Hi all y'all, I have a 94 Dodge Ram van with TB 318 engine.

Long story short, We had the entire upper end of the engine rebuilt d/t a cracked head and bad freeze plugs to the tune of over $2000.00!!

Anyway my 'mechanic' suggested that I use a treatment for a high mileage transmission to 'clean it out'. It did its job to the tune of NO REVERSE!!

I know I need a new tranny but I am NOT going to allow this jerk to even attempt to fix it!!

I was looking on ebay the other day and found 2 transmissions for $100.00. The ad says they came out of a 94*97 dodge cargo van. Since the seller bought them for a durango neither one fits his vehicle.

The one guy that looked at the trainy said it had the heavy duty 'diesel' trainy.

My question for y'all is which transmission is in my van?

Thanks!!

 

That info may be on a sticker on the underside of your hood on the driver side.

 

Hi sparkzz,

You are right!! The tranny is an A518

Now when I go to look at the transmissions how will I know if they will fit my van?

They are laying on the floor in his garage.

Thanks!!

 

I think you can go by the size and shape of the pan.
Can someone confirm this?

 

There should be a part number stamped on it. If it really came from a 94-97 dodge van you should be ok but I'd ask the seller for measurements and the part number.

This shows the pan shape

http://www.technicalvideos.com/ident...smission.phtml

 

I'd like to add some help to anyone who reads this thread in the future. Transmission Fluid is a cleaner, it can be used to clean an engine out of built up oil sludge, transmissions are never found to have any kind of build up of sludge, the fluid might be dark, but your not going to find any sludge, well unless someone poured dirt into it. Flushing a transmission is also a good way to destroy your transmission, a good rule of thumb is if a mechanic or transmission shops says they can FIX your transmission, RUN, it's only going to cost you more in the long run.

 

I'll second this. No additive will ever help a failing automatic transmission.

If you find any material in the pan then it could only come from the bands and the end is near.