I have a 1997 dodge ram 1500 with a 5.9.I recently noticed a fluid leak between the engine and tranny.A local shop told me it was a freeze plug.They said they would have to drop the tranny to change it.Is that true?Also how many freeze plugs are there?thks

 

Welcome to DF! I will move this to the 2nd gen Ram section.

 

Yes they are right the trany must be removed. There are two freeze plugs back there, make sure they install brass freeze plugs when this work is done. Cheap parts but labour is going to make this cost hard. If this was me I would pull the motor change all the plugs at once and do any other work while its out, for me its ezer to pull the motor over playing under the truck moving a trany.

Edit: 2wd or 4wd above is based on 4wd.

 

*Core plugs.

 

The plugs you will need are 1-5/8". As was mentioned, best to replace them all with brass deep cup freeze/core plugs. I believe there are 8 or 10 plugs total that are 1-5/8". There are 2 each at the back and front of each cylinder head, which are 1-1/4" diameter. When you remove the 1-5/8" engine block plugs, be sure to clean out the rust/muck that you will likely find behind each plug, which accumulates in the bottom of the block.

 

welcome to df.

does your truck live in a rust belt. if so, you should check them all before making a decision, as they might all be shot.

the ones on the side of the block are fairly accessible.
the ones on the back of the block are a pita.
the ones on the back of the head are even worse, as there's no room to knock in new one's even with the trans out.

here's a pic...

 

by the way, the freeze plugs come in a kit from sealed power, and its by far cheapest at o-reillys. the sizes are 1-5/8 and 1-1/4, and you can buy them in a kit with the end of the cam plugs or just buy them individually in shallow or deep, steel or brass.

they've gone up a little - $8 for steel, $14 for brass.

see if this works.
http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/se...Redirect=02268

 

the angle of the picture above is deceiving - the back-of-the-head plugs look accessible, but are not. I intended to change them, but there's a very marginal amount of room to drive in a new plug, and based on the good condition of the block plugs that were removed, i decided to leave the old head plugs in and leave well enough alone. if the block plugs had been corroded, I would have tried it, but otherwise i could foresee--- i'm about to remove perfectly good plugs and then not be able to drive in the new ones, and be stuck....so stop.