Unfortunatly replacing my transmission with a rebuilt one was not enough to prevent major transmission issues for me. so now with something like 13k on the transmission it may need to be rebuilt, but i am posting here because id like some input on what may have happened to cause this failure.

So in march of 2023 i blew up the original trans in my van with the odometer at 156k, im confident it was the original because i have pretty much all of the history of the vehicle after the 20k mile mark or so because the second owner kept all the records. so after doing some research and hear a bunch of good things about Monster Transmission (more on that later) i purchased a 46RE Quick Ship transmission from them and installed it. no i was doing this in my driveway at the time and had a pretty limited budget considering i had just paied 3k for a transmission, so i elected not to replace the trans cooler or flush it (i know, poor decision). however when i removed the original transmission the fluid was in great condition and at the right level so i figured i would be able to get away with not doing anything to the cooler. In all honesty i probably didnt actually need to replace the transmisison, it had essntially stopped shifting past second gear and i had to frive a couple hundred miles home form a camping trip with just first and second gear, i think maybe something happened and it triggered the "limp home" mode on the transmission, but i prefer not to think about it because i jumped to the conclusion that it was a dodge transmission, so its obviously bad, and just replaced it. That and because i was going to be doing som major traveling in this van i figured a brand new (or rebuilt at least) trans would last the longest. So after almost 3 years i actually only ended up putting about 13k on the trans, probably more like 9-10k over 2.5 years and another 3 over the last 6 months as i have started traveling across the country in it.

The trans has been great up until recently, i started noticing when im going up something like a medium grade hill (maybe 5% or so) the transmission wouldnt drop from second to third gear to get me up the hill, i would just slowly lose power over the course of climbing the hill. if it was a small hill 3ed gear pulled me right up no problem, if it was super steep (8%-10%) it would drop to second no problem and get me up the hill. i haddnt really paied much attention to this because it didnt seem like that big of a deal to me, its a pretty heavy van (just shy of the GVWR), i hadnt diven in many hills before as i was from florida, so it just seemed like not a huge deal to me if i had to pump the gas pedal a little to get it to drop to second gear. i figured worst case scenario the TV cable neded to be adjusted. that was until 2 days ago, i packed up to leave a camp site and notiuced if i encountered any hill at all, or basically had to put the engine under any real load, the trans just dropped to neutral. i pulled over where i could (i was out on a dirt road in the desert) and started to check some things. first there was no fluid leaking anywhere, there was a slight rattling noise coming from the trans, seemingly on the driver side. i checked the fluid on the dipstick (vehicle running, in neutral, and with the fluid warmed up) and the level was good but it was slightly darker than it had been a few days prior. i check my trans fluid as often as i can in the hopes to catch probvlems before they become problems.

So out in the desert and not wanting to damage the transmission any more than it may already have been, i decided to call a few transmission shops in nearby towns to see if they could get me in to get it looked at or give me an idea of what could be wrong. the first 2 shops i called heard me say it was a dodge and said im gonna need to buy a whole new transmission imediatly. the third shop seemed willing to actually do some diagnostics if i could get it there becore calling a transmission with 13k on totally bad. so i called AAA to tow me to the shop, long story short AAA gave me a bunch of issues so i decided to try and drive it to the shop (about 100 miles). it was then that i realized that i couldnt go more than 100' without it dropping all gears and staying in neutral, the only way to get any gears back was to shut the van off and re start it, then i could go about another 100'. so needless to say i did not make the drive to the shop, i pulled out onto a little area off the road and eventually convinced AAA to tow me, but i had to wait 72 hours before they would do it.

Long story short, i will be at the shop in the upcoming days, but that leaves me here sitting and thinking about what could have gone wrong with the trans at only 13k, it was at this point i started looking at Monster Transmission again. somehow when i was originally shopping for a trans i saw only great things about moster transmission, and now that my transmission doesnt work, i cant find a single good review of their stuff. it seems most of them dont make it past 10k miles before needing to be rebuilt. so i did file a warenty claim as i paied for the "no fault, no questions asked replacement" however there is a chance they wont warenty it because id didnt replace/flush my trans cooler. im still waiting on an update form them so we will see how that goes.

what im more interested in is what could have caused this. also after driving maybe a mile on it after trying to drive to t he shop, the rattling got worse and the fluid is nearly black, im pretty sure it ius burnt not contaminants in it. my initial guess would maybe be the governer in the trans failed/is failing and cant provide enough pressure to keep me in gear so it slips to neutral. i supose it could also be the clutches and bands, but i think ill get a better indication of that when i can drop the pan and see if theres just a bunch of material in it.

