Wish me luck a $150 servicing with fluid change, new filter, and bands adjusted will fix my trans in my 5.2 95 ram.....20 miles away from 227k. Has a ton of sentimental value to me, been with me through some rough times in life. I loaded it down with a household worth of stuff the other day in a move although I went slow down the highway with the hazard lights on blinking...Just put in a new alternator the other day since it died, appeared to be the factory denso one, and it took the battery with it when it died so I bought a new one too, just did the registration too. After they were nice and got me in despite being very backed up to check out the truck, the well regarded trans shop told me it didn't have 2nd gear anymore...those people that stole it awhile back and tried to rob a bank with it by ripping an atm out of the ground really messed it up. They weren't successful. Unfortunately the cops never hit me back up to proceed with legal action against the people for damages. That's its own subject, just...urgh...

I was considering a used vehicle instead of getting another trans if the $150 servicing doesn't fix the truck, they told me they've brought trans back to life before with it but it's not guaranteed. Including labor, they quoted me only $2000-2200 to rebuild the trans which isn't bad, I was easily expecting double that or more. Also, unfortunately, inflation has dramatically shot up used vehicle prices around me and in several hours in each direction. Kicking myself for not getting any of the beater $1000 vehicles that ran and drove over the years for backup at least, in years prior, you could get a running and driving reliable truck around here for $1500-2000 all day long...and anything above 2000 started getting really nice stuff. Not now though............I used to think my truck was very high mileage until I saw the sky high mileage vehicles people are selling around here for big prices.

The only reasonable vehicle I saw was a 1991 chevy ext. cab c1500 with 152k supposedly original miles with the 5.7 engine in it for $5000, and a 97 5.0 vortec chevy ext cab c1500 for $2000, although with 298k miles on it but "supposedly" only 110k on the engine.

Haven't seen very many running and driving 2nd gen gassers for sale anymore here...the few I see already need engine/trans, one needed a rear end and unknown on anything else. I see diesels but I'm not trying to pay that much for something that's an occasional hauler, 2nd vehicle, occasional grocery getter type of vehicle.

Even if I have to put a new trans, with labor, it's still less than half the price of high mileage vehicles people are selling, just seems the logical choice honestly. Once I get some new tires and tighten the steering wheel up that's easy to do with this nut I saw in a youtube vid it'd be A+ honestly, besides having no dash...I need to get one of those wild west pancho blankets to throw up there at some point lol. I disable the vehicle by sabotaging several major systems while it's sitting parked, good luck to any idiot trying to steal it now lol.

 

With that kind of mileage, a complete 46RH transmission rebuild (with updates to make it reliable) should likely be considered. Once done, the truck should continue running for many more years to come.

 

thanks, what are some updates or higher tier parts I should tell them to add to beef it up some?

yeah, considering how inflation has really shot up used vehicle prices around here rebuilding the trans even beefed up some is still half the price of something used that I’d trust these days, stuff has doubled or tripled in price here, it’s really crazy. Then there’s always the possibility the person selling is trying to scam you with a faulty vehicle. A new vehicle is out of the question with a sky high payment and sky high full coverage insurance cost they’d require, I’ll ride a bike before I ever do that lol

 

OP, check out Monte's transmission corner sticky at top of this forum. More than you ever wanted to know.

 

i will, thanks

 

There is a list on page 6 of monte's thread, of recommendations for a member that regularly towed a 7K pound trailer. I used to have a nice spread sheet of what everything was, but, that was a couple harddrive failures ago.... so, I believe that is gone now.... There are some duplicates in the list, (differences for RE or RH) and he also recommended the GM governor pressure sensor/solenoid conversion.... which is no longer necessary, as there are heavy duty parts out from various manufacturers now. (and completely unnecessary on an RH trans in any event......)

 

thanks I'll check that out.

I did see one 2nd gen gasser 1997 here but according to their info it had pretty bad death wobble. It was a regular cab but had a "custom" extended cab added on....a small camper shell topper, with what appeared to be a black board in the bed to cover up the butt end of it, carpet inside, and some old 1980's couch looking style back seat like out of a van or ram charger lol. They added seatbelts to the back corner of the custom extended cab to click into the couch cushion lol. Never seen something like that before, I'll have to post pics...

 

I would like to see pics as well lol

 

here's an album with the couple pics from the 1997 dodge ram custom extended cab I saw for sale.... https://imgur.com/a/3QtYoun I decided against it at the $5,000 price considering it was kinda high mileage plus had death wobble- totally unknown what even needed fixing to fix that.

I'm heavily leaning towards just fixing my truck, I feel like I've lost braincells dealing with flakers and people selling junk at a high price lately. I used to think my truck was high mileage until I saw the stuff people are selling with sky high mileage around here at a high cost too.

I looked into having cars online shipped to me that seemed like good deals, but conveniently, none of the northern state sellers would post any pics of the bottom of the vehicles to show if it's all rotted out with rust from the salted snow roads, or, would purposefully (IMO at least...) post only one out of focus picture not showing any actual important parts like the frame,etc. One person turned off their messages when I simply asked why was their brake light on in the dashboard when they didn't list any brake problems in the ad...urgh. Two didn't write me back when I inquired nicely about actually posting pictures of the undercarriage of the cars to see if it was rotted out with rust.

suffice to say the used vehicle market is horrid right now. At least for someone that doesn't want a sky high new car payment PLUS sky high full coverage insurance required payment. The truck is just a secondary vehicle for occasionally going to the store or hauling stuff these days, even if the $150 servicing doesn't fix the truck, $2k-2.2k I was quoted by the well regarded trans shop for a rebuilt trans including labor is significantly cheaper than even beater cars these days. I saw a potentially good deal on a 96 Camry car for only $1200 with 192k miles on it until I read reviews of the hole in the wall dealership, where multiple people said on the way home with their newly bought vehicles, the engines blew up, and the dealership "ghosted" them by not ever answering their calls or anything. It also boggled my mind seeing dealerships selling vehicles with the check engine light already on, I don't wanna buy something that's gonna need a ton of work done to it, at least I know my truck inside and out pretty much. Like I said before, with some new tires, and that steering nut tightened, I'd consider the truck to be A+ rating with a new trans installed, and at the rate I put miles on it, will last me my entire lifetime lol. I need to charge the freon too, I can't be cooking to death inside with no AC in the horrible humid Tx summer...

 

Yeah, right there with ya. Went looking for replacement vehicle for the wife, and anything that is reasonably priced, has stupid high mileage, or is simply undriveable... People seem to be looking to get seriously outrageous money for junk. Looking at things around here, I should be able to sell my truck for 20 grand......