A good place to start planning upgrade parts purchases is to take a look at PATC's Dodge page, which you can sift through to find out why, in many cases, they upgrade to this or that part: http://www.transmissioncenter.net/dodge.htm

If by "Stage 3" you mean the competition setting on the shift kit, I recommend you don't. Unless you like the idea of replacing u-joints every 10,000 miles and repairing the differential every now and then. Not to mention breaking the rear end loose with the slightest provocation, which can be especially troublesome. With a street/strip setting you can easily enough learn to feather the throttle to control the shifts, but on competition they bang every gear no matter what you do with the pedal.

 

How berserk do you wanna get? (or... how much do you want to spend?)

There are parts out there that can make the trans bullet-proof. Of course, you spend a fair amount of money just in parts for that.... Six pinion planetarys, billet shells, etc....

On thing I would most certainly recommend for any rebuild though, is the sonnax sure cure kit. Basically, a shift kit that deals with some of the problems our trannys have, and a GOOD quality torque converter.

 

well okay. what about a stage 2 shift kit. The towing one? and i want a pretty solid build so i will spend what I have too. even f I further have to baby my current trans. Ill check that site. Thanks unreg.

 

wow this site is awesome. From saving hundreds on buying parts my self to haveing a buddys uncle who can install and perform the rebuild i can way beat the shops prices. What stall speed should i set. Thats my only concern.

 

You probably want to stick with 1800/1900 on a daily driver unless you have a specific reason to move it up or down. Higher stall speeds are mainly used for keeping the converter in torque multiplication mode until the engine comes into the beefy part of its power curve. This is important if you're shaving hundredths off at the strip, but it comes at a price: Most transmission heat comes from the torque converter and the greatest heating occurs during torque multiplication (at RPMs below actual stall speed). Also, cruising on the highway with engine RPM significantly below stall speed will usually chew through fuel needlessly, too.

About the shift kit: The heavy duty/towing setting is usually right for a pickup, especially one that really is being worked or used for towing and/or used as a daily driver. The truck's so heavy that wicked hard shifts really just tear up transfer cases (if there is one), u-joints, differentials, and if you like wearing out the carpet under the go-fast pedal, tires. All for no good reason.

 

Thanks unreg. This helped alot. Found a whole rebuild kit to replace everything but the planetarys. (waiting until its torn down to see if I need those as well as any bell and whistle) Ill also do linkage there too. Got my rebuild lined up just about. Ill keep this in mind in future trans endeavours. This is way cheaper than having the shop buy parts for the rebuild. I think this post is wrapped up. Ill keep it to the stage 2, heavy duty/tow shift kit, and stall speeds to 1800-1900. Thanks all and looks like ill be on the road again soon!

 

You're welcome! I'm looking forward to your "Got my transmission installed" thread in which you report that it all came off without a hitch and has got you grinning.

Heck, I still get a grin when my truck upshifts. It's like Christmas every day.

Good luck with it!