Not true friend at least on the Gm's that is. On the 350's, 305's, 4.3's, 5.3's,4.8's, and 6.0's you don't need to drop the pan or pull her apartto replace the rear main seal. You will need to drop the tranny though to get the flywheel and such off the motor. The rear main on those actually slides over the rearhub of thecrankshaft. The rear mains used on thenewer GMstuff is actually more like a rear axle seal than anything. I can't say anything about theFord's though, have no idea.

 

I started a poll on this...curious to see if you're right...at least I hope you are

 

According to this page (on the reliability chart if you scroll about half way down) 1997-2001 are the years that report engine problems, and driveline and transmission problems.
94-95, and 97-2001 reported to have brake problems

and the best news of all is 1996 appeared to be the only year to report no problems at all on a 2nd gen Ram I didn't even know that when I bought it, so I guess I got lucky.
http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/Re...&trimid=-1

 

Pretty cool page...

Amazingly, none of the years list total transmission failure

 

I'm not so sure he is. I have had a lot of major problems with my 01. I think they all are crappy.

 

Bottom line, it's an automatic. Trannys are trannys and people sometimes abuse them. If you take care of it it'll last longer, but otherwise if it fails, go figure... Things aren't made the way they used to be. If your tranny is giving out, do everything you can to prolong it's life untill you decide what to do. Find a good replacement, sell the truck, or rebuild it. One way or the other, be careful in making your decisions. A shotty repair shop will screw you over just as much or more than your tranny would if it fails on you when you need it most. A regular rebuilt tranny might be new but it doesn't mean it was built any better than the one you had before. And a new truck could always be a lemon. Unexpected problems always seem to find a way to rear their ugly faces into people's lives. At least there is a bright side. If you find the right people, your tranny can be rebuilt for a reasonable price to better than original specifications, high quality transmissions are available that won't break the bank, or on your truck as easily as the original did, and new Dodges can be found for around $15k with lifetime powertrain warranties. But, if you do decide to fix your truck, you'll learn a lot about it, and if you need help finding solutions to your trucks problems, you know where you can go for some help. Otherwise, if you do decide to sell, tell us how much, just in case someone is interested in a 4x4 truck that just needs some new bearings and maybe some axel shafts, an alignment, and a little tranny problem that can be resolved with a around a grand off the bat, or an older model manual tranny that is bulletproof..

 

Yeah the B&M Tranny is in the catalog but it never hurts to give B&M a call to get exact part numbers, specs, and prices.

 

My dads 97 ram 1500 4x4 QC has 175,000 and original trans and motor.....My 96 with only 40,000 todate was bought from a dealership with a 12/12 warranty..I beleive they had the truck throughly checked out to feel confindent enough to give a 11 year old truck a warranty..It drives and looks new as far as I can tell never owned new..always bought used with the understanding I need to do my research and may have to do repairs and maintenance...

 

Sorry I missed your post in the dak section... been working a hellova lot these days... I have a 2000 QC 4x4 dak and love it. I just put a K&N kit on it to match up with the open flowmaster it already had on it and it flat out screams... no you can really hear it. and it goes a tad bit better to. Mileage went up some but I dont have any hard #s yet on it. I primarily drive the ram for its range (85 mi 1 way to work, ram fills up 2x a week, dak 4x a week.)

the only problem I've seen so far is a sludge problem that is a common one with the 4.7's. the fix is regular maint. the percieved sludge show's up at the oil fill cap as moisture builds on the inside and the oil vapor causes it to form (from my understanding). I am in the middle of flushing my motor to clean it out from what the previous owner did to it so I dont know what kind of mileage to expect when it's done. so far it's only gone up, and I've been beating on it.

probably too late to help but just thought I'd toss out an owners experince with it... btw, I bought it with a blown trans case and bad steering... fixed it all and now its all good. the blown t-case & steering were directly from the P.O.'s neglegance and ignorance...

 

You trade that in and the dealer will turn around and sell it for more the double what you trade it for... You'll still get another used truck, and you'll still have a payment. If your still accepting suggestions, I would fix it...

One more question for now though. If the tranny didn't give out, and you fixed your front axel by replacing the bearings, seals and the two axel shafts, since one is probably just as bad as the other, would you still want to sell the truck??? Reason I ask is because many people go through the same problem and yet, many people still use, buy, and sell these trucks... Why? They are good, and because the tranny is not the end of road for these trucks. If the tranny gets rebuilt once, and the quality of the parts that go into it are better than OE, then the tranny will go 10 plus years without a hiccup.

And one last thing. When was the last time you serviced the tranny? The ATF3 fluid from the factory should be replaced every 30,000 miles but has a lifetime of 100,000 miles. If the tranny hasn't really been serviced regularly, maybe it's just worn fluid that's giving you your problems. Try adjusting the bands, getting new Valvoline ATF+4 fluid, a new filter, gasket,a new speed sensor, and see what that does. For all you know, that's all it is. My tranny was seemingly going bad at about 65000 miles until I changed the fluid $(60), filter & gasket ($15), and the speed sensor ($30). After about 2 hours of work, it runs like it's brand new.