My father in law has a 2000 ram 1500 - 360 auto 4wd with 46re trans. He was coming down the interstate and got hungry. Pulled in - got a bite , got back in started truck. When he pulls the stick down it register as being in drive but just makes a horrendous grinding noise. No warning lights come on and no codes flash. Had to haul it home on a roll back. Any possible diagnosis - or things to check before just replacing entier tranny.

 

So its not ingaging into gear? I have the same truck and im doing an overhaul on mine for 2 grand, not cheap!! But mine did that before and it ended up being the linkage proplem

 

Can we fix it without a whole new tran.?

 

It is probably just the linkage being out of alignment. When in drive, my indicator is hidden. When in 2nd, the indicator is in D. Or, he bumped the tranny shifter and it is half engaged. It depends on where the grinding is.

 

It will not move regardless of where the shifter is placed . It also rolls even when in park if put on a grade.

 

Sounds like the linkage is out of place. Check your linkage and see if everything is still connected and not snaped or anything, Craw on your driver side and you will see ur linkage bar thing, when you move your steering colum shifter it should move with it of course and if it does its probably internal. Im not an expert so dont get me wrong, ive had the same problem you did! Later some of the more experienced guys will get on and they can really help!

 

thanks for everything so far. I'm lost

 

Sounds like your park pawl did not disengage. The only way to check is by removing pan and verify that the park rod is moving along with the shifter. If so, then pawl in the o/d case has not disengaged (although now sounds broken if still rolls) which means that o/d should be removed at the least. Problem is once parts break inside, it would be very wise to disassemble and clean all the components.

 

Internal linkage/ parking pawl problem. Drop the pan and check it out.

 

Thanks, that gives us a place to start looking