I am having an issue with my truck where it will intermittently not go into reverse.

What happens is you shift it into reverse and nothing happens, you can even touch the gas and it will just rev and not move just like it was in neutral. You can normally wait for a a minute and it will finally go into reverse sometimes normally and sometimes with a loud clunk. It normally does it when the truck has been parked (be it a few minutes or a few days) not so much when driving.

Also there is intermittently a surging while driving where it won't shift from third i believe it is and it revs high then shifts, or if I catch it I can let off the gas and it will cause the shift to happen. Are the two connected or separate issues?

Oh checked fluid levels and it was ok.

Truck is a 1995 Ram 1500 4x4 with an auto trans.

 

Welcome to the tranny rebuild club. Sorry to say but your looking at a rebuild.

 

That is what I was afraid of. Hopefully it will hold out until I can get my Olds up and running, just picked it up as a project car.

I was thinking if it comes to that I may just buy a manual trans to stick in instead. If I do that would the computer have to be changed out?

Would the stock trans be best to rebuild or is there another trans I should look for that can go in?

 

If you try to put in a manual you had better have an entire donor truck right there to get all the parts you need. yes the computer needs to be replaced. As for rebuilding the auto tranny or a different tranny goes you could rebuild yours for around 2k or buy a ramzilla or aps or other heavy duty tranny for another grand and not have to worry about it again. To do the manual swap without a donor truck you would probably be looking at 3k anyway.