I am working on a 96 dodge ram 5.2 with a 46RE transmission. The issues it has is it it engages in any gear from park late, and when in a gear, say Drive, it acts as if its in neutral or creeps and then engages and shifts normally unless its given a decent throttle then it sometimes shifts late.

What ive concluded is that about every 10 seconds, it gets line pressure for a brief 3-4 seconds, then loses all line pressure. If you sit with it in drive/1/2 and foot on the brake, you can count every 10 seconds and feel it engage. I pressure tested line pressure in manual second, and when you feel the trans engage I saw a spike in line pressure in the spec range and then quickly trickle down to 0, and like clockwork every 10 seconds it gets a line pressure spike and you can feel trans engage, then disengage in gear.

I also pressure tested governor pressure and it read 1/2 psi per mph instead of 1 psi per mph, but when you casually drive the car it shifts into all gears fine. Its just from a stop that it acts as if its in neutral, finally gets line pressure after a few seconds then jerks into drive. I didnt think it was a governor solenoid or sensor issue because it shifts at correct points, and because it seems the line pressure issue would be the culprit in the governor pressure being low

I feel this is a valve body or electrical solenoid control issue seeing as it happens every 10 seconds like clockwork, as if something began to engage and a seal or lack of voltage lets line pressure bleed down. I pulled the pan, and there was a single valve body bolt just laying in the pan. Interesting.

My plan of action was to remove and clean the valve body. But does anyone else know of anything that would specifically cause this problem? Any help in advance is much appreciated

 

I know that the governor pressure solenoid and sensor used in our transmissions is kind of a poor design and can cause shifting issues at times, especially at full throttle. I along with others here have bought an upgraded governor solenoid and sensor that is designed to fix that problem, and I hope to have it installed soon.

 

Yeah, I think its time to drop the pan, and see what you find.

As an experiment.... Unplug the 8 pin connector about halfway back on the drivers side of the trans. Take it for a ride. You will have zero automatic function, so, run it thru the gears. If it shift good, when you tell it to, its just a solenoid/sensor problem, and replacing them will get you some more life out of the trans.

Welcome to DF!

 

Sorry Ive been away for a bit. Working on that truck. Still have not solved issue. What was done:

Fluid Flush with ATF +4
Filter Change
Band Adjustment
Gov press sensor/transducer with Borg Warner part
Both Vehicle Speed sensors
Valve Body teardown and cleaning

While cleaning and inspecting the valve body, I noticed a heavy nick on the bore where the plug and spring sit for the TCC lockup valve and did not allow the plug to go in all the way. Also while checking many of the valves, they would not come out of their bores. The valve body was pretty poorly machine. When I went to reassemble the 3-4 accumulator housing, the corner that holds the plug in place literally snapped off with no pressure on the screw at all.

Ironically, I had access to a friends dakota with the same trans that he was parting out, so I picked up the valve body and replaced the section of the other valve body with the damaged one and confirmed that the valves that were literally stuck in the bore, not clearing it properly to be removed were supposed to come out. So with all that done and a new 3-4 accumulator housing, I put the valve body back in, and buttoned everything up.

Started the truck, everything basically the same only has more ***** when it does engage because of the pressure sensor fix and band adjustment. Same hesitation in reverse/drive from stop. RPMs surge high, trans gets enough line pressure and SLAMS into first or reverse. From there it surges bearly at from 1>2 and then drives like nothings wrong. But if you go WOT it sometimes wont kickdown till you let off the gas a bit. If you slow down to almost a stop and then hit the gas again it does not hesitate and surge, but you can still feel the inertia of the trans beginning to lose its main line pressure, only to gain it back when you accelerate. Even though it shifts and drives, it feels like something is constantly slipping. The engine had a good amount of work done to it but it feels like its straining too much and reving too high in general for how slowly the car will respond.

I was later told that right before this trans issue started, the car was involved in a minor fender bender from behind. Nothing seen visually, although the owner was not the one driving so how much of an impact the car took is unknown. When I heard that Im now leaning more toward the possibility that the TC was damaged from this accident most likely out of balance or leaking. Its just coming to that point where im not sure its a good idea to get that involved in a possible repair that would normally be done with a rebuild altogether. Of course the rebuild would want to be avoided, however im running out of options as to what it could be.

 

Try the experiment I detailed in my previous post. See what ya get.

 

Tried that too. The trans went into limp mode. Started in second and wouldnt shift from there. Even with the connector unplugged I still had the hesitation in reverse and initially when in drive. Its becoming a mystery. Really wanting to solve it though instead of swap it