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How is shifting managed in a 46RE?

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Old 04-23-2021 | 08:44 PM
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Default How is shifting managed in a 46RE?

I'm driving my truck more after the recent 46RE transmission rebuild and the transmission seems to shift way too fast when going from 1st to 2nd and 2nd to 3rd, especially once the transmission has warmed up. The overdrive shift seems just fine. The truck has been upgraded to 4.10 gears from 3.54, but I wouldn't think that was cause the transmission to shift so quickly. The TV cable was adjusted by the transmission rebuilder, so that should be fine and working properly. How is the shifting managed in the 46RE and what can be done to modify it?
 
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Old 04-23-2021 | 11:09 PM
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About the only thing you can do, without a tuner.... is adjusting the TV cable. Since your trans shifts way early, I would tighten it up a couple clicks, and go for a drive. Adjust to how you like it. Tighten the cable will raise shift points, and the trans will shift harder. Loosening it will do the exact opposite.
 
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Old 04-24-2021 | 12:27 AM
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Thanks for the information. I'll play with the TV cable a bit to see if I can improve the shifts. As for the tuner route, do you (or anyone else) know if HP Tuners can be used with RAM 1500, 2500, 3500 2nd gen gas motored trucks? I see that they list support for the 1500 series gas motored trucks now (they didn't support JTEC for quite some time), but do not list the 2500 or 3500 series trucks. Is anyone using HP Tuners for tuning and have any experiences they can share?
 
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Old 04-24-2021 | 03:19 AM
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Haven't used hp tuners but I have used transgo kits in the past. I know in my Durango it held 1st and 2nd much longer (more appropriate for towing and off-roading). That was a 5.9 with 3.92s in that. I did less aggressive settings with a transgo in my 1500 with 3.55s and loved it in there too. You can mess with the TV cable, I did that as well on my 1500 before the transgo, however you don't want to adjust to much. You end up with a truck that thinks its under more of a load than it is and my experience was it I had to really pay attention and let off the throttle under certain circumstance cause the truck wanted more power to make the upshift than was required to cruise at the desired speed.
 
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Old 04-24-2021 | 10:25 AM
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Adjusting the TV cable is indeed a fine art. Getting it 'just right' takes some patience. Shift kit is another option, and also offers other advantages, like being able to check trans fluid level in park. (that particular feature requires modifications to the valve body though, which I was trying to avoid.)
 
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Old 04-25-2021 | 02:51 AM
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Originally Posted by HeyYou
Adjusting the TV cable is indeed a fine art. Getting it 'just right' takes some patience. Shift kit is another option, and also offers other advantages, like being able to check trans fluid level in park. (that particular feature requires modifications to the valve body though, which I was trying to avoid.)
All I remember doing was a new manual valve and maybe one small hole to get it to charge the converter in park?
 
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Old 04-25-2021 | 10:41 AM
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Originally Posted by adukart
All I remember doing was a new manual valve and maybe one small hole to get it to charge the converter in park?
Yep, that's what the hole was for.
 
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Old 04-25-2021 | 10:47 AM
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Originally Posted by AtomicDog
Thanks for the information. I'll play with the TV cable a bit to see if I can improve the shifts. As for the tuner route, do you (or anyone else) know if HP Tuners can be used with RAM 1500, 2500, 3500 2nd gen gas motored trucks? I see that they list support for the 1500 series gas motored trucks now (they didn't support JTEC for quite some time), but do not list the 2500 or 3500 series trucks. Is anyone using HP Tuners for tuning and have any experiences they can share?
If it works for the 1500 it will work for the 2500/3500
 
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Old 04-26-2021 | 12:59 AM
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Originally Posted by MoparFanatic21
If it works for the 1500 it will work for the 2500/3500
That is my assumption as well, however, when it comes to licenses for a scanning product that cost $$$, the vendor needs to let me know if their product will work with the gas motored 2500/3500 models, unless someone on this forum has already got HP Tuners working with a gas motored 2500/3500 2nd gen truck? Don't want to shell out $$$ to find out that the product won't work with 2500/3500 2nd gen trucks due to some licensing quirk, since these trucks are not currently listed as "supported" on their web site.
 
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Old 04-26-2021 | 01:13 AM
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As for the shifting issues with the 46RE, I believe I've fixed the bulk of the issue, but would still like to be able to tune the PCM to alter the programmed shift points.

I got up under the truck to put a missing lock washer on one of the transmission pan bolts and I noticed that the TV lever had popped off the top of the stem that sticks out of the valve body. The lever wasn't bolted on tight after the electronic parts were swapped out on the valve body to fix the transmission temp light and overdrive shutdown issue. Re-connected the TV lever and tightened the 7/16" bolt down well and the transmission is now shifting much better. I still plan to adjust the TV cable length slightly to try to fine tune the shifts a bit better.
 


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