How offen does your torque converter need replaced? Does it go out? How would you know? I have 166,000 miles on my truck. We are planning to pull tranny to change front seal because of it leaking. Any advice? THANKS .......FRANK

 

It only needs to be replaced if it's going bad. You'll notice when it goes

As far as the seal, the hardest part in my opinion is getting the transmission out to a point where you can put it in. Head over to this thread: https://dodgeforum.com/m_340929/tm.htm You'll find the factory service manual there. It's for a 2001, but they used the same transmission.

Good luck!

 

I agree with the previous poster. The seal replacement is 5 mins. Getting to it is HOURS...lol. Take the truck to a transmission repair facility. TC testing is pretty easy and should be like a $40-$60 diagnosis cost. Then go from there. With your mileage, I'd be concerened with band condition. In all honesty, it's quite easy to rebuild a 46/47/48 re/rh. It's the specialty tools that make it not feasable...lol.


Also, if your motor is beefed up, then the factory tc is definitely something to upgrade. Im doing 430 rwhp with 1157 ft/lbs torque. And I HAMMER on my truck. My tc went at 168,000. Burned the fluid in three days. I put the ATS Diesel 5 Star Viskus Clutch TC in, with a co-pilot, and an 47rh assembly 4 tranny. What a MAJOR difference. The key is fluid heat. In lockup at highway speeds, I can get my fluid down to about 135 degrees. During non lockup or "torque multiplication" operation, my fluid might rise to 180. I have a thermostatically controlled cooler with electric fan. I also wired a small manual switch in the cab so I could run the fan sooner than 170 degrees. It helps to get a jump on the cooling process. Of course in the winter you would never need to touch the switch. Good luck to ya.

 

do you get black smoke rolling outta your diesel with that kind of power?? i was at the fair tonight and they had deisel truck pulls.. this 01 dodge dually out pulled every truck there.. built up the turbo and dropped the clutch... that thing was pouring out black smoke like a train.. i loved it

 

In all honesty, it rolls out the back so dark, fireflys follow me all day long. It's definitely over fueled right now. It's a neat trick when you have a tailgater behind you, or a convertible. I press the pedal down just to the point where she starts lugging. Imagine a 5 inch pipe lettin go. I get people honking, giving me the finger, following me. It's awesome. I will have to change plates or dial back the currently installed one.


There's so much fuel in there I can peg my Autometer EGT gauge to 1600 degrees.