This is for a friend. I'm a Chevy driver myself. He drives a 99 Dodge Ram 1500, 5.2L V8.

He's not great at internet stuff, so I'm helping him out.

He's driving home today and his Ram stops shifting. He said he drove at like 15 MPH at a high RPM and the truck wouldn't shift. It does it hot and cold, all the time. I am going to change the fluid tomorrow, I'm not sure what it takes. Mopar ATF 3/4??

What else could cause this? Is this a common problem? Any input would be awesome. Thanks.

Edit: Figured I would mention it's completely stock with 60K miles on it.to

 

I had a similar problem when I picked up my '98 Ram a few weeks ago. It would hang in 1st until I lifted, then I had to crawl along until I het about 30 MPH, then I could give it more gas. If I added gas too early, it would downshift back to first and I'd have to start all over again.

Anyway, it improved by about 80% when I adjusted the TV cable on the side of the throttle body. Do a search and you'll find more information on it, but it was very easy to do and no tools required. There's a white clip on the passenger's side of the throttle body that holds the TV cable in place. In my case, I was able to remove the clip by hand. I loosened the cable (that is, I removed the clip and pulled the cable out towards the front of the truck), then resecured it with the clip. A few times doing this by trial and error improved the shifting to where it is acceptable. Easy and free.

I'd start there. There's a good write up on this around here somewhere. Hope this helps, even though you're a Chevy guy...

 

Ok, I'm going to go try that today. I tried using the search last night, but it kept saying my search was too specific, or not specific, and I couldn't put in any terms to get it to bring up any results.

Thanks for the input. Does this truck have an electronic transmission?

 

tell your friend to save up his money mine would catch going into overdrive for about a half a year i went into a dealership and they told me it was normal then about a month and a half later it went out completely so i read some reviews and what not and im far from the only person a lot go out in the 70-80 thousand mile range mine was at 76

 

http://jcj.net/dodgeram/trans_adjustment.htm

Instructions for adjustment.

And YES, the trans is controlled electronically. I have the older Hydraulically controlled transmission in my Ram, and I'm at 144k so far. There are a lot of things you can do to give the transmissions in these trucks a loooong life. Problem is most people don't do them. [>:]

 

it will take atf 4. Unfortunately these trannies are crap and it is pretty common to have to replace/rebuild these under 100k. Many replace the TC with a lower stall heavy duty one as well.

Good luck with it.

 

Damn, I told him to buy the Chevy [8D] Just kiddin' guys. That's pretty bad news for him I guess. I was wondering if it could be something electrical not letting it shift. I wouldn't think that something in his trans would go this early.

Thanks for that link Rom. I will check it out.

 

His tranny totally went this morning. At like 63K, that is totally pathetic. I feel bad for him. He had to get a new truck towed home. He's still got a couple years left to pay on this thing too. Sad

 

Sorry to be a post *****, but I've convinced him to get a nice rebuild over a junkyard tranny.

What is a good rebuild kit? I want something bulletproof. I'll be pulling the trans and having a reputable shop do the rebuild. He wants bulletproof parts, he doesn't want to go through a tranny every 6 years. Anything out there I could check out that you guys know of off the top of your head? It seems bad tranny's are pretty normal around here.