ok guy's i need your help ... i have a 1986 Dodge Ram B250 with a 318 and a 3 speed transmission.. well here is my question :

i went to my sisters today when i was leaving i pulled he van into reverse and it grinded like it sometime does didnt think much about it, backed onto the highway and started going, well the tranny wa sgrowling really loud, then it started acting like it was going from drive into neutral i couldnt go more than 15-20 mph ... it kept getting worse by the time i drove the 2 miles home ... it got to the point when i put my foot on the gas it would just rev up like it wasent in gear at all, i got home tried to pull into the drive way which has a tiny hill at the bottom of it i couldnt make it up it, i tried putting it in 1st 2nd and drive and it still wouldnt go it just acted like it was in neutral... i shut it down about an hour later went out restarted it and pulled it into drive and it took right off...

now i was told that the tranny most likely burnt up, and that these vans are noted for it, and when they cool down they will shift and take off as normal, but if it warms up it will act like it did today..

we are taking it to my husbands father house tonight to change the filter and do some other small things to see if that works before we go any further... what are your opinions on this ? does it sound like i burnt the tranny ? by the way it is full of fluid and the fluid is not burnt it is still red/pink ... TIA

 

a little update ... they just left to take it up to the garage now it has sat for 9 hours and my husband started it up put it in reverse and it did that horrible grind again... put it up in park and back in reverse still did it... does that sound more like the rear end went out ? cuz when it grinds like that it sounds like it is comming from the mid section of the van....

 

To me it sounds like either the torque converter or the internal fluid pump is shot. Although, I'd lean more toward the TC being shot over the pump because of the grinding noise.

If the rear end was bad I doubt the van would've moved after you had let it sit at the bottom of your driveway for an hour.

If it is the TC, there's a chance the tranny is still good. It might require a good flushing to get out any metal chips, so I would not run it any more than necessary just to prevent those metal chip from circulating throughout the tranny.

 

well they changes the screen and it works fine now, they screen was completely blocked.... so thankfully the tranny is fine ...

 

That's good to hear, I knew it had to be something to do with a lack of fluid circulation. I can't say I've ever seen a screen that clogged up so much as toprevent operation of the tranny.

What was the screen all clogged up with?

 

i am not sure what it was clogged up with, but apperently it was just a temporary fix cuz it started again this morning, took me 45 minutes to get my kids to school and back home, kept having to pull over cuz i couldnt move and shut the van off and wait 5 minutes and start it and it would go into gear... and once it stopped in the middle of the street and i had to shut it down again and wait... i dont know what else to do.. my father in law is a mechanic and he said there isnt anything else he can do with it, he said he was hoping the screen was the problem he said he thinks its just the end of the road for it.