Hey Crosley II.............

[Choptop]

A guy I work with is having a problem with the trans in his truck. I
was hoping you would maybe know if the trans could be repaired
without removal.

He's got a 1998 Dodge 2500 5.9 Liter Diesel factory installed automatic,
with overdrive. I guess the overdrive is actually an add-on, seperate
unit, bolted on to the rear of the main trans case.

Anyway, what it's doing is : when the truck is at highway speed & in overdrive, the tach will show the rpm's increase, and the trans will disengage ( or drop out ) only for a moment. This happens intermitantly.
We think maybe there's a lock-up solenoid going bad. He's hoping he can
make the repair himself, without having to remove the whole transmission.
I guess it's huge.

What do ya think ? Can you offer some advise ?

Thanks

[exsedan]

I had a 1998 1/2 24 valve Cummings in a 3500 dually and chased the same problem for a couple of years and several hundreds of dollars.

Try this simple fix (I have fixed a bunch of Dodge trucks with this one):

There is a wire bundle that goes across the rear of the alternator, from the area in front of the engine. Some of the wires go to the alternator, the remaining go on across into the area of the second battery.

Unwrap that bundle and find the large black wire with a tan stripe.

Wrap that one wire with ALUMINUM FOIL from the front of the engine to as near the second battery as possible. You can then re-wrap the bundle with black electrical tape and nobody will know it has been touched.

Takes about 10 minutes and has always worked.

Go test drive it and see. If it works for you, i'll explain why/how...........jb EXSEDAN

[Crosley.In.AZ]

All of Mopar over drive units bolt onto the back of the main case.  They designed it that way.

Is the trans droppin g  out of O/D or converter dropping  lock up?  there would be more RPM change if the trans drops from O/D.

[Choptop]

exsedan, thanks for your input. I relayed the info to him.

crosley, based on the info I have, I would have to say the converter
is disengaging, momentarily, intermitantly, but this only happins when
the truck is in overdrive at highway speed. He says it shifts fine, when
he gets in town. He has about a 75 mile (each way) commute to work.

There is a stretch of highway that has a lot of patches / potholes / etc.
and he claims the problem is more prevalant when on rough pavement.
He thought maybe there is a loose wire / connection somewhere. :?

[Grandadeo]

Go test drive it and see. If it works for you, i'll explain why/how...........jb EXSEDAN

Hey Ex, good to see you on the forum again.  How's things in sunny Chino Valley?

Lee

[exsedan]

HOT......was 101 at 5:00pm this evening at our little cruise night at MacDonalds. Looked as if it would rain any minute, but only a few drops.

I mostly lurk, but if something comes along that I have had real experience with, I may chime in. Not too often though. I fought the torque converter on my Dodge for about two+ years and $2,000.00+. If I can pass that info to someone so that Dodge gets cut out of the money, then I am happy to do so. Is a simple fix to a simple problem with a very long explanation. Dodge had no idea what-so-ever what the problem was/is.

I thought you might call if you were at the LA Roadster Show. I could always drive up to Ash Fork for a trip to Williams for lunch.

Later........jb EXSEDAN

[Choptop]

Hey, Exsedan...........

I told my friend at work about the foil trick. He thought I was playing a
practical joke on him ! After he gave it some thought, he went ahead
and put the foil on.

He's made about 4 trips at 75 miles each, and say's the problem appears
to be gone !

He ( and I ) would REALLY like to know how this cured the problem.
He said the wire appears to be a ground ?  Also, it 's very close to the
alternator.  Isolation ?

Can you please explain ?

He's not very knowledgable about computer's but I think he may try to
join the roundtable to "talk" to you.

THANK YOU, for your help !  

[Crosley.In.AZ]

the foil may stop any RF interference in the system.

that is just a W.A.G.

[exsedan]

Yup, you guessed it, it is a RF problem.

Here's my story on the fix:

At about 80K miles, my tranny started to "hunt" driving down the road in a "no load" condition. The tach would increase about 300 rpm and then immediately go back to the "lock-up' condition.

The problem was reported by MANY folks and Dodge was replacing all sorts of torque converters, trannys, etc. They really had no idea as to the problem and were just "shot-gunning" the situation to shut people up. None of the Dodge supplied fixes worked for me.

Now, I did not figure the fix out by myself, there were probably a hundred guys on one of the Turbo Diesel sites that were all comparing notes and trying to come up with an answer. I have a friend that is an excellent tranny guy and has been in business for 25+ years and he put his "super whammy" computer in my truck and we drove around for a half hour and all we could find was a "false signal to the torque converter lock/unlock".

