I have an 96 Ram 1500 sport that needed a new transmission so I bought a used tranny off the internet (NV3500 I think...) and noticed when it arrived that the place where I'm supposed to put the vehicle speed sensor has a cap on it. It looks like it's removable so I'm going to try and pop it outta there but before I did that I thoughtI should ask the members a couple questions...

1) is the cap/plug removable?

2) If I successfully remove the cap/plug, will the gear the vss/speedo rides on be in there?

3) How cn I tell what make and model car it came from?

Thanks!

 

If you purchased a rebuild, there will be things you'll have to swap from your old one. As the tranny fits multiple years.

 

Right. Thats what I'm doing now, putting my sensors etc. on the new tranny. but for some reason on this new tranny, the hole on the tailshaft where the vehicle speed sensor is supposed to go, it's capped. So I am not able to install my vehicle speed sensor.

 

Then I'd say you got the wrong year tranny. Not like it will help, but post a pic of said cap.

 

here is a pic of the tranny itself and the capped vss.

the holes you see in it are from me drilling into it and trying to pull it out (like a dent extractor, only I don't have a dent extractor) using a long driller screw.

I think youre right. wrong year... but what to do?

Here is my issue - aside from the speedo not working...

I put the tranny in without the vss and the truck runs fine. shifts great, etc. the problem is that the engine just cuts out when I push in the clutch to slow down when approaching a stop light/sign, for instance.

if i am accellerating and going thru the gears (like when you pull away from a stop light) it works just fine. but as soon as I let off the gas and begin slowing down, if I push in the clutch the motor cuts out.

now would you say thats cuz:

1) no vss
2) crank pos sensor got hosed when i pulled the tranny
3) rear a.b.s.

thanks for your help my friend.

 

to give you a litle more insight, i have been driving the tuck with it acting like this for a couple weeks. you can kinda "trick" it by constantly putting it in neutral after you climb to your cruising speed. so what ive been doing is accellerate thru the first few gears until i reach my cruising speed and then throw i in neut and coast for a while. if i needed to accellerate more i'll put it in 3rd or 4th, accelleate and then pop it into neut again and coast. wrinse and repeat.. by driving it this way, it will allow you to push in the clutch when you need to slow to a stop. its strange

so i guess the only time it does this is when your driving around in, lets say, 3rd gear and you need to slow down and stop, at some point in there you engage the clutch to apply the brakes and downshift, but when you do that, the engine cuts out.

hmm. maybe that could be IAC or plugged cat..?

 

With a broken VSS my idle behavior was certainly altered but it never died. Try hooking up the VSS electrically but of course not in the trans and see what happens. And yes, you picked up a newer trans. Also you may try turning the screw on the TB to open the blades a bit more.

 

My transmission had same issue and I was wanting to get the speedo working as well. How can you get it to read or is that possible?