So turns out the overdrive housing on my 94' Ram 2500 V10 4x4 is cracked. I was trying to track down why my overdrive hasn't been working and where on earth this crazy fluid leak was coming from. And I finally found it, pretty sure that could be a cause for both problems.

Now the big issue is. I have a shop that can get me a new housing, rebuild it, and do all the labor taking it in and out which is nice, but they want about $700-800 for it. I also have a friend that works at a tranny shop professionally and he's willing to do it on the side for basically whatever parts run plus a couple hundred for labor and he's saying that the whole trans should be under $300 in parts to rebuild/re seal it unless something is muffed up with the clutches/bands for 1,2, and 3. But now I'd have to buy an overdrive housing so that would add to the parts expense.

Option number 3 is I've found a rebuilt O/D housing online for sale for $290, and at that price, and considering I wouldn't have to drop the whole trans a take it to my friends place to fix, it seems tempting. After all, the less time I have the truck down the better since it's my daily right now. And I'm really dreading the idea of dropping the transmission.

So I guess the big question is, what do you think my best option would be? Given that money is a huge issue. I could afford the $290 in fairly short order and should then in turn have a good working o/d without even having to take down the trans, the money for the whole rebuild to my friend might not be too terribly far off, but the money for the shop is going to be a while and that only ends up with a working overdrive.

Lastly if I did get the rebuild O/D housing unit off the web, how hard is it to actually swap it out? Do i need any special tools or gaskets or what have you that might make it more of a pain and or more time consuming than just taking the whole thing down to take it to my transmission building friend?

The trans shifts fine 1st-3rd and the TC locks up fine as well. So should I really worry about the rest of the trans? According to my uncle it was rebuilt about 15k miles before he parked it in 2003.

Sorry for the long winded post, just wanted to put out as much as I could info and situation wise to help get the best advice possible from all of you.

Thanks in advance.

 

I just droped my OD unit (2wd) and rebuilt it and reattached. Not a bad job if you have built one of these before (as long as you don't forget the alignment tool thinggy). But i would recommend rebuilding the entire unit. Go to www.wittrans.com for parts. They ship fast and even ahve the OD units whole or just housings. I pciked up used OD housing for mine at an area tranny shop for $85. Rebuild kit for entire tranny about $270 including clutches and bands.

How many miles you got on that one? If you feel confident in previos rebuild (check tranny pan to see if there is any pieces or crap in there) then just rebuild OD. Wittrans will sell any part or piece so you don;t need a hole kit if you are not doing the entire tranny. If you are not sure about parts, call them. Customer service is excellent and shipping is fast.

 

Well I personally have never rebuilt any piece of an automatic transmission. So I don't know much of anything about doing it. So many parts, always made me somewhat nervous. I'm great with engines, and really just about everything else mechanical. Automatic Transmissions just always gave me that impending doom feeling. haha.

I don't have the spiffy alignment tool thingy either, so I guess that would be something I'd need to invest in. The current rebuild supposedly had about 15k on it when I got the truck, so it would be around 17-18k now. The only part that makes me think I should just do the whole thing is because the seals have probably gotten hard and brittle over the years of sitting not being ran or moved. Other than that I'm sure it was done great, my uncle took great care of the thing, one of those no expense spared people. If it needed done he had it done right.

I do plan on having this truck most likely for life. So I would suppose the investment would be well placed. Money and time are huge concerns though. Money I just don't have much of to spend, and time I can't afford much of either being my only ride to work. I'm about to check that site out now though.

 

Just noticed there are about a ton and a half of choices for overdrive/extension housings for the a618, how do I know which one is the right one?

 

I would call wittrans to make sure. Cust service number on their website. (slow to respond to e-mail but phone gets answers right away).

Check out this thread. If you have a friend that works in tranny shop, it should be no problem. You will need the shaft for alignment and a piece to use in the press and a hydraulic press. Details on my fabbed tooling on page 4 of thread.

Darn, if I can do it, anyone can!

This ONE......(another ooops for me!)

 

Ummm.....what thread??

 

(fixed that....Thanks!)