in dieing need of help i have a 3.9 litre dakota 98 and i am so confused about this i'll be driving and go through first gear fine then second gear will kick in and it will just stay there it won't go to third gear i don't know what to do i just bought the truck a month ago and i am curious to know what should i do? is the tranny going? any ideas?

 

first thing you should do is check the fluid, its your duty as a consumer :-)

 

how would i check that i don't know too much about trucks.

 

not to bag on your or anything... i suggest you take your truck to a mechanic or find a friend that can help you.

theres a dip stick on your filler tube. you want to get the truck up to temp, park on a level surface and apply the parking brake. then shift into each available gear and back to neutral. check the fluid level using the dipstick

 

its automatic does that change n e thing?

 

nope. thats how you check the fluid in the automatics. make sure you check it like kurbycar32 said.

 

Had a similar problem with my '98 V6 2WD SLT automatic with around 65K miles a couple years ago...

Shop I took it to for a rebuild said it was common for those years and trans. Indicated that the factory rebuild kit (which they used) included an improved seal that did correct the problem.

Have run another 20K since then and it has been shifting like new since (though the trans shop did overfill the fluid).