Ill give you the story, and then ask for opinions, really. I tried searching this out, but It keeps coming back with no results..

Yesterday, I drove my Ram 1500 5.9l automatic to town, when I pulled off the gravel on the highway, it wouldnt shift out of first.. I pushed it to 3k rpm, and finally took my foot off the gas, and it shifted. it done this only in first, only after I came to a stop. Other gears worked great. I checked the fluid, and it was a hair under the ok line (In nuetral, warmed up) So I added atf4 and drove it again. This time, same thing, and when I go up a hill, it shifts down, then down again, as normal (We have super steep hills here).. however, at that point, the rpm's went to 3k, and it gave out. The rpm's flew, and the truck did nothing as if it were in nuetral.. I let off, and let it shift up, and it goes fine.. Flat surfaces, it drives fine (minus the first gear) and down hill, not a problem. It only does this when I push it to get up the hills.

Now, I DO have a leak, which I thought was a bad gasket, cause there was fluid dripping around the rim of the pan.. I took a closer look today and it looks like it "MAY" be coming from above, on the side the shift linkage is..

To me, it seems like its loosing pressure under load, but I dont know a thing about transmissions, other than the solenoids, which ya'll recently helped me replace all three 4 months ago.. Its not doing the same thing as it did then, and its not in limp mode. Any ideas?

My question is, should I dig into this, or rip the tranny out and just rebuild it? Its supposed to only have 60k miles on it..

 

Wouldn't hurt to drop the pan, change fluid and filter, adjust bands, and have a look at the governor pressure sensor and solenoid.... see if you find anything interesting around in there.

 

I gotta say, that drives me nuts.. But, your right. I just changed the fluid and filter three times a few months ago trying to get the solenoids figured out.. Of course, if someone stuck something in there to clog the solenoids in the first place, it could still be there.. I didnt flush it, and I hear you arent supposed to..

 

No, flushing a high mileage trans, that hasn't had it done on a regular basis is a really bad idea.

Did you pull the governor pressure solenoid last time you were in there? Was it all gunked up??

 

I replaced all three sensors, governor pressure solenoid, governor pressure sensor and overdrive lockup solenoid. (The OD sensor is faulty, I have no OD, BUT, it saves me gas on these hills.) They were pretty nasty! Not much metal shavings, but gunky, yes.!

 

Wonder if the new set accumulated some more.... wouldn't hurt to check....

How many miles on the trans? It might be getting on toward time for a rebuild..... (sorry...)

 

Miles are unknown to me.. I was "TOLD" when I bought it the transmission was replaced 60k miles before.. My truck itself, has 212k miles.. Its a senior. Now, when I pulled everything down before, the insides looked great.. No shavings or burnt smell.. Honestly, I havent checked the smell this time.. Maybe I should. It makes sense though, since it seems to be acting up "Under Pressure" that the pressure solenoid was having issues..

 

For the record, Transmission fluid looks clean and smells fine.. No engine codes.

 

If there was considerable gunk in there before, it is poosible that it did not all come out and has now settled into problem areas. Drop pan and check again and pull solenoids and clean. Did you replace with OEM solenoid or upgrade to the Borg Warner?

I would check band adjustments. Leak above pan level could be seal at shifter or at electrical connector on side of tranny. The only issue these would cause is constant dripping of fluid as long as fluid level is kept up. Simple o rings to fix.

 

Just an update, sorry its late.. I cleaned out the solenoids, and it works perfectly fine now.. Or did till this morning.. Now I have other issues.. I didnt get to test it till yesterday, cause the water pump froze on me.. But, the transmission part is working fine after taking them out and giving them a good cleaning.