You can find the bare 46RE extension housing on eBay. Be sure that the housing is for a 46RE that came from behind a 5.2 or 5.9 gas motor, as the extension housing off a diesel transmission will not allow the 5.2/5.9 4WD shifter to bolt onto it, as the shifter mounting bolt spacing is different. I had one partially cracked off ear on my '96 46RE overdrive housing, but I went ahead and decided to have it rebuilt with the transmission and re-use it as-is.

 

Thankyou Dog.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/46RE-47RE-O....m46890.l49286

I'm seeing here they sell the internals separately but not the actual housing shell. Oh well probably best to replace it all, can't beat $150..

 

Problem with the internals is you need a press to press the giant spring in the housing. At least a 10 ton press

 

Woah. Just watched some videos, only stuff I can find is people rebuilding the O/D 'clutch pack' / O/D 'unit'. I'm not finding a lot of good resources/ videos on people removing it from the truck.


Is the housing totally separate from the internals? As in, I can just take off the housing and replace it without fooling around with the internals? That spring shouldn't launch anything to my neighbors yard.. Or does the entire assembly (internals and housing) come off as one?

It looks like I'm going to have to remove it from the bracket coming off the bed/the bracket below coming across from the frame. I don't know how vital those support brackets are to the rest of the transmission, or if those are only for the housing itself/ t-case. Mainly only a concern if the housing does in fact remove separately from the internals easily.

Realizing now my ebay link is of just the housing. So they do sell those, contradicted myself in the same sentence, long day.

 

The housing will come off with the internals. You should be able to buy the complete unit. Try car part it's a website

 

Just FYI, the Dodge part number for the bare overdrive housing appears to be 4797342. If you shop via Google, you can likely find housings by searching by the part number. Also, you can find overdrive internals assembled and all ready to go (without having to press them together) on eBay - here is one example: https://www.ebay.com/itm/402811846047

The housing you likely need is about 11" long. Be sure to measure the spacing between the two bolt holes where the shifter mounts (see attached photo) to ensure you get the correct overdrive housing shell.

As noted, you can also try car-part.com to see if you can find the complete overdrive unit.

 

I see, thank you. I can see how it would be cheaper to buy them separately, it looks like they sell 'pre-pressed' internals for about $150, and they sell the housing for about the same. But the complete pre pressed/ in housing set up goes for like $650. I tried https://www.carparts.com/transmissio...using?&vehicle[cylinders]=8&vehicle[liter]=5%2E9&vehicle[submodel]=SS-fs-T_5-dot-9L&vehicle[model]=Ram_1500&vehicle[make]=Dodge&vehicle[year]=1997 but it looks like they don't carry it unfortunately. Same as rock auto. Gonna have to be an ebay purchase I think

Would the pre pressed internals just slip into the housing then? If so then buying them separately and sliding it in the housing makes the most sense to me. It seems to me that it's that simple but I might be missing something.

 

So if you were to get those pre pressed internals- they would just slip right into the correct housing? Buying them separately is about half the price.

Was that O/D housing in pic welded somehow? Figured it was some weird alloy/ un weldable. Or is that glue?

Thanks for your help.

 

That eBay auction is for a housing that was repaired via welding. Not sure how well that will hold up long term. Might want to shop around via the part number I provided earlier to see what other options may exist.

 

Lots of options out there.. I would really like to just get the housing. After looking at a lot of pictures, it's pretty clear that the housing does just slide over the internal unit. So when I get the overdrive unit off, I should be able to just slip the broken housing right off. I'm not really sure, I should just remove the old one before I make this decision.

One thing that's bugging me- is the O/D unit the same as the tailshaft? If not, what is the tailshaft?