I started looking for something that would "send a false signal".

Finally, a couple of the guys who had tried everything that had been suggested and/or tried in the past came up with the fix by shielding the large ground wire that passes near the rear of the alternator.

This wire is a ground that comes from the engine control module, runs down the length of the engine and then over to the ground location that is under the second battery (the one on the passenger side).

This wire is in a bundle that is routed right past the rear of the alternator. Here's what happens.......the batteries are most likely not new, and the alternator has about 80K-90K miles on it and it is starting to labor a bit to keep up with the required electrical load. EVERY time that the regulator triggers the alternator to increase the output, there is a RF signal that is picked up by that long black wire (spelled ANTENNA) running along the alternator case which in turn sends a signal to the ECM and tells it to "unlock the converter".

All that is necessary is to shield the wire with aluminum foil and the problem is fixed. I always like the system to look like it was never touched, so I rewrap the bundle so it also "looks neat".

I have fixed a bunch of these for all of my friends and have not had one return with the problem recurring. Most of these were trucks that had never had any prior problem or attempt to fix the problem. So, I am sure that this is the only repair necessary.

I think that the years involved were 1998 thru 2000 (maybe even to 2002).

Glad that the info was of service to you.

Tell your friend that an excellent site for the Dodge Turbo Diesel is "TURBO DIESEL REGISTER". These folks know what is happening with the Dodges.

Later...........jb EXSEDAN

[Crosley.In.AZ]

It is interesting problem..

Mopar diesel trucks currently will have a shift "hunting " from 2nd gear to 3rd gear... at slower speeds.  I think 2003 or 2004 & up trucks "may" have this problem...

A fellow at work , his 2007 Dodge  does this... we fixed it.   ;-)

Mopar claims all is 'fine' , no problem here to see.

Aftermarket has determined that you need to block 1 valve in the v-body and the problem is gone.  Many folks in the aftermarket say this is a software problem... Mopar says: " nope, no problem here"

[Choptop]

Yup, you guessed it, it is a RF problem.

Here's my story on the fix:

At about 80K miles, my tranny started to "hunt" driving down the road in a "no load" condition. The tach would increase about 300 rpm and then immediately go back to the "lock-up' condition.

The problem was reported by MANY folks and Dodge was replacing all sorts of torque converters, trannys, etc. They really had no idea as to the problem and were just "shot-gunning" the situation to shut people up. None of the Dodge supplied fixes worked for me.

Now, I did not figure the fix out by myself, there were probably a hundred guys on one of the Turbo Diesel sites that were all comparing notes and trying to come up with an answer. I have a friend that is an excellent tranny guy and has been in business for 25+ years and he put his "super whammy" computer in my truck and we drove around for a half hour and all we could find was a "false signal to the torque converter lock/unlock".

I started looking for something that would "send a false signal".

Finally, a couple of the guys who had tried everything that had been suggested and/or tried in the past came up with the fix by shielding the large ground wire that passes near the rear of the alternator.

This wire is a ground that comes from the engine control module, runs down the length of the engine and then over to the ground location that is under the second battery (the one on the passenger side).

This wire is in a bundle that is routed right past the rear of the alternator. Here's what happens.......the batteries are most likely not new, and the alternator has about 80K-90K miles on it and it is starting to labor a bit to keep up with the required electrical load. EVERY time that the regulator triggers the alternator to increase the output, there is a RF signal that is picked up by that long black wire (spelled ANTENNA) running along the alternator case which in turn sends a signal to the ECM and tells it to "unlock the converter".

All that is necessary is to shield the wire with aluminum foil and the problem is fixed. I always like the system to look like it was never touched, so I rewrap the bundle so it also "looks neat".

I have fixed a bunch of these for all of my friends and have not had one return with the problem recurring. Most of these were trucks that had never had any prior problem or attempt to fix the problem. So, I am sure that this is the only repair necessary.

I think that the years involved were 1998 thru 2000 (maybe even to 2002).

Glad that the info was of service to you.

Tell your friend that an excellent site for the Dodge Turbo Diesel is "TURBO DIESEL REGISTER". These folks know what is happening with the Dodges.

Later...........jb EXSEDAN

I printed this all out, and gave it to my friend to read for himself. He's a
happy camper now.  THANK YOU !