Hi everyone,

I drive a 1996 Ram 4x4 that has been causing me some issues lately. Last week I was just cruising down the road and all of a sudden the truck decided to turn off overdrive...the button on the dash lit up and rpm's shot up. I was only going about 60mph and did not have any load. I tried pushing the overdrive button to reset it, but it wouldn't reset. I made it home running about 50mph and 3k+ rpm. I shut the truck off for about 5 minutes and then restarted it and everything reset. Well, today I was driving around again and everything was fine until I was on my way home. Cruising down the road at about 60mph and then it seemed like I was losing power. I tried to accelerate and my rpms went up, but the truck was not accelerating. I slowed down a bit, dropped it into 2nd and regained my power for a mile or so and then it did the same thing. I then shifted back into normal drive and it drove normal until I was about a mile from my house and normal drive acted up again. I parked it in my driveway and that is where it sits. Today, the overdrive button did not come on.

In October of 2005 something similar happened and I ended up putting a factory rebuilt transmission in. I guess I should consider myself lucky because the original lasted me until around 130k miles. Now I have 158K on the truck and it's acting up again. With the rebuild I got a 3yr 36k mile warranty, so I'm still ok there, but I'm looking for any advice on what might be going on before I take it back to the transmission shop. Thanks in advance!!

 

I had a similar problem with my 1998 Ram. I was on a trip with my friends when it started to do the same thing the overdrive would switch on and off. then later it would bog down and i would have to turn off my truck and start it back while rolling to fix it. i took it to the shop a few times but they could figure out the problem. they finally called some place and found the answer. i dont know very much about trucks but there is a sensor somewhere that gets disrupted becuase there is too much noise where it is. so they build a steel box around it to keep it un interupted. and i havent had a problem since and its been nearly 3 months. i will call my mechanic and ask the name of the sensor and post it. i hear alot of people having that problem so ill post it asap.

Hope this helps`

 

I would have a scanner hooked up to the PCM and ck for stored codes. You could have a 3-4 shift solenoid shorting out.