than fluid. Over all the cost of the plug is $10.