What's up everyone, I just picked up a new vehicle, a 99 Ram V10. This is my first truck I've ever owned. Well I picked this truck up with 175k miles for 2000 dollars needing an alternator and transmission work. I drove it down from Denver to Dallas. The transmission has problems.. When I first start it up for about 5 minutes it's just fine. Then it will ride out first till redline and I have to fight it to get it past second. Third shifts just fine, and overdrive slips. Once or twice over the 800 mile trip it totally slipped out of gear though and went into 1st or 2nd doing 70...Is it possible I could get away with just replacing the governor and valve body or am I looking at a complete rebuild? Thanks in advance!

 

search the forum !!!!!!

 

Yeah the best advice being a rookie too i can give you is, before you ask any questions search the forum first and 99% of the time the answer your looking for has been posted in the past...

 

welcome to the forum, sounds like you got a good deal.......

from the name of the thread, it seems that he may already have searched, just hink about it, if you type in transmission problems in the search, how many different kinds there are

 

Yeah I actually have spent the past few days just browsing around reading about other people's problems... I got tired of reading through posts where similar sounding problems are completely different. I figured it would be more productive to make sure what I'm dealing with; I've done work on cars but never auto transmissions. I understand the governor pressure sensor can go bad and cause problems with the lower gears. I already replaced the TPS hoping it might help overdrive but it didn't. I guess at this point I'll change out the sensor and see if it helps.

 

Don't know if it helps, but mine seemed to be sticking in second. Would rev high and finally shift into third. Took it to the dealer and said the valve body was sticking, and replacement was something like $900+. Forget that! A buddy who is a mechanic there suggested I do a filter change and use Lucas Automatic Trans treatment. Change the fluid and filter every other oil change. Results were immediate, although in time it would act up again. After about 4 fluid changes, it had all but disappeared forever. That was at about 150K on the original trans.

Somewhere around 175k, a cooler line sprung a leak during a long trip. Overdrive wouldn't go, and when it did, it was harsh. Same guy looked at it and said the OD was more or less gone, and 3rd had some slippage. Said since the miles were so high, it wasn't worth fixing, just rebuilding. Said if I wanted more miles out of it;
1. Change the fluid/filter often so it's clean
2. Keep using the Lucas
3. Since the OD is gone, eliminate it. Start the truck and turn the OD off, every time
4. Absolutley no towing, heavy hauling, or hotrodding
5. Run it till it dies and replace it

He did adjust the bands for me one last time. Said he tried to get it close to specs without risk of breaking one. Still get a little flaring in third, but not bad. With no OD, mileage with a 5.2 4x4 is a little over 13 mpg highway, when it used to get 16-17. Currently I'm sitting at almost 219K with the original trans. Guess I thought it was easier to pay a little more at the pump than a new trans. Thought it would have died by now, but it still keeps going. I hope something in my experience helps you out or sheds some insight. Good luck to you and I wish you the best.