Ok I have a 97 Dodge Ram 1500 5.9L that I have had for about 6 years now. I have had only minor problems with this truck with the main problem being the Governor Solenoid and Sensor that I just replaced less than a month ago.

The problem I have having now is I took my truck Antelope hunting and I put it into 4H for about 3 minutes and the truck shut off and a ton of steam came out of the tranny. It heated the truck up and caused it to overheat for a second then it just shut off. When I crank it over the fan spins so the engine is not toast but it won't start.

Did I burn up my Transmission as the tranny fluid smells like crap? When I took the pan off to replace solenoids it was in perfect shape no shavings or any junk in the fluid looked like new.

Can anyone help me in figuring out what I need to look at. I am not a super smart when it comes to Trucks but I love to work on my dodge and once I know what I need to do its pretty simple from there.

 

If your tranny fluid smells like crap, then chances are its fried

 

A toasted trans shouldn't cause the engine not to start though..... and steam coming out of the trans doesn't sound quite right either...... there is no water there, at least, there shouldn't be...... unless the in-radiator trans cooler took a dump, but, the trans fluid should be under higher pressure than the water in the radiator, so, that would have flow going the wrong way. I wonder if you didn't blow out one of the rear freeze plugs in the engine block?

for the no-start, need to find out what you are missing. The engine needs fuel, spark, and air to run. Air probably isn't the issue. So, check for spark, and check fuel pressure. See what ya got. (or not, as the case may be.)

 

Ok so I still need to see if I have fuel and spark. I have noticed a drip coming from just above the front axle that is coolant so I must have blown a rear freeze plug as when it happened I did have to put in a gallon and half of water.

My tranny fluid does not appear to be milky or have any water or coolant in it but is there a sure way of knowing. I mean is there anyway to tell if the tranny cooler is leaking or not inside the radiator?

I guess I should just rebuild the tranny and install an external cooler for it. I live in nevada and have never really had problems with it getting to hot anyways.

I mainly use it for off road use and don't drive it around much. Any suggestions on what I should do about tranny I know coolant messes inside friction parts up but I don't know if that would cause it to burn up so fast would it.

 

If you say the trans looks good, leave it alone. First things first, crawl under the truck and see if you can trace that drip you were talking about. The other thing that worries me is you said it overheated... if it were me I would replaced the thermostat at minimum. Hopefully nothing warped (your cyl heads)

 

i've never been antelope hunting, none of those in Ga.

so you were minding your own business and overheated. could be related to leaks, slow speed, bad fan, overheated trans, t-stat, poor cooling, etc.

if there's no water in the trans fluid, then the steam would be a coolant leak, and that matches your one and a half gallon low condition.

you need to fill it back up and find the leak. there are freeze plugs on the rear of the block, and you have to remove the damn trans to get at them.

 

I do believe you also need compression.

 

I don't generally go for the big ticket items until after the others are eliminated.