Durango transmission
From : tom lawrence
Q: im helping out a friend with his 00 durango 5.9l 4x4 thats in need of a transmission rebuild 46re. for the life of us we cant figure out whats holding the damn thing in. ive removed 4 converter bolts 6 bellhousing bolts 4 14mm bolts from the top/center of the bellhousing and 2 16mm bolts from the bottom of the bellhousing and 1 16mm bolt that was holding the front differential to the transmission. somethings still got it stuck because i can almost shake the damn truck off the lift from the back of the transmission. the fsms next to useless here - no real details. it talks about some engine-to-transmission struts that i dont see the fsm talked about this for my trucks transmission as well - they didnt exist - i figure maybe thats on 2wd trucks. anyone ever pulled one of these out of a durango and can tell me what im missing im about to stick a 10-ton power-wedge into the bottom of the bellhousing and hope for the best. .
Replies:
From : christopher d thompson
on fri 15 aug 2008 143911 -0400 tom lawrence wrote youre assuming i plan on removing said manifold. i dont. most of the rest of the fasteners are so rusted over you cant even turn them anymore. even my damaged bolt head extractor tools were just peeling layer after layer of what-used-to-be-steel off of them. screw it. ill try and get the one broken piece out if i can. if i cant im filling the hole with jbweld sticking the bolt back in there and sealing around the outer perimeter of the manifold with muffler/tailpipe sealant. hey nothing but the best around here! well theres always the hot wrench that usually works on anything ; besides just think of all the stuff that you could mess up in the process! tons of fun!!!! be sure and throw in the if this was a cummins powered truck we wouldnt be doing all this insert appropriate adjective here as often as you can. whats the prognosis on that tranny btw have you even looked at it since all the other fun started -- chris .
From : christopher d thompson
on fri 15 aug 2008 065522 -0400 denny wrote the broken exhaust manifold bolts were common down here atleast on the 3.9/5.2/5.9 family. lay a straight edge across the sealing surface of the manifold ill bet its warped. -- chris lets not forget the 5.7 in that batch. theres been 3-4 in the shop over the last couple of months with blown gaskets and warped manifolds. always been on the right side. denny yea see 5 years ago when i left the shop the 5.7 was still the new thing so i havent messed with them. but im glad things havent changed much! gbmfg -- chris .
From : tom lawrence
oh and the joys just keep coming! ive got one of those tools if ya wanna drive down to get it...bit of a ride though! probably cheaper to buy one from a discount house. nah i have it... i just gotta remember what i did with the little double-flare die doo-hickeys. theyre in a plastic bag and i specifically remember putting them somewhere so ill know where to find them. yeah... you can see how well that plan worked out. hoses calipers and wheel cylinders were replaced a year ago or so - i made him replace all that when the stock hoses were holding residual pressure in the calipers and warping the rotors. the hard lines up front were behind the inner fender liner - you know the deal out of sight out of mind. beyond me whats wrong with a standard y pipe like the rest of the world uses not sure - but you can guess what the exhaust will look like when im done with it. maybe ill take a picture of it and send it in to chrysler. hey look! flanges! shit that actually disassembles for service! what a concept!! the broken exhaust manifold bolts were common down here atleast on the 3.9/5.2/5.9 family. lay a straight edge across the sealing surface of the manifold ill bet its warped. youre assuming i plan on removing said manifold. i dont. most of the rest of the fasteners are so rusted over you cant even turn them anymore. even my damaged bolt head extractor tools were just peeling layer after layer of what-used-to-be-steel off of them. screw it. ill try and get the one broken piece out if i can. if i cant im filling the hole with jbweld sticking the bolt back in there and sealing around the outer perimeter of the manifold with muffler/tailpipe sealant. hey nothing but the best around here! .
From : christopher d thompson
on wed 13 aug 2008 054130 -0400 tom lawrence wrote what about the crank sensor hanging on the flex plate did you take it out no of course not. argh! son of a.... thanks chris. i really should stick to the oil burners... our cps is nowhere near the transmission your welcome tom just let me know if thats it or theres something more.. those things are easy to forget about stuffed way up there like they are. -- chris .
From : denny
the broken exhaust manifold bolts were common down here atleast on the 3.9/5.2/5.9 family. lay a straight edge across the sealing surface of the manifold ill bet its warped. -- chris lets not forget the 5.7 in that batch. theres been 3-4 in the shop over the last couple of months with blown gaskets and warped manifolds. always been on the right side. denny .
From : christopher d thompson
on fri 15 aug 2008 000233 -0400 tom lawrence wrote not the first time ive heard of or seen dissimilar metal corrosion holding the transmission to the engine. what a pia!!!! yep. thats not even the half of it. while trying to get the cps out we decided it would be easy enough to pull the passenger exhaust manifold. well we fould the source of one of the exhaust leaks... one of the manifold bolts pulled right out and was noticably shorter than the others with a funny-looking end to it. yep - it was sheared right off. well theres a job for an easyout. that should be fun. as for the rest of the exhaust... wtf were these idiots thinking! the exhaust is all one piece from the manifold flanges through the y-pipe through the cat all the way back to the muffler. the only way to have taken it down in one piece as it was designed would have been to drop the crossmember that holds the torsion bar adjusters. f*** that!! so after slicing through it with a sawz-all it came out. ill be picking up some generic exhaust flanges and donut gaskets and welding them on to either side if theres any real metal left to weld to once i clean all the rust off. oh yeah and speaking of rust its amazing the owners still alive... i can almost almost poke a scratch awl through any of the brake hard lines running down the drivers fender well. i have no idea how they were holding up to braking pressure but theres no way they can not be changed out - not having that on my conscience. now i gotta find my double-flaring tool... son of a.... oh and the joys just keep coming! ive got one of those tools if ya wanna drive down to get it...bit of a ride though! probably cheaper to buy one from a discount house. its amazing what ive seen come in the shop that should have gotten someone hurt if not killed thats still running. but then other stuff you wouldnt think would be a problem is the shit that just shows its ass! no way id let that truck out of my shop without new lines and probably wouldnt hurt to have new hoses and take a close look at the wheel cyls and calipers while your at it. if the lines look like that what ya reckon the rest looks like as far as the exhaust who ever accused dodge of knowing what they where doing when it comes to piping the exhaust gases to the back of the trucks was a complete idiot. why they had to run both down pipes to the cat is beyond me whats wrong with a standard y pipe like the rest of the world uses the broken exhaust manifold bolts were common down here atleast on the 3.9/5.2/5.9 family. lay a straight edge across the sealing surface of the manifold ill bet its warped. -- chris .
