I am about to buy a 97 1500 Sport 4x4 with and Automatic. It has 150k miles right now, and it is still on it's original Transmission. I know that there are problems with these transmissions and have a fairly high rate of failure. If I were to have a problem with this, how much am I going to be out of pocket on average? Rebuild/Used or New.


I don't know if this has a 318 or 360 yet, I'll know tonight when I go to look at it.

 

Most suggestions will be either APS or one from Dr. Evil. I am still trying to get everything I ordered for mine from APS, so I'm not prepared to give an opinion on it yet, except that if you want it soon after you order it, you may not want to go with APS. I'll elaborate more on this later on the forum once I finally get it installed and can report on how it runs.

Mine from APS has cost around $3,600 including the extra for the 2,500rpm stall converter. I ordered it in July, and I just got it about a week ago. Dr. Evil never responded to my questions I sent them in a detailed email, but Wayne at APS responded promptly and in detail for every question I asked. I believe the Dr. Evil units run around $3,000 more or less, and are rebuilt units. APS starts with a brand new unit, then reworks the internals with higher quality parts and custom tweaks to suit your needs.

 

just do a rebuild, I think the last guy that got one was 1,300.

with 150k on it already do you really thing you need a 200K tranny?

 

For a stock rebuild, dont pay anymore than 1500 dollars. For a performance unit you could pay up to 3000.

 

Having my tranny rebuilt by anyone locally would be rolling dice.
Here's my idea of replacing my trans:
1. Order from a place that specializes/experienced in rebuilding Dodge 46RE's
2. Have a "stock" rebuild shipped to my house or local freight dock.
3. Ship mine to rebuilder to get core refund.
4. $1500-2000
If I'm dreaming, slap me and wake me up! Ha Ha!

Is this realistic? Is there any company that does this?

 

Maybe Dan Arcand,

www.thefastman.com

the warranty makes me a little nervous. He does know a crapload about Mopars though, and will answer just about any question you throw at him. If you try him, let me know how it works out.

 

I wasn't too comfortable with their answer about their warranty, or lack thereof. Here is a copy/paste of a portion of my emailed questions that they responded to earlier this year. I asked the warranty question, and they responded with the following.

1) What warranty do you offer on your transmissions?
"We have not had an Official Warranty policy as our transmissions were designed for racing and the abuse that entails, however, we have always serviced our customers and our products regardless of a warranty paper in hand. Please research our reputation, customer service after the sale, and durability reports.

We will be glad to offer a one year warranty on your transmission. This warranty will cover parts and labor on our transmission.

Also please remember, warranties add cost to your bottom line! Once a transmission has been built by us, it can be rebuilt by us for significantly less cost than the initial purchase as the machine work and customization has already been done!

Not discouraging warranties, just alerting you to how the business works. We have no qualms with standing behind our products as we have done for years!

We have not had problems with our transmissions, other than installer error or cooling circuit related failures, which we can identify immediately upon inspection."


I was somewhat discouraged with their design parameters when compared to APS for similar costs. I was disappointed with their response because the throttle body work that Dan does is amazing, and with all of the positive feedback about him and his work, I guess I expected more with his transmissions. I really liked that Wayne at APS has a standard policy of a 2year warranty, even using his tranny for racing, off-roading, etc. He EXPECTS you to use it hard and have fun with it. He builds them to handle what you throw at them. He also informed me that if something went wrong with the tranny after the warranty period expired, he would still work with me on it because he knows that his work is top notch and wants his customers to be happy.

I'm not trying to say anything bad about Dan or his transmissions, at all! Dan is an awesome guy to do business with. The throttle body I got from him exceeded my expectations and he answered all the questions I ever sent to him, regardless if they were a potential sale for him or not. He really is a nice guy to deal with. I personally made the choice to go with APS instead because of what I could get for the money.

 

Ron,
thanks for the info!

 

I recommend APS but like Ron said they were not the fastest getting me my transmission but it was an amazing product once I got it. I've said this numerous times. My transmission didn't take that long to get though. I ordered it on Christmas Eve. I was surprised Wayne even talked to me that day but he did. He told me that he should be able to have it ready to ship in 2 weeks. They were supposed to be close until after the new year but he said that he would work on mine starting the day after Christmas. It took a month or so until he shipped it and I had it in a week after that. So about a month and a week. I called him about 3 times a week though and stayed on him checking on the status of it. It didn't bother me it took more than the 2 weeks to have it ready to ship a whole lot because I knew it was Christmas and all. I then didn't get the torque converter so I called him up and told him I needed one over night and I told him I'd pay to ship it. He checked on the other one and said UPS couldn't find it or something and the guy that builds them has the day off but that he had called him and he agreed to come in and build me another one. Then he told me that if it was okay with me he would pay half on the over night shipping and let me pay half. This was fine since I'd offered to pay for the whole amount of shipping. His cost for shipping was $120 which wasn't bad consider UPS website said like $160 or $180 or something. So I ended up paying an extra $60 to have that shipped.

I got it the next day and the shop got it installed. All went well. I did state in another thread I lost reverse but when I called Wayne he told me sometimes the bands get out of adjustment when breaking in so to check that and told me how to tighten it. I did that as he walked me through it on the phone and it's been flawless since. It was flawless before and up until that happened also. He said anyone that builds these transmissions has seen this happen before as they get out of adjustment when breaking in and that it shouldn't have damaged anything. If I ever had a problem to just give him a call back. He offers amazing support which is one of the biggest things I like about him. Before and after the sale he has always had amazing support.


I can't say enough good about him and his product the only negative thing I can say is that it sometimes takes a while and imo it's well worth the wait. I know a guy on PS ordered one before I did and got it around the same time so his took even longer than mine. About the time frame Ron's did I think. Maybe since I stayed on him mine got done faster or maybe he finishes them all up at once I don't know.


Anyway, what are you still waiting on Ron? How do you like dealing with him soo far or are you not too happy since it's taking a while? Mine took a while but not that long. I might be starting to get upset if it took that long. Infact I told Wayne at the end of the month with mine if it didn't ship at the end of that week to please refund my credit card and he could re charge it when he got ready to ship it. He told me that it was for sure going out and not to worry about it and sure enough it did go out that week.

 

I won't go into too many details as of yet, but I will say this... I ordered the transmission, along with a torque converter and a plenum plate replacement kit and paid for all of it in full on July 22nd. I agreed to have all 3 items shipped together to save on some of the shipping costs, but I also was expecting to get the shipment long before now. As of right now, I'm still waiting for the plenum plate kit. He decided to ship everything separately to avoid possible damages if shipped together with the tranny. That is irritating since he could have shipped my plenum plate kit back in July and I could have already had that repair done long before now.

The tranny came about a week before the torque converter so it did me no good until I got the TC. He has sent no paperwork or notes at all on it, and I'm still trying to rework my schedule to make the time to install it myself.

I plan on giving a full report once I've gotten it installed and I can consider this transaction COMPLETE. I communicated with him over the entire process after placing my order via email and saved them for reference.

I don't want to give a negative, or positive review until I can report on how the tranny runs. Wayne seems like a really nice guy to talk to on the phone, and usually answers emails fairly quickly. He seems very knowledgeable when it comes to transmissions, but I have to admit, I feel he's a little lacking on the business end of things. As I mentioned earlier, I'll report more later.