My father had a 98 with 150,000 with its original tranny, then it burned to the ground. He later got another 98, identical to the previous one, he got to 175,000 on its original tranny, then it started to leak out the front main and he decided to get it rebuilt. You should see the way he drives too. He regularly raps it up to 5 grand on normal acceleration, then my uncle has a 96 that the transmission stopped shifting at 85,000, and he never gets above 1500 rpms while accelerating. I convinced him to put Lucas Stop-Slip into it, after a couple of miles down the road it started shifting. You cant punch it or else it wont shift, and you have to let it warm up in the winter for 20 minutes, but it has been shifting for the past 40,000 miles.

 

Mine had 386K on it when it quit.Had it rebuilt 20K ago.My rebuild guy said he never saw one go over 175K.Ive got a feeling it won't go very far this time.I told him to get the best parts and I would pay for them.But,I think he still cut corners.It just dosen't sound right in 1st and rev.

 

Thats the problem with alot of these transmissions right there. People wine that they fail in stock form (which is obviously known), then after they get them rebuilt, if they are done right they should be great transmissions. Then people bitch and complain they had to put 4 transmissions in it. Do they not see a problem here? Obviously its not the trucks fault, its the dumbass rebuilding it...

 

Yeah ain't that the truth. If you have your transmission rebuilt and if fails again and you take it back to the same person it's your fault. If you to the a doctor and he cuts the wrong leg off would you go back to him?

 

They sure can but for starters the fluid and filter needs to be changed every 10k miles, there's no way one should assume a transmission would go 1 or 200,000 miles with no maintenance and not ever fail, that's just preposterous. They last a long time, but if the fluid and filter never gets changed then it really is only a matter of time, thou I also know most folks never do this which might explain the threads you've been reading.

That and drive it in a civilized manner, always, no exceptions.
It may not seem like it's worth it but the cost of one of these is in the thousands.

 

Yeah, vehicle maintinace should really be on the test to get your drivers liscense.

 

Hey now, I think we'd start seeing smarter drivers on the road and fewer foolish ones. We can't have that now, can we?

Maybe not to get the license - I would say have the drivers take that test at every renewal.

 

I Have a 1994 Ram 1500 4X4with 234000 on the orginal engine and tranny. Was my fathers and now I ue it for work. Pulls a skid loader and plows driveways. No problems u can tell its got miles in it but couldnt be happier.I also have a 2000 ram1500 4X4 104000 and I think it wont be much longer. I guess it depends if it was made on a monday or not.

 

I got 111K on mine, and I know it was played with before I got the truck, because there was yellow paint pen marking on the bottom of the tranny pan, with a date that was like, 2 months before I got it. I beat 30K miles int my truck in 8 months, regularly touching redline, but I don't powerbrake, and I don't neutral drop. My buddy had a Durango of the same year, and we used to get him to neutral drop it all the time, and his tranny went at 65K. The only thing I do is drive mine like it's a standard shift, I use it to slow down, and to speed up. I love getting off the freeway and punching the OD button, and dropping the tranny into 3rd I also change my fluid and filter every 15K.

 

92,000 on mine... I average 3 power brakes per day, drop it into gear hard at times, neutral drop when im pissed, regularly sees 6000 rpm (I raised my redline) abused offroad, jumped 4ft+ in the air...

My tranny has firm shifts all around, fluid is perfectly red (only time it was ever changed was at 70k) Im changing it and getting the filter when summer comes so probaly around 94k.

I expect 120,000+ miles out of this tranny... probably wont get much more than that because I have beat it hard.

I strongly belive that if you dont get on a vehicle, and be a little hard on it once and a while it is worse for it, than the actuall beating... So many peoople that have trannys go out always say "i always babyed it" and then the people that are hard on it sometimes but not full out beating on it (brake stands every day, neutral drops) will seem to last longer... not always true but I belive it.

I got a neighbor with a ram, he got drunk one night, put his truck in 4low and just started doing crazy reverse then drive, smoking all 4 tires... did like 10 of them untill the front driveshaft broke... that tranny has 180k and is still fine... he beats on it all the time even more so than me.