From : tom lawrence
not the first time ive heard of or seen dissimilar metal corrosion holding the transmission to the engine. what a pia!!!! yep. thats not even the half of it. while trying to get the cps out we decided it would be easy enough to pull the passenger exhaust manifold. well we fould the source of one of the exhaust leaks... one of the manifold bolts pulled right out and was noticably shorter than the others with a funny-looking end to it. yep - it was sheared right off. well theres a job for an easyout. that should be fun. as for the rest of the exhaust... wtf were these idiots thinking! the exhaust is all one piece from the manifold flanges through the y-pipe through the cat all the way back to the muffler. the only way to have taken it down in one piece as it was designed would have been to drop the crossmember that holds the torsion bar adjusters. f*** that!! so after slicing through it with a sawz-all it came out. ill be picking up some generic exhaust flanges and donut gaskets and welding them on to either side if theres any real metal left to weld to once i clean all the rust off. oh yeah and speaking of rust its amazing the owners still alive... i can almost almost poke a scratch awl through any of the brake hard lines running down the drivers fender well. i have no idea how they were holding up to braking pressure but theres no way they can not be changed out - not having that on my conscience. now i gotta find my double-flaring tool... son of a.... .
From : christopher d thompson
on thu 14 aug 2008 190223 -0400 tom lawrence wrote your welcome tom just let me know if thats it or theres something more.. well the cps came out after a bunch of struggling but that wasnt what was holding up the works. i decided to forego the hydraulics for a minute and instead resorted to a 5 2x4 as a prybar. after a couple of good yanks and some screwdrivers to act as wedges we finally got it off. it was frozen up on the locating dowels. what a major bitch... but at least its out. next step... teardown assessment and rebuild. compared to the above this is the easy part not the first time ive heard of or seen dissimilar metal corrosion holding the transmission to the engine. what a pia!!!! -- chris .
From : tom lawrence
your welcome tom just let me know if thats it or theres something more.. well the cps came out after a bunch of struggling but that wasnt what was holding up the works. i decided to forego the hydraulics for a minute and instead resorted to a 5 2x4 as a prybar. after a couple of good yanks and some screwdrivers to act as wedges we finally got it off. it was frozen up on the locating dowels. what a major bitch... but at least its out. next step... teardown assessment and rebuild. compared to the above this is the easy part .
From : tom lawrence
what about the crank sensor hanging on the flex plate did you take it out no of course not. argh! son of a.... thanks chris. i really should stick to the oil burners... our cps is nowhere near the transmission .
From : christopher d thompson
on tue 12 aug 2008 225908 -0400 tom lawrence wrote im helping out a friend with his 00 durango 5.9l 4x4 thats in need of a transmission rebuild 46re. for the life of us we cant figure out whats holding the damn thing in. ive removed 4 converter bolts 6 bellhousing bolts 4 14mm bolts from the top/center of the bellhousing and 2 16mm bolts from the bottom of the bellhousing and 1 16mm bolt that was holding the front differential to the transmission. somethings still got it stuck because i can almost shake the damn truck off the lift from the back of the transmission. the fsms next to useless here - no real details. it talks about some engine-to-transmission struts that i dont see the fsm talked about this for my trucks transmission as well - they didnt exist - i figure maybe thats on 2wd trucks. anyone ever pulled one of these out of a durango and can tell me what im missing im about to stick a 10-ton power-wedge into the bottom of the bellhousing and hope for the best. what about the crank sensor hanging on the flex plate did you take it out remember it bolts to the bell housing and sits pretty damn close to the flexplate. could have you hung. otherwise id feel around the bellhousing yea i know that sucks and make sure you didnt miss like a top center bolt or something. id bet its the crank sensor. -- chris .
From : tom lawrence
well theres always the hot wrench that usually works on anything ; would you believe one of the few things i dont have is an oxy/acytlene setup just never got around to getting one and have always been able to get by without one. course if i really get pissed at it i could light up the plasma cutter. not quite as subtle as an o/a torch though... whats the prognosis on that tranny btw have you even looked at it since all the other fun started well i havent torn into it yet - promised my buddy id wait for him to come back since he wants to see the process. however with some long-distance diagnostic help from max340 here im pretty certain that at least the converter clutch is shot and i wouldnt be surprised to find the clutch packs burnt up a bit too it started slipping real bad. the last time we worked on it we just pulled the valve body wanted to check out the tcc solenoid and found that the hacks that rebuilt it the last time busted off one of the bolt heads that holds the governor assembly to the vb so that must have been leaking like crazy. we put a new bolt in but its likely that the body it warped because a governor pressure test showed governor pressure bouncing all over like crazy. im probably not even going to try messing with that and just get a rebuilt vb for the thing. as for the rest im planning on a complete overhaul. i dont think anythings really broken as the pan was clear so were just looking at clutches steels gaskets and seals and of course a new converter. i should be able to get him going again for around $800. .