I'm going to have a long explanation of everything i've done to this truck. Skip to the last paragraph to read what currently is going on. Alright so I bought this 95 ram 1500 (beater) for scrap price, it didn't have reverse. I had gone through adjusting the bands and it worked for a week and then wouldn't work.

Tore into the transmission and replaced the rear band/drum and a few other things. However I didn't inspect the pump, valve body, and I didn't touch the O/D unit other then removing it and putting it back on. I didn't flush the cooler lines or the cooler either. Straggling around on a garage floor, when we had to remove the transmission from a normal jack we dropped it to the side on some windstar bench pads I had laying around, no problems there. However we did make the mistake of dropping it to the left side of the car instead of the right side and therefore kinking a cooler line. Got it all back together and put it in gear, nothing. Nothing at all.

2 months went by and I decided to look into it again, first of all i noticed it was low on fluid, added and added until it came darting at me in neutral. (barely got in it to stop it before it hit my neighbors car). Well yay it drives. that's a good sign. alright but why was it coming at me in neutral? well, some idiot managed to lose the detent ball for one, and it was also out of adjustment. Pulled it back into my garage dropped the valve body went to put new detent ball and, fling, it went across my garage couldn't find it, got a new one tried again same thing. Sooooo I went to ace bought 9 ball bearings about the same size and of course since i had extra's it went in first time. However I couldn't seem to get my manual shaft out without removing a screw underneath it. the screw I now know as the screw that screwed me over. the screw was for the throttle pressure.. I got everything put back together adjusted the gearshift lever and drove it to the ford dealership I work at (eww). However I didn't put the exhaust up as I was excited to see it drive. 3000 rpms or so 35 mph and first gear. great it wasn't shifting, but hey at least it drove and at least reverse works.

I pulled it in the shop a number of times adjusting the front band trying to get it to shift and i remembered that I forgot to torque it and set it to spec after messing with it after the rebuild to get it to go. Well then i read about a tv cable. oh okay that makes sense. Adjust the tv cable all the way back and there was still slack. what the ??. But it shifted! erratically as could be though. Couldnt ever tell what gear it was in. So I had realized that tv cable was part of the throttle shaft that went with the screw I SCREWED with. great, drop the pan again, get a 5/8ths wire adjust the screw as needed. put it back together . fill it with fluid drive it down the road and maybe 500ft down the road it stops accelerating (probably where it should have shifted is my guess) I pulled into the scrapyard parking lot where I was at, stopped and attempted to take off. Nothing, stuck, wont move. Had enough decided I was going to pull it back to the shop and between the talk me and my wife had, it was either scrap it out or sell it the way it was.

She came around on the issue eventually to see we shouldn't scrap it. A few months passed after juggling ideas for scrapping/parting it out, replacing the transmission and scrapping the poor thing. We decided to see what truly went wrong. Well I already knew it was driving for sure, and that I probably over adjusted the throttle pressure screw coming to cause whatever the hell is going on. Also when put in neutral the fluid level does not change at all. It doesn't change in any position

Now I will honestly say that I'm in over my head and that I'm still learning but I want to keep this truck on the road. So today I pulled it into the shop. to find that with the cooler lines off, no fluid comes spewing out of the transmission. it is still full of fluid. the workshop manual for this isn't that helpful and I don't have a pressure gauge. But I do know that in no position will fluid come out of the transmission into the cooler lines. I did fix the kink in my line (temporarily) by cutting out the kink (and the sensor) and inserting 3/8th fuel injection hose to replace it. I can say after spraying brake fluid into it that fluid comes out the other side. Irrelevant information since no fluid enters the lines anyhow but I know someone will mention that. Now if what i'm guessing from the shop manual is correct, That leaves the possible causes to be a worn or faulty pump, regulator valve stuck or a clogged filter. I need to know if that is correct. I also need to know if the tv cable is over adjusted, would it cause the regulator valve to be stuck open and what exactly I should be checking for in both the pump and regulator valve. I also need to know how to check/test the regulator valve. any other information or discussion on this thread are welcome and appreciated. Thank you.

 

Need to put a pressure gauge on it, and see what it has to say. Does the shop have one that you can use?

 

I would need to ask, I'm sure the lead does, Now wouldn't it mean since nothing came pouring out of the transmission in any gear, wouldn't that be the same as pressure low in all gears? Just wondering how it all works (learning here). I will check the pressure. But unfortunately i'm not allowed to do anything on the clock so it will need to wait till saturday.

 

scratch my question about it being the same. I was just looking at the test in the workshop manual and it answers my question