I have a '97 Dodge B2500 van with the 318 engine, and tranny with overdrive. Had tranny serviced about 6-weeks ago including filter kit. Ran fine. Now, transmission slips and speed drops to about 20 mph, level road. With no codes revealed, a scan of the system shows govenor pressure reading ZERO. Stomp on the gas and pressure goes to 25. Removed pan for visual inspection, looks OK, filter is in place. Replace pan, added fluid, tranny still slips. What's up?

 

Welcome to the site. Is this similar to the Ram van?
FF

 

Yes, I do believe it is the RAM 3/4 ton cargo van. Do you know why the transmission is slipping?

 

Moved thread to the Ram van section,
FF

 

Assuming you didn't have the tranny serviced because you were already feeling something wrong with it...there can be several reasons.

The internal pump can be no good, the shift linkage could be out of adjustment or binding, The shop that serviced your tranny could've stiffed you by just flushing it and not dropping the pan to replacing the filter.

Also, when the pan comes down for a filter/fluid change there are two band adjustments that have to be performed, maybe they weren't.

Then there's the worst case scenario of needing the tranny rebuilt. But if a rebuild is in order then the shop would've seen a lot of clutch material in the pan, had they truly dropped it to replace the filter and adjust the bands.

 

Transmission was running fine prior to and 6-weeks after being serviced. When I removed the pan I could see the shop had replaced with new gasket and new filter. No indication of debris in the pan. Don't lknow if the shop made band adjustments. Still in the diagnostic stage is way too soon to even think about replacing the tranny.
What else could it be?

 

I have replaced the Govenor Pressure Regulator with the expectation this would solve the problem. On test drive, it shifted nicely into 2nd leading me to think it was fixed. But no. Further along the road, shifting quit and in fell into limp mode. Could there be some procedure for re-setting the system after having install the Gov. Pressure Regulator? Anybody?

 

The only means to reset any on-board electronics is to disconnect the battery for 10 minutes.

 

And ...... Turn the key full forward as if the vehicle was running. This drains all the energy reserve out of the system.


Hey, a question about the tranny service. What tranny fluid did the shop use??? Was it a Dextron III maybe? If so, it would explain the problems. Only true AFT+3 or better yet, AFT+4 fluid is to be used. Anything marked compatible as/with/like ATF+3 or +4 is a no-no and will actually have a tranny nor work in a short time.

 

Good question, I sometimes overlook this in my quest to give shops too much credit.