1996 Dodge Transmission - Progression of Bad Behavior - Re..

1996 Dodge Maxi Van (3500 series, 1 ton, 15-passenger bus). 158,000
miles. 5.9 liter (360 CI) V-8, automatic.

For a few weeks, it was slow to shift out of first gear. You could
let off on the accelerator, and encourage it to upshift, but it tended
to stay in lower gear a little too long otherwise. Then it stopped
shifting out of first at all.

Fluid wasn't really low, but I tried very slightly overfilling it and
this cleared up the problem - temporarily. Next day, it once again
wouldn't shift out of first. Then it stopped pulling in first gear,
and now only has reverse. This progression (from sluggish to
inoperable) occured over about a two-day period.

Pulled the pan and filter. It looked as if it had never been taken
off. Lots of sludge stuck to magnet, total of about 1/4 teaspoon of
aluminum filings recovered from pan. Maybe that's normal for 12 years
and 160K miles, I don't know. This is my first auto transmission
problem.

Friend advised me to clean it up good, replace filter, put in 1 qt of
K&W Trans-X with clean fluid, and see what happens. Plan to do this
on my day off.

Any comments or other ideas?

thanks,

Martin

Try your friend's advice by all means....but have the phone number of a
good transmission shop programmed into your cell phone, cause I think
you're gonna need it! At 160,000 miles you've gotten your money's worth
and a tranny rebuild is likely in the cards.

Martin wrote:
> 1996 Dodge Maxi Van (3500 series, 1 ton, 15-passenger bus). 158,000
> miles. 5.9 liter (360 CI) V-8, automatic.
>
> For a few weeks, it was slow to shift out of first gear. You could
> let off on the accelerator, and encourage it to upshift, but it tended
> to stay in lower gear a little too long otherwise. Then it stopped
> shifting out of first at all.
>
> Fluid wasn't really low, but I tried very slightly overfilling it and
> this cleared up the problem - temporarily. Next day, it once again
> wouldn't shift out of first. Then it stopped pulling in first gear,
> and now only has reverse. This progression (from sluggish to
> inoperable) occured over about a two-day period.
>
> Pulled the pan and filter. It looked as if it had never been taken
> off. Lots of sludge stuck to magnet, total of about 1/4 teaspoon of
> aluminum filings recovered from pan. Maybe that's normal for 12 years
> and 160K miles, I don't know. This is my first auto transmission
> problem.
>
> Friend advised me to clean it up good, replace filter, put in 1 qt of
> K&W Trans-X with clean fluid, and see what happens. Plan to do this
> on my day off.
>
> Any comments or other ideas?
>
> thanks,
>
> Martin
>