1996 Dodge Transmission - Progression of Bad Behavior - Recovery

From : martin

Q: 1996 dodge maxi van 3500 series 1 ton 15-passenger bus. 158000 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 wasnt really low but i tried very slightly overfilling it and this cleared up the problem - temporarily. next day it once again wouldnt 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 thats normal for 12 years and 160k miles i dont 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 .

Replies:

From : wolfie

on aug 12 1053=a0am martin funkychateaus...@yahoo.com wrote 1996 dodge maxi van 3500 series 1 ton 15-passenger bus. =a0158000 miles. =a05.9 liter 360 ci v-8 automatic. for a few weeks it was slow to shift out of first gear. =a0you could let off on the accelerator and encourage it to upshift but it tended to stay in lower gear a little too long otherwise. =a0then it stopped shifting out of first at all. fluid wasnt really low but i tried very slightly overfilling it and this cleared up the problem - temporarily. =a0next day it once again wouldnt shift out of first. =a0then it stopped pulling in first gear and now only has reverse. =a0this progression from sluggish to inoperable occured over about a two-day period. pulled the pan and filter. =a0it looked as if it had never been taken off. =a0lots of sludge stuck to magnet total of about 1/4 teaspoon of aluminum filings recovered from pan. =a0maybe thats normal for 12 years and 160k miles i dont know. =a0this 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. =a0plan to do this on my day off. any comments or other ideas thanks martin $2400.00 took care of all those problems for me at 100k miles. this after 3 trips to the shop for quick-fixes. at 160k youre way ahead of me. but i have a feeling youre due for a rebuild. wolfie .

From : curmudgeon

try your friends advice by all means....but have the phone number of a good transmission shop programmed into your cell phone cause i think youre gonna need it! at 160000 miles youve gotten your moneys worth and a tranny rebuild is likely in the cards. martin wrote 1996 dodge maxi van 3500 series 1 ton 15-passenger bus. 158000 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 wasnt really low but i tried very slightly overfilling it and this cleared up the problem - temporarily. next day it once again wouldnt 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 thats normal for 12 years and 160k miles i dont 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 .