Hi all,
New to the site and it looks like maybe a place with some answers! Beats the dealership...

Any how I've got a 98 2500 12V 4x4, auto cali. model with 130k on it...20k on the rebuild tranny. I got the truck about a year ago, and it never had reverse lights. A few months ago I finally got time to check it out, and it appeared to be that park/neutral safety switch, cause I had no continuity between the outside pins (3 all together, center had cont. to ground as it should in P/N) so I replaced it. Low and behold, no continuity again. I thought maybe the switch wasn't exactly the one I needed, because it had a different plug style, that being 3 pins extruding from the switch instead of a recessed plug. But P/N was still fine, so now I'm thinking the contacts on that arm connected to the linkage under the pan (?) are bent/missing/etc.

I went to Dodge yesterday to see if I could get a new set of contacts, or the whole arm, or whatever is replacable and the counter boy was telling me I need a new valve body?! I hope to god he was just looking at the wrong thing. Can anyone shed some light on this?

Next problem- The reason the tranny was rebuilt was the return line from the trans cooler rubbed on the crossmember and leaked out all the fluid while my dad was driving it, and I quote- "I think somethins wrong with yer truck, I had to put it half to the floor to move!". Thanks dad. Well after I got it back from Aamco (bad move) about 3 months later, after the warranty expired, it happened again to me because those f***-ups at Aamco never replaced any of the line supports, just zip tied them together. I only lost about 3 quarts, enough for the tranny to slip outta gear. The transmission still shifts nice, lock--up is strong, BUT when the truck is cold, and on a left turn, it slips out of gear, no matter what. Once the truck is hot, it almost never does it, and NEVER does it on a right turn...no matter what.

I noticed that the pass. side of the trans pan, towards the rear, is pushed up a little, maybe 3/4". Could that be the cause, flooding the valve body or something when the fluid gets thrown that way taking a left? Its gettin a little agravating when I have to stop once I pull out of the driveway, put it in reverse, then back in gear.

Sorry for the long post and questions, but any help is GREATLY appreciated.

 

You should be able to get the new or at least another "lever" from a transmission shop, or buy one on E-bay. it is an easy fix but you will have to remove the Valve body to fix it. The dropping out of gear thing??? Kinda puzzleing. Are you sure the fluid is at the right level? I think something under the truck is "bumping" you out of gear. The fluid thing does not add up, but I figured it is easy to check.

 

I've tried leaving the tranny fluid a little bit lower than middle of hash marks, and a little bit higher on perfectly level floor, still doesn't make a difference. It always slips out when cold around a left turn. I'm about to take the truck out now, I'm gonna check underneath again for anything loose, but I've been under the truck alot past few days and I haven't noticed anything.

 

Mine does it every now and then. Usually a tap of the throttle will bring it right back. Dont know why it does it, but it will sometimes(worse in the winter). I wouldnt worry to much about it.

Eric

 

You do check it HOT in Neutral right??

 

You can check it hot or cold. It has both markings on the dipstick. Engine running in neutral.

Eric