Im also looking for recomendations of what i could replace within the trans if it has to be rebuilt to make it as "bulletproof" as possible for the future. the fan is often fully loaded and right near the GVWR, i rarely travel above 65mph and almost never tturn overdrive on unless its like an 80mph speed limit on flat ground. it has a brand new torque converter that came with the trans, but are there alternative ones i should look into for my application? im not verry familiar with transmission parts, upgradable elements, or common failure points beyond what i can read online, so im not really sure what can be upgraded. ill also be talking to t he transmission shop about this when i can get it there as im sure their opinion on what to do will be extreamly helpful, but i am slightly impatient and would like to hear about some options now lol

Some other information:
Vehicle - 1996 Dodge B3500 Camper Van
Engine - 5.9L
Trans - 46RE
Rear axle - HD Chrysler 9.25 with new Youkon ring and pinion and LSD
Front Axle - 4000# model
Other:
- i do have a custom built motercycle rack on the front of my van, it holds a roughly 500lb bike on the front however most of the fairings on it are gone so there is still airflow to the rad, honestly the trans cooler probably gets the best cooling as it is lined up exactly with the opening in the bike frame so its nearly unubstructed, could a larger trans cooler help anyway?
- the break in period for the transmission was completed per Monster Transmission's instructions (driving light load for 500 miles with no harsh acceleration or towing then change the fluid)

 

Also, another symptom thats just occuring to me, the van has been sluggish accelerating from a stop. i just figured its because its a biug heavy van, but i seem to recall it being just as loaded down and accelerating better when the trans was new.

 

Monster transmissions have a horrible reputation.... judging by what you are describing, it's likely toast. Might have been bad sensors, or dropped band strut, or any of a number of other things. But, if your fluid went from dark to black in a short drive, something is binding, and heating the fluid WAY beyond it's tolerance point......

 

Sounds like the transmission is toast.

Not that this will change what happened, but with 185K on mine at the time, I bought a used transmission with 35K on it from a boneyard for $200, plus another $200 to ship it. I removed the pan, adjusted the bands, then installed a new filter, gasket and Mopar fluid. I use my van for work, so it's pretty loaded down. I have had no issues at all and am pretty happy I chose this route instead of dumping $3K into a rebuilt one. Oh, and I also replaced it by myself in a day in my driveway. Food for thought!

 

Normally I probably would take that route, unfortunately I now live in my van and travel, so I don't have a driveway to replace it in like I did last time lol. And I think I'm unfortunately just gonna sink the money into the rebuild and just make sure the trans shop uses the best parts for it where applicable, I need to trust that my home is able to move when I need it to lol.

 

The stock trans is pretty stout, and if taken care of, will 200K miles without trouble. When you have it rebuilt, have 'em put the extra clutches/steels in it, and the metal accumulator pistons, and then change the fluid every 25 to 30K... and it'll last a good long time.

 

If your van hasn't had the trans cooler check-valve deleted, it's most likely frozen closed (mine was).
If so, your trans cooler wasn't coolin' sheit.

You can safely delete the check-valve (many trans shops will not warranty their work, if the check-valve isn't deleted).

I wrote up about how I deleted mine. I was easy to do and pretty inexpensive.

You can read about it here:
https://dodgeforum.com/forum/dodge-r...-and-easy.html

 

Also, I think that it's absurd to drive a 4-ton vehicle up hills without a trans temp gauge:

You'd be surprised at how quickly the temperature of the trans fluid rises when you climb hills.

 

I also bought one of these deep pans to hold more fluid.
Additional benefits:
Allowed me thread the trans temp gauge sender into the pan, rather than tap into a cooling line.
Has a drain plug to allow for easy draining.
Aluminum, so it doesn't flex or bend, which means that the gasket seals well.

https://www.glacierdieselpower.com/p...ansmission-pan

 

Good to know, thanks!

Awesome, I'm looking at getting maybe a bigger trans cooler as well, but I'll make sure they look through the whole cooling system regardless to make sure I don't have cooling problems in the future.

I totally agree, I definitely want them to add a gauge (or I'll just do it later lol)

I'll take a look into some deeper pans, it certainly would be nice to have a drain plug and a spot to install a temp sender.