Hey everyone,

New poster but Ive been on the forums for a few months now. First of all I would like to thank you up front for taking a look at this for me and any possible ideas you have would be great =)


1995 Dodge Ram 1500 Larami
It has the 5.2 V8 Auto Transmission
190,000 Miles

Ok.. For the last week the transmission has been getting stuck in 1st gear.. at about 35 mph (about 3500 engine RPM) you could shift it into N, keep it there for 1-2 seconds and then shift back into drive and it would drive normally after that. It didnt happen everytime but it was most of the time. Well after noticing this, I stopped driving it as much as i could and if i did drive, i kept it very short slow trips.

Now jump forward to two nights ago.. G/f gets home after driving it about 2 miles roundtrip and asks me to go outside and put the truck in park for her.. So i go out and it wont shift past drive (she already killed the engine by turning the key to the off position). After toying with it for a sec and moving it to the lowest gear and then back to trying to get it into park it is now stuck in 2nd gear. The only movement it has is between 1st -2nd.

Now for a little backstory.. We purchased the truck from my gf's father. It came with high miliage but runs like a brand new truck.. We did call him and he explained that he has had problems like that before and that the trans fluid needs to be changed pretty much with the engine oil. So tonight i changed the trans. fluid, new gasket, filter etc.. but the truck is still stuck in 1-2nd gear.. Attempting to call him now but he is out of town..

So.. any ideas? Ive done alot of searching on this forum and on Google but Im not finding much at all as far as an answer goes.. Any ideas no matter how off the wall they may be are welcome.




P.S. sorry for the horrible typing or if that doesnt make sense to anyone.. I am currently very very HORRIBLY sick with the flu and forming coherent thoughts is proving to be a real challenge.

 

ALLLLLRIGHTY THEN HERE WE GO....
Transmission Problems....
try adjusting your kickdown band adjust screw.

does however have a lot of miles....
mine has 128,000

directions are as follows:
you should have the same tranny my truck has
46RH


locate kickdown band adjusting screw on left side of transmission, near throttle lever shaft.
loosen adjusting screw locknut and back it off 5 turns.



using a wrench, tighten adjusting screw to 72 in. lbs., and then back it off approximately 2.5 turns,

(i backed mine off only about 1.5, to keep a little extra shift firmness)

then hold adjusting screw and tighten locknut back into place to about
35 in. lbs.

if not that.... then repost and let me me know..... prob. a DTC code or something WORSE.... dun dun dun

 

OK i will check that out.. also to clerify in case I wasnt clear enough.. the actual shifter on the steering wheel column is stuck and can only go into 1st or second (auto tranny like i said) I am unable to get it up to park to even take the keys out.. Will the above post correct that problem? It kinda feels like the shift linkage is hitting something.. I know it isnt b/c i looked but thats how it feels.. tryingt o move it from 2nd to Drive is like pushing against a brick wall.. it doesnt budge at all. Anyways, I just wanted to make sure my problem was specified correctly.. And does the kind sir's post sound like a likely fix? thanks again guys!

Tom

 

hmmm... sounds pretty bad.. like the tranny is in a bind.

now that I have some similiarities with you... seeing that i JUST installed the B&M Transpak shift kit.... and about a week later, it is doing EXACTLY wat yours is doing... not shifting until about 3500... the binding thing.. i have no idea.
anyone else have any ideas?
i called B&M and they said i probably got some crap in my valve body and need to clean it out againn, one of the valves are probably sticking...

 

Man mine has been doing this for a long while. I wrote about it here, and didn't get that much. I bought a new tranny, and am planning on throwing it in. Thing is, I wanted this one to "die" first. It shifts good, as long as I throw it into neutral and then back into drive. I also have a terrible leak, so I just keep it dry. Still working. I don't drive it far and I have a second car, I am just curios. I do plan to replace it during spring break even if this one is still shifting. Heck someone might be able to fix it. I never worked on trannys before, confident that I can do a swap, not so confident that i can do a rebuild.

 

I dont know if this will work for ya, My XJ shifter got stuck like what you said, what I did was I had somebody rock the jeep back and forth while I was inside trying to push the shifter back to Park. worked on the jeep don't know if it will work on your Ram

 

I have a 99 Ram 2500 doing the same thing. The RPMS will go up to 4000 and then you have to go to neutral and back to drive for it to shift from 2nd to 3rd. Sunday I left to go on an errand and when I got to my destination, it will not go into park at all. It stops at reverse, I can shift through all detents from low 1 to reverse, but it will not go into park. I climbed under the truck to look at the shift linkage and everything seems to be fine. I tried to put into park by grabbing the linkage bar that is attached to the tranny just above the pan and it is not letting me go past reverse. Any ideas why its doing this???

 

I am not sure which transmission you have, but my transmission started doing the same thing (i.e. would not shift unless I did a rolling "neutral drop", which by the way is reeeaaallly bad on your tranny)....this is called "limp mode" and is incorporated into the newer electronically controlled trannies (e.g. 46re).....Limp Mode is when your tansmission detects a problem such as excessive heat or low line pressure, and limits shifting so you can't go more than 45 mph...........its Dodge's way of saving you from yourself, Limp Modewill get you home, but won't be a daily driver.

There could be many reasons why you vehicle is entering limp mode......for most electronically controlled dodge trannies, the problem is one of two sensors which are described in the following link:

http://www.turbodieselregister.com/f...id-sensor.html

As far as the linkage issue, I just ran into this problem during a rebuild.....the linkage stopped at reverse.....I took down the pan and looked at the Rooster Comb arm that contacted my manual valve....it appeared I had an assmbly error since the arm of the Rooster Comb was not in the groove of the manual valve...instead it was pressing onthe end. I would expect that you wouldn't see this type of error unless you overhauled your valve body recently (e.g. installed a shift kit).....but who knows you could haveinadvertently popped the arm out of the manual valve slot.....the only way to know is drop your pan and take a look.

I hope some of this helps, but please keep in mind I am not a trans tech..............howeverI did stayat a holiday inn express.

Regards,
R