1998 Dodge Dakota 2WD 3.9L 42RE

As goes my luck with vehicles, fix one thing another breaks. Trying to figure out stalling and get close... brake line pops... Spend all day replacing the line, and another morning bleeding. It seems fine, drive out to a buddy's place... Then the problems.

After I left his place, I get about a quarter mile down the road and suddenly it feels like my truck is dragging and won't accelerate. I let go of the gas for a moment and harsh deceleration and the tires lock up solid, screeching me from about 40 to 25mph, luckily it was late and the road was empty. I thought since I was working on brakes, that something had gone wrong there and for some reason my brakes engaged and locked themselves, although no lights.

This morning, I go out to move my truck, I've lost reverse. When I shift into reverse, the RPMs drop a little, and I think I hear the pump engage, but it never actually engages reverse. All drive gears seem normal. Checked the fluid in neutral and it seemed right above the Min hole, but I didn't idle it enough to warm up the fluid either. I'll have to get some ATF+4 today and put a bit in to see what that does, but I'm not holding my breath.

Of course, this happens 2 months after my rebuild warranty expired in June. A bit of studying says it's likely a snap ring in the OD unit or the rear band? Is there any form of test for this and what's the best way possible to address this. I think I saw you can take the OD unit off without the transmission. I will note: Ever since the transmission was rebuilt, reverse was always delayed. It took 2-3 seconds for reverse to engage (only a couple times in a full year did it immediately engage like drive). Accidentally hitting the gas before reverse fully engaged would cause it to screech and then fully engage.

Thoughts on this and what would be the best way to address it?

 

Drop the pan, see what you find. Might be as simple as a band strut fell out. Given the harsh deceleration though.... I would expect to find some carnage in there.... Sorry man.

 

Would the band strut fall into the pan, or is it topside of the valve body? I've actually never tore into an auto trans before. :/

 

Hopefully yours is fixable.

I found this in my pan..after no reverse.
Wondering what they go to ..

I want to look at SERVO, .
Will be interesting to see what yours has happening with it.

 

Yep, they usually make it all the way down. Not like they have far to go.

That is the snap-ring for the o/d clutch piston. Means you need to at the very least pull the o/d unit, and rebuild it.

 

Looks like part of the OD snap ring. It's sort of what I'm hoping my problem is (my luck says it's not simply a rear band strut), as that only requires removing the OD unit and not the entire trans. If it's an RE series, they should all use the same OD unit, 42RE to 48RE (as I recall anyway). Part of reverse is the OD direct clutch and it seems to be a "common" problem for these trans. Should be able to remove just the OD unit and get it rebuilt. I also read somewhere about a common cause of the snap ring to fail is a broken 3-4 accumulator spring. Easy and cheap enough to change, drop pan, then there's a little plate with 5 screws (and the wiring passes through a small hook on the plate), remove the plate and the spring should come right out. Read elsewhere this is a common break point as well, especially in the 47/48REs.

Of course this is just some stuff I've found studying around, have not dropped my own pan yet, too disgusted to tear into it (plus high humidity + spot showers all week make even more horrid to work on).

 

Do I need to drop tranny or can i get O/D out lowering it an pulling off shaft?

 

Should be able to pull the OD unit off the back of the trans without removing it.

 

Great
does this clip breaking tell why reverse isnt engaging ?

 

From what I've studied up, yes. It doesn't allow the direct clutch in the OD unit to engage, which is required for reverse. It seems to be a common issue in jeeps with the 42RE behind the 4.0 inline six as well. Here's an image showing what engages for which gear: