I need opinions on what to do with my now broken truck. Few months ago I purchased a White 02 2500 SLT 4x4 5.9l gas engine. 160k miles. One owner. No accidents. Minimal rust. 3000.00 dollars. Which was a low price because seller said it needed a trans. I put a GP solenoid and sensor in for 200 bucks and trans. works great. I have been a tech for 10 years but hate working on my own vehicles. The other day i figured it would be nice to go buy a 25 foot cabin cruiser boat w/trailer for 500 bucks. Pick the boat up and head home which is a 50 mile drive. Turned o/d off. After 10 miles trans. starts acting funny. After 30 miles truck breaks down but not because of the trans. on the highway. Im freakin at this point. Crank no start. Gauges inop. and it says no bus in the instrument cluster. Im thinking pcm failure so I disconnect battery for 30 sec. reconnect and fires right up. Take off and 1 mile later starts cutting out and cutting back in badly. After that it goes into a limp mode where its dumping fuel, black smoke coming out exhaust, and having to shift trans. manually. Get home put it in reverse to park boat and no reverse. Park boat somewhere else and park truck. Turn off key and take key out truck is still running. Truck then dies after 2 mins. and konks out. What a ride. Next day start trying to figure out wtf happened. IPC is still inop. Fuel pump runs constantly. Thinking PCM I turn key to off disconnect and reconnect PCM connectors and start truck. Everything works again. Scanner cannot communicate with Instrument Panel Cluster. No codes in PCM. Still no reverse. Drop trans. pan and find what looks like a 3 inch half moon part of a snap ring for one of the clutch drums. So Im looking at an 1800 dealer reman unit so far. As for the elec. problems I dont know. Im thinking IPC because no communication but Im also thinking PCM. Sorry for the story. Please chime in with your opinions and thoughts.

 

Crank sensor I bet. And check the fuel pressure with a gauge, not just because you hear it running.

 

You can get the tranny rebuilt for less than $1800. Got mine done for right at $1000 by the transmission shop my mechanic suggested

 

Would a bad crank sensor cause the No gauge issue. I heard before that it when shorted can cause major issues with the PCM. I mean the trans. failure is what it is. Needs rebuild or a new one. I was on the fence on whether or not to put pan back on and sell it with no reverse or keep it and have a decent truck with new trans. I mean if a crank sensor could make it do all that wacky stuff then maybe its worth it but why when the truck is running fine can I not communicate with the IPC.

 

The no bus issue is fairly standard when the crank sensor takes a dump. Behavior is consistent as well. It gets hot, it stops working right.... let it cool for a bit, starts working again. When it fails, the pcm will trip the ASD relay, which shuts down most of its functions, thus, the no bus error.

Could also try unplugging the pre-cat O2 sensor, and see what happens.

 

Sounds great if it ends up just being a crank sensor. Why then after the system is reset and before the car is even started the scanner cannot communicate with the IPC?

 

I think that's a separate problem.......

 

Yeah could be. So in your opinion is it worth it to fix it and keep the truck. Also trans. prices for me are 1850 from dealer. 1200 for reman. unit from gentrys in arizona. I could rebuild it myself for 400 but would take longer. You know just thinking about that Im gonna go for the rebuild. Now another ? is there any suggestions you have besides the stock torque converter. Like a little stronger converter.

 

Most certainly do NOT go with just a stock replacement T/C....... the stock units suck. As you tow/haul, I would stick with stock stall speed, or even slightly lower..... (1500-1800 RPM stall) I would also seriously consider doing as many upgrades as you can afford. Doing it yourself would save you the cash on labor, that you could spend on better hard parts. On page six of MonteC's trans thread, (in the faq section) he has a list of parts he suggested for another members truck, that regularly towed a 7K pound trailer. (I have a text version of it, that also includes part descriptions, if ya like, pm me your email address, and I will send you a copy.)

J415 has the Trans thread in the faq section as well, with links to some good walkthru's for trans rebuilds. (great resource if you aren't familiar with auto trannies.....)

Is it worth it? Well, only you can really answer that question. I paid too much for my truck, and then invested a LOT more money into than I really should have.... but, in the end, I have a truck I love, that will do whatever I want it to, and is reliable, and fun to drive. (but, the gas mileage sucks......) Now that I have most of its issues solved. I rather like it.....

 

Ok so I found a mopar master rebuild kit for 140.00 And as for not buying a stock TC thats good to hear they suck. I thought so. Have not looked to deep but see that viper makes a good one. Who else? And 1500 to 1800 stall is close to stock?