Took the wife and kids out tonight to hit some trails here in northern Michigan. We stopped way out in the woods by a cliff overlooking a creek. Beautiful as hell. I heard a bear so I told the clan to get back into the truck. Went to start it and it was completely dead. Got out and wiggled the positive battery cable with the key on and everything came back on. I was able to start it and drive us out of the woods. Back on the main road, everything felt fine. Then we came to a stop, made a right turn and noticed that suddenly, the transmission wasn't shifting at all. It's taking off fine but won't shift and the RPMs just keep climbing. Got her home, checked transmission fluid. It was low so I topped it off. Still having the same problem. Everything was fine until the power cut out in the woods, pointing me to electrical. Any ideas or thoughts? This all happened after I'd been using the 4x4 to get through the sand. The truck is 2005 with the 3.7 and a 42RLE. Just had the trans rebuilt back in February.

 

Just took her out for a test drive after leaving the negative battery cable off overnight. It's shifting fine now but obviously, that just means there's an electrical problem (sensor, PCM/TCM).

 

Check your grounds. There will be one at the battery negative terminal to the fender, a large one at the frame and one or two from the engine to the firewall. A bad ground can cause all sorts of problems. None of which you want when there's a bear outside waiting for you.

 

Turned out to be my positive battery cable post. Ripped the old one off and replaced it and been trouble free ever since. Biggest issue now is stopping this tranny fluid leak. Seems the guy who rebuilt it back in March decide to tighten the pan bolts with an air ratchet. Bolt holes are all stripped and he used a ton of gasket sealer to glue it all together. Only noticed the problem after a breather burned on my exhaust and blew tranny fluid everywhere while driving down the freeway. Climbed underneath to fix it and noticed my trans pan wasn't the way it should be, with orange gasket sealer popping out of it. Then I noticed one bolt was completely loose. Went to tighten it down and it just kept spinning. Looks like I'm getting some heli coils now.