I have a 96 Dodge Caravan V6 automatic. The other night I got stuck in some wonderful Montana snow, and a friendly driver helped pull me out. I must've hooked the rope up wrong, because immediately after I tried to start it, and the engine didn't turn over at all once I got it out. I looked under it and noticed a wire, possibly from the starter, had come unplugged from the tranny housing (sorry, I don't know a lot about auto mechanics, just enough to get by, so I'm not sure of the names of all the parts). Once I plugged that wire back in, it started fine. As I was heading home, I noticed it wouldn't upshift from first. I tried manually shifting down to first, and then back to 2nd, and Drive, but it stayed in 1st. It shifts into 1st and Reverse with no problems, but won't upshift, so I can only drive about 15mph's. I'm sure that the tow out of the snowbank screwed something up, but can't find anything that looks it was disconnected or torn off the tranny? I don't have the funds to take it to a mechanic, and with 213k miles on it, I don't really want to spend a pile of money on it. Any ideas what is keeping it from upshifting, and is it relatively easy and inexpensive to fix this? If necessary, I can resort to getting the part from a junkyard. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Check that your tranny pan has not been damaged.

If you are leaking oil it may be the seal shifted in the snow bank and it's leaking.

These vans are finicky when it comes to oil level.

Check your wiring harness that's it's plugged in, theres a big bundle of wires under there that may have been damaged during the tow.

Last thing to check would be your vehicle speed sensor not likely but you never know.