Had the van (2000, 1500, 5.2, 112k) a couple of months now, have everything working, and replaced the needed brake and steering parts to make it safe. New plugs and wires, copper cap, and rotor. The only issue remaining is sometimes it seems the trans can't decide on first or second at times usually when cornering. A little history of what I've done so far transmission wise. It was shifting late when I bought it, and I found the tv cable about a quarter inch out of adjustment, I adjusted by the line it up while in idle position, and the late shift went away. Then I was getting a flair on the 1-2 shift, so I went to adjust the front band, it would not tighten up. Took it to a local trusted trans shop who found the adjustment strut in the pan, they dropped the valve body, put it back in, adjusted both bands, did a filter change, and I suspect topped it back up with dex3. It shifted perfect for a couple of days then started the 1-2,2-1,1-2 thing on occasion, usually under light throttle, shifts very well at moderate throttle. I then tried readjusting tv until I found that one click that's pretty good, one click either way either makes it 2-3 late, or shift very soft and early. I replaced the tps, and output speed sensor which may have had a very minimal improvment. Then a 25k mile unit, rebuilt for towing, in a 2001 ram 1500 2wd 5.9 gas truck came up on CL. The junkyard interchange books say they don't interchange, however several knowledgeable folks say they do in fact exchange, even the torque convertors, and governor transducer are the same. My thought is to go ahead and swap in the stronger trans, and put a kit in the original trans before any hard parts are damaged , if the new trans starts acting up. Anyone know if this is a doable swap, and if the exhaust has to come off? Another option I have considered is flushing the original trans and making sure it has only has plus 4 in it. Anyone have any other suggestions on the 1-2,2-1-1-2 thing? Sorry for the long post , and thanks for reading. BTW the shift points are like this under light trough the neighborhood throttle, 1-2 about 10mph, 2-3 around 27mph, 3-4 about 35, and od about 41mph. If I had a tach I don't think it would ever see 2000 rpm.

 

FYI ...

Using DEX3 in a Ram Van that has the 42RE, 46RE or 48RE tranny will cause premature tranny failure in a matter of months. ONLY use ATF-4, nothing else. The DEX3 will cause higher pressure in the tranny causing much of the problems you are seeing now.

The trouble is, you must totally purge the DEX3 from the tranny and the torque convertor before putting the proper ATF-4 in the tranny.