Ok
history here is my 99 ram 4x4 360 (ive owned it for a few months now) has had an issue. every once and a while, the transmisson will act like its slipping into neutral. it has gone weeks at a time without doing it, then all the sudden it will slip one day and ill pull over and mess with the shifter... then it works again. I changed the fluid (atf+4) and filter and did the check ball delete all 2 weeks ago and didnt have a problem until last night. driving and all the sudden it starts slipping again. CEL came on. this time im having a bitch of a time getting it to shift from first to 2nd. im thinking something electrical but just wanted your thoughts. ive read all the threads in the past months on here that have anything to do with trans issues, but still dunno what i should look for. tps?? governer silenoid??? bands???? or, 5 gallons of gas and a match???

 

how many miles? have you towed? May e te dredded time for a rebuild. We have weak transmissions especially if you dont do fluid/filter changes regularly.

You are checked the fluid while in neautral right? if not you will NOT get an accurate reading. Low fluid can cause this.

What code is it throwing?

 

Sounds like the governor pressure solenoid.
Go to a transmission shop and have them hook up their scan tool so they can read the pressure on a test drive.
A good shop won't charge for that diagnosis procedure.

 

Does it work any differently with the fluid still cold?

 

The previous owner towed the odd thing around, but it wasnt abused by any means. there is 275,000km's on it so yes the miles are high, and im pretty sure its the original trans. I'm going to a buddys shop this weekend to get him to read the codes for me. and ya, when the fuild is cold, it doesnt slip. only after driving for a while is when it starts. as far as me towing, i havent towed anything yet but I brought home 2 monster loads of lumber for my deck last week (20 min drive) and it never slipped at all!!!!

 

+1 on the Governor Pressure Solenoid (GPS). My tranny exhibited similiar symptoms before I rebuilt it. Turns out the over-running clutch in the overdrive had come apart and left little fragments through-out the tranny. If you have never seen the inside of an auto-tranny, little fragments of stuff reak havoc on the valve body, which controls the shifting for the tranny. Long-story short, I believe the little fragments of stuff in my tranny clogged the valve body and especially the GPS.

That being said, you can drop the valve-body from the tranny without REMOVING the tranny and inspect the valve-body (especially the GPS) for crap, crud and stuff.

Just a thought!

 

man, that would be awesome if thats all it was. Im going to my friends shop on sunday to get him to read the codes for me. unfortunately there is no tranny shops around me where I live. the closest one is about 45 mins away, and i dont trust the truck to make er that far! is there a DIY on how to take the valve body out??? I saw the other electronics when i dropped the pan to change the filter tho. i just dont wanna screw this up. thanks guys, you are slowly making me feel better !

 

I know its only a few bolts to drop the mounting plate that holds the solenoid and sensor after you take the pan off, but I haven't changed them myself. You don't have to drop the valve body to change them. I believe it only takes around an hour to do.
You always want to change those two at the same time and if they don't fix it then you just saved 100$ on a rebuild. You'll just have to tell the guy that rebuilds the transmission that the solenoid and sensor are new and not to change them (or charge you for changing them).

 

x2 or hook up a code reader and look for a 17xx error....i had a 1741 error when mine did that...

 

Did it act this way before you changed the filter? I've heard changing the auto trans filter can kill a tranny if it's not done often.