Fuse #5 , relay #59... Hope thats the issue, but with the noise idk...

 

Your in a bit of a catch 22 situation AaronS.

Do you spend money on diagnosing exactly what's wrong with your current transmission, which may/may not involve tearing a good proportion of it down. Which costs a lot of money and your already so far into the transmission a rebuild probably wouldn't cost a lot more??
If you do go with a rebuild, what would a warranty on the repair be? length and cost etc.
It also leaves you free to work and use your time more productively.

Or....do you bite the bullet. Assume that the transmission is toast and order a complete and upgraded bullet proof transmission and torque converter. Fully warrantied and with the knowledge that you have a performance transmission back there.
But you then have to fit it yourself. Flush and replace any potentialy compromised lines and radiator coolers etc and then have to take it to a dealership where a "quick learn" must be done to make the transmission fully functional and more cost.

The transmission swap is do able yourself, but I believe you must have a "quick learn' done using a star scan tool and then theres the issues of making sure your lines and transmission radiator cooler isn't full of clutch material or contaminants etc which will kill your new transmission.

These electronic transmissions are full of pumps and switches and solenoids so a "shady tree" approach to them, is a push to be honest.

You need a definative diagnosis of whats wrong with your current setup and an estimate of how much to repair it and what warranty can you expect.
When you have that, you can may I suggest, make a decision on what to do next.

Hope this helps?
Al.

 

Thanks to all of you for the input so far. I did check the fuses and swapped the relay to ensure it wasn't something as simple as that.

I stopped by a local Dodge dealer and discussed my options with them. If I get the truck there... they will diagnosis it for $120 and if I have them do the repairs, it will be credited to the work. I asked about rebuild vs. replacement and it looks like a rebuild would offer a 12 month/12K mile warranty vs. a new tranny/torque converter would offer a full 3 year/100K mile warranty. The estimated total cost for the "new" option is around $3800.

Looking at the ATS diesel 545/torque converter combination for a little under $3400 or the Transmission Technologies transmission/torque converter for around $3000 the cost are fairly equivalent. The dealer cost is obviously a bit higher, but also includes labor.

Before I make my final decision, I would like to ask if any of you have any experience or personal knowledge with either of these two alternative solutions? The ATS diesel unit seems to have serveral improvements to areas they have identified was "weak points" in the factory 545 RFE. The Transmission Technologies has some upgraded components, but it is unclear to what extent it is beefed up in areas that would fail. They claim a zero return rate... but again I don't know if they've actually sold any...

The ATS unit comes with a 10yr/500K mile warranty! Although I certainly don't expect to keep the truck that long... it does seem to be a pretty aggressive stance behind the product. I've requested warranty information from Transmission Technologies, but haven't gotten a response yet.

Any actual experience any of you have with either of these would be greatly appreciated. At this point I'm leaning towards replacement vs. rebuild. It's just a matter of what I replace it with... a factory new unit, or a built up unit. I understand that in either of the built up cases, I will still need to take the truck to have the "learn" sequence performed. I didn't ask the dealer how much that was, but I can't imagine it being too much after reading what is involved (not much it seems). If I go the route of replacing it myself, I assume I'll need to flush the transmission cooling lines and radiator, but is this "learning" thing something that I can "limp" to a shop to have performed, or will I need to tow it to the shop? I.e., will it damage the unit to be driven approximately 20 miles to have this performed after replacing the unit?

 

One other comment I'll add... if I do decide to replace the unit (i.e., not take it to the dealer), I'll probably drop the pan myself again and remove the valve body to see if any other physical damage can be identified. From what I've seen, the shift solenoid runs about $300 from after market sources. I haven't priced it from the dealer, but would expect it to run higher. The service manual seems to suggest a line pressure test be done, but I don't have the proper gauge/fitting to do so currently. Do you feel this would be prudent to pursue? Would I really gain any additional insight into the source of the problem by doing that? After the external pressure reading, it then goes further into checking it at various locations around the valve body, which I have a hard time understanding how it can be done (taking pressure readings from valve body ports), since it would seem you could only access those test point holes with the oil pan down/no ATF fluid???

 

Sorry....can't help you any further.
This is now well over my tech skills at the moment.
Good luck and post what you find and what you do to resolve your issues.
Al.

 

Just wanted to post an update to my problem. I checked all electrical connections and when removing the oil pressure sensor on the rear passenger side, it broke apart! I replaced all external sensors... but no change.

I removed the front input speed sensor and looked inside when the truck was running and saw that there was no motion of the input side of things. My assumption is that either the torque converter, or a shaft coupling the torque converter to transmission was broken.

In any case I decided to have the entire torque converter/transmission and cooler replaced at once. This fixed the problems and the truck drives terrific at this point. Noticably better than before the failure. I don't drive the truck every day, so a guess a gradual degradation was going on that wasn't apparant to me on the occasions I did drive it.

The things I wasn't expecting as a result of the swap out that I thought would be of potential interest were:

1) My idle was not as "rock solid" prior to the failure as when the truck was new. I thought there could be any number of reasons for this and figured I wouldl do a tune up on it after resolving the transmission problem... Well, no need to! The idle is again like it was when the truck was new.

2) The other thing I had noticed was that I couldn't manage to get fuel milage anywhere near what I had been able to achieve years ago. Again I thought it was tune, O2 sensors, age... something... After the tranny swap... back to getting fuel milage like years ago...

Moral of the story...??? Just be aware that an ailing transmission may not give signs or show symptoms that one would normally relate to a transmission, but apparently it can cause many seemingly unrelated problems...

 

Glad you got it fixed!