Hello guys, new to the forum but long fan of dodge. I have a 99 dodge dakota with the 5.2L engine 160 thousand on it. It has an automatic in it, and i have had it for 7 months. Great truck runs awesome, but today on my home from my sons wedding i was driving down the highway doing 80 and all of a sudden it was like the truck was shifted into netural and then back into drive. So needless to say i pulled over to check things out but didnt find anything wrong . I noticed after i pulled out and tried to get it to kick down into passing gear it didnt seem to want to do it. if i drive normally it shifts fine, but if i push down on the pedal to get get it to kick down it doesnt shift down and move out. Its like something is holding it back. The fluid is fine and i dont see any vacum lines off, but havent looked underneath around the tranny.

I dont have much history on the truck and im not sure when or if the tranny fluid has been changed recently.Has anyone had this issue or know of what my problem my be?

 

I'm no expert but I would check the tp sensor and the output speed sensor. One of the two could be a possible cause of the drop off of speed. You can check voltages on the tp sensor with a volt meter. Not sure how to check the output speed sensor. Check the fluid level too. I have a different tranny but just a little less than one litre down it was doing the same thing.