so im looking at a 96 dodge ram as a project. can get it cheap and low mileage. but the owner told me that he was stuck put it in reverse and it wouldnt work after that day he said he has never had reverse. he changed filter and fluid. any reason or any fixes to this problem?

 

Need to rebuild the tranny.

 

May not need a rebuild, just sounds like the band anchor fell off. That wouldn't be too hard to repair.

 

assume that it needs a $2000 transmission rebuild or a $1000 junkyard trans when deciding whether to jump in or not.

if you can repair the trans then its a huge plus. if you can't then you're not stuck with a truck that won't run and no money to fix it.

 

In drive does it upshift correctly?

 

i think he said it was stuck in reverse

 

The OP's post is worded poorly but I think he means that the owner got stuck in a ditch or something and used the reverse gear and now the reverse gear no longer works.

Does the truck drive in all other gears?

If just reverse is bad I suspect that the reverse band is burned up or the strut fell out. If the strut fell out you could put it back if you can get your hands up there (will have to remove valve body at minimum) and you won't have to rebuild the tranny. With hard reverse and spinning the tires these trannies heat up really fast and I would not be suprised if that band is burned (especially if he was rocking it) and the other clutch packs could be burned.

If you want a project you could just rebuild the tranny yourself. It takes a lot of reading and must be done to the letter but is very possible. I usually take about a month to finish on and could do an A-518 with new bearings, new torque converter, new bands, new soft parts, ect for less than $700. There are some special tools though.