"Mopar is easily the worst"...??? I soooooooo disagree with THAT statement.
Some peoples opinions should be just kept silent.

HEMI`s

Turd`s & Chubbie`s

 

Ford fanboys. This thread needs to die

 

I gotta Chrysler made a pretty good tranny (545) in my opinion, some say 2nd and 2nd prime are very close, but as someone who tows often in the summer I gotta say it's a nice feature. When you get up and going your power is always there to get up to cruising speed. Beside that tranny shifts nice and tight (superchips) and quite happy so far.

 

Hmm. You say the 65RFE has no 2nd prime and just used all forward gears sequentially, BUT has a different torque converter. The new Rams have the TCM and PCM integrated don't they?

 

Nah, I don't agree with that. I have no problem with differing opinions, as long as it stays civil.


Now I would have agreed wholeheartedly with this 10 years ago and I have owned/driven/towed with and worked on all of them. But I think the only positive that came out of Daimler ownership was the Mercedes division engineering the transmissions from scratch. I agree with Dusty's statement made that things have come full circle, Dodge had the absolute worst transmissions mated to the best engines for years, but I think they are on par with GM at worst and are much more reliable than Ford's latest offerings, for now at least...

 

I have the 6R75, the older brother of the 6R80, and I will say that the Ford is better on the upshift, Dodge is better on the downshift.

 

Broad statements will always get one in to trouble. All Chrysler transmissions are not the same. I remember when Ford had a reputation for prematurely rusting cars, yet I don’t think that applies today. I’m sure a Ford lover would scream and go apoplectic if someone said Fords rust out quicker than anything else based on things that happened 40-50 years ago.

The basic architecture of today’s Chrysler light-duty truck transmissions remain similar to the A727 and A904 transmissions that had, without question, the best reputation for reliability and strength in the industry, to the point where for years the Torqueflite was the predominate automatic used in racing and was even used by competitive manufacturers. It was the best loved by rebuilders for their ease of service and producing a far more successful repair.

Chrysler started having reliability problems when they added an overdrive to the A727 and 904, thus making them A518s and A500 respectively. The problem centered on one main issue: marginal fluid flow to the overdrive unit. This was exacerbated by temperature extremes, both very cold and very warm climates. Inadequate fluid flow to the OD unit caused severe oxidation (burning) of the ATF, which in turned caused valve bodies and servos to clog.

Chrysler reacted by issuing a retrofit to increase the fluid feed hole in the OD unit. Unfortunately, many independent rebuilders failed to perform this rather simple upgrade and a lot of owners would later bear a repeat of the problem. Chrysler instituted this change, among other improvements with the 42RH (A500), 45RH/46RH (A518) and 47RH (A618). Unfortunately this series came shortly after the introduction of the 2nd generation BR/BE Rams, which proved to be highly popular with landscapers, equipment haulers, tradesmen, and snow plow operators. The RH series was also designed to operate with ATF+3, Chrysler’s then highly enhanced version of ATF+2, where it was designed to provide a specific friction coefficient for the new band and clutch materials. Unfortunately, many RHs received Dexron-Mercon, either as top-off or in drain-outs. Clutches and bands saw significant friction material loss due to the use of Dexron, and again valve bodies became clogged from extreme particle contamination. If you’ve ever seen or heard of someone dropping the pan on an RH and finding a band lever lying in the bottom, it was often because the friction material was worn completely off the band allowing the lever to fall free from the drum.

When Chrysler introduced the RE-series, a semi-electronic version of the RHs, the main issue was with plungers in shift solenoids becoming magnetized, but the incorrect ATF was still a significant issue. In addition, Chrysler provided a switch to de-feature the overdrive and labeled it “O/D Off.” This nomenclature unfortunately didn’t communicate the purpose of the switch very well to drivers, and some used overdrive to haul heavy loads in hilly areas when they should’ve switch overdrive off.

Given all that, none of the Chrysler designed automatics suffered from inherent problems with broken input shafts, sun gears, and planetary gears commonly found during the same years in 4L60, 4L80s, and TH-series found in GMs. Older Ford E4OD and 4R100s commonly suffered from pump failures, direct drum bearing failures, and valve body problems of their own, although I believe they were less likely to be seen by a rebuilder in those years. But I suspect if you took all of the Chrysler transmissions that got incorrect ATF out of the equation, the failure rate on those RH and RE-series transmissions would’ve been the same. I could go on about common problems found in Ford and GM transmissions of the era (like torque converter shutter on F-series pickups), but I’m sure I would bore anyone lacking a fair and open mind. (This conversation would only get worse if I mentioned cars!)

The closest remnant to the A, RH, and RE-series used in Dodge trucks today is the 42RLE (Dakota & Ram) with the 3.7 V-6 (and is really an ancestor to the A-604 UltraDrive). The RFE-series, although using the same basic power drive architecture used in the original Torqueflite, is a completely different transmission in almost all aspects. It is the first fully electronic and fully adaptive transmission used in trucks and has already garnered a reputation for very few problems and extreme reliability.

Both Ford and GM were late with an electronic transmission of any kind, and are relative newcomers to fully electronic, fully adaptive automatics as well. Today Rams are most certainly not having anywhere near the same level of customer complaints associated with the 6R80 (Ford) or the 6L60/65/90s used in GM LD trucks today.

Regards,
Dusty
2010 Ram Big Horn 1500 Quad Cab 2WD, 5.7 Hemi, 545RFE, 3.92 LSD, dual exhaust, 20” wheels

 

I don't know the credibility of your info, but damn! +10 cool points for going into so much depth!

 

lol

 

Let's just say I know a little something about the subject.

I apologize to everyone for the lenghtly response, but frankly I have to question the veracity of a statement that is so blatantly inaccurate, regardless if they say they've owned 8 vehicles since 2003. I also suspect the purpose of the message was based purely on bias.

Regards,
Dusty
2010 Ram Big Horn 1500 Quad Cab 2WD, 5.7 Hemi, 545RFE, 3.92 LSD, dual exhaust, 20” wheels