At one time there was a post on here about this, but I have looked and cant find it. Is there a way to rewire the OD switch to be in off mode when you start the truck and if I want over drive I would push the button to turn it on? Would there be any adverse affects with doing this? Thanks in advance

 

http://dodgeram.org/tech/mods/transm..._inverter.html

 

Thank you, do you know of any bad effects this may have by doing this?

 

there are none. it's just like pressing the button to turn it off every time you start the truck.

 

Yeah, the only 'bad' effect it'll have is your gas mileage when you forget to turn it back on @ 70

 

Yeah, but if you get a Flowmaster and duals like mine you would remember to turn the od back on when you can't hear yourself think at 70 mph.........

 

In mixed city driving I did not find much difference in MPG when the OD was off.
In highway driving of a lightly loaded truck the OD helps 2-3 MPG.
I do not personally believe that the OD shifting in and out is bad.
The OD of the 46 auto trans is just the front planetary of the old 727 (1/1.45 = 0.69 ratio)
so the gearing is plenty strong. The spring loaded clutch does not wear out that fast either.
in 1992-1998 46 series trans there is not as much ATF flow to the rear OD unit for cooling as perhaps there should be if a heavy load is being hauled. Chrysler did this because they didn't think people would be using OD when towing and cut back the ATF flow for the slightest of gains in MPG. This was probably a mistake. For the same reason the PCM computer controlled 1996-1998 46RE auto does not generate enough ATF line pressure as it would if maximum reliability were the goal.
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old post
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Here's the results of several tanks of gasoline I kept track of with the OD
either on or off in city driving. After each tank fill up, I alternated
keeping the OD on or off.

I have since made 3 more 300 mile long mpg tests in city driving since I
posted the original 6 tests. My test results now look like this:
-----------
OD turned off runs:

7-19-00 14.32 mpg Amoco87
7-29-00 15.17 mpg Amoco87
8-08-00 14.23 mpg Amoco87
9-08-00 13.53 mpg Amoco87
---------------------------------
average 14.31 mpg

OD turned on runs:
(these were run inbetween the runs above)

7-12-00 14.16 mpg Exxon87
8-17-00 14.25 mpg Amoco87
8-24-00 15.49 mpg Amoco87
9-01-00 15.03 mpg Amoco87
9-12-00 14.35 mpg Amoco87
-------------------------------
average 14.66 mpg

As you can see, so far the OD on/off difference seems to be small with a
slight 0.3 MPG edge to leaving OD on while in city driving. That is about a 2%
difference.

Note also how much the MPG jumps around.
All realworld tests have 'random variation.'

If I had done just two tests, and had by chance gotten the low 14.16 for the
OD on, and the high 15.17 for OD off, I would have falsely concluded that OD
on really hurts in city driving.

To get more reliable MPG numbers for Rams in city driving you need to do
multiple tests in a before/after/before/after sequence. Even better would be
to do SAE/TMC type IV testing with two or more vehicles following one another
'convoy' style.

Most fraudulent MPG improvement devices continue to sell because of this 'jump
around' MPG during normal driving.

If a MPG device DOES NOTHING AT ALL, out of 100 people who try it, 50 will
find that their next tank of gasoline got them better MPG, and they will then
boast what a wonderful device they just bought.

Out of the 50 who get worse MPG on the next tank, quite a few will be a little
ashamed they got gypted and stay quiet, and only a few will be brave enough to
post that the device is a fraud. Some of these will say: "Maybe I did
something wrong and I will check the MPG on the next tank and will drive more
carefully." Half of these will "by chance" find better MPG on the second tank
and get the percentage reporting better MPG with the worthless device up to
75% !