ZPOD

Transmissions these days have gone from the very reliable fully mechanical automatic transmissions of the 1960s and 1970s to a lower quality transmission full of sensors that repeatedly fail causing frequent visits to the transmission shop due to faulty sensors or connections. Not just Dodge but many auto makers place these inferior pieces of machinery in their cars and trucks.

The only good thing Dodge puts in their truck are the fully mechanical cummins engines specifically from 92 to to about 97, some time after that they began to make them more complicated and from 99 to about 2001 the blocks cracked for no apparent reason. After 97 is when they began to mess up a good reliable engine... but moving on, they went and placed an inferior automatic transmission in my newly purchased used 1995 Dodge Ram 2500 Diesel. I just got done moving the fuel filter to an easier access point than the ridiculous original placement, now I am contemplating what to do with this piece of edit automatic transmission.

The trans temp light comes on and I am having overdrive issues. When I look this up on the net it is a very common problem usually entailing a sensor, a bad connection or could be more serious. This is total crap when auto transmissions were perfected in the 60s. The transmission was something least on your mind, you could completely ignore it, nowadays it's like fill up the fuel and check the transmission.

I have never owned a new car, the 1995 Dodge is now the latest year vehicle I own and I am really surprised at what I see, I have had to correct a few serious design flaws and now my focus is on the transmission.

I want to know if there is specifically a fully mechanical automatic transmission that will fit perfectly in the 95 Dodge Ram Diesel to replace the poorly designed piece of crap that's in there now?

If there is a replacement then is there a way to tell the computer to ignore the transmission?

Lary Ellis (Top)

Actually it is a very strong transmission and can be built to take a real beating.... Most likely your problem is a worn out TPS that is giving the trans a faulty signal......after all your truck is going on 16 yrs old

blackimpala

I second that, its a good trans. treated right it last a long time. Its the old 727 that racers of the 60s& 70s always used.

Floyd

patdaly

And besides that, you have the last year of the Hydraulically controlled Trans.

You don't even need a computer to run it.

Get it built properly and you will love it.

Hodge

I had an 87 Ford F150, with the last of the 4 bbl 351's, and the "good old C6". That transmission didn't last half as long before needing a rebuild as the 47 RH in my Dodge (approx. 80,000 miles on the C6, the 47 RH was rebuilt at about 140,000), and the CTD turns out a lot more torque than the 351.

ZPOD

It's a 95 Dodge and with 270,000 miles, I seriously doubt the tranny has not been rebuilt before and very likely more than once.
My wife's 90 Tahoe S10 Blazer's tranny was rebuilt 60,000 miles ago, just last week reverse went out and wouldn't shift out of 1st. So I am asking the mechanic of the shop who rebuilt it for us 60,000 miles ago, I asked: "Really?, 60,000 miles?, am I going to have to rebuild this every 60,000 miles? He sad 70,000 is average, Although my wife, nor I take that blazer off road, we don't hot rod, we check fluid levels, the only 4 Wheelin we do is just to get through deep snow in Denver on extremely rare occasions. I would hate to see the tranny life if we actually lived in a remote mountain town and did some real 4 wheelin.

I hear that the tranny in the Dodge Diesel is built stronger, I don't know if that is true or not but if it is built stronger it's because it is built to pull heavy loads and if it is used that way it will decrease the tranny life as opposed to only being used as a transport or show vehicle.
I dropped the truck off at the tranny shop again just this morning. I will ask him what the average frequency of a tranny rebuild is on this truck but the electronic overdrive button is among one of the dumbest ideas I have seen.

When I first saw that I thought it might be for a split shift rear end, that would be smart, but my first explanation to the tranny mechanic was that my transmission was a 3 speed because the column only reads 1, 2 and D, which I thought was odd, he corrected me and said it couldn't be, with that I quickly realized the overdrive button was connected to the tranny not the rear end so I said then it depends on how you want to describe it, It's either a 3 speed with over drive or it's a 4 speed, either description is correct and I expressed how odd it was to have that button.

He said the button is there for climbing hills and you can turn it off so it won't shift into a higher gear and I told him that I could do the same thing in my Blazer by pulling the shifter down from OD to D. What a stupid idea to add an electronic button that is now malfunctioning and an online research indicates it is a common problem. I'll ask the mechanic that if it needs a rebuild I want to change the tranny out with one where overdrive is a mechanical operation and not triggered by an electronic switch destined to malfunction.

I realize my column only reads 1, 2, D so OD in the new tranny will have to be D on the column and D in the new tranny will have to be 2 on the column, it doesn't matter as long as I know where the "gears" are and it wont matter if someone else drives the truck because the tendency will be to put the truck in Drive and in doing so will automatically be in OD which is fine. The truck feels like it could actually use a 5th "gear" at speeds of 65 to 70 mph.

cmac

maybe you just need to do a 5-speed swap?

infidel

Sounds like your tranny temp sensor or it's wiring/connections are bad.
Easy to diagnose on a '95. Just unplug the sensor connector located on the output line to the cooler on the driver's side about a foot ahead of the tranny and splice a 1000 ohm resistor across the two wires to the computer.
This tricks the PCM into thinking the temperature is normal.
See if that solves the problem.

Leave this resistor in place and install an aftermarket tranny temp gauge with the sender installed in place of the stock sender and you'll be way ahead.
The 47RH is a great tranny, people just expect too much out of it in the stock configuration.
It wasn't designed to take even 300 hp but can be modified to hold much more hp than a manual tranny.

Lil Dog

FWIW serious drag racing diesels install 47RE's behind their V8's cuz the big bad Allison can't shift fast enough.

ZPOD

Thanks, that makes me feel better, I just get a little bugged when sensors mess up and often times because sensor #1 is not doing it's job then it throws off all the other sensors because they don't know what the Hell is going on and frankly neither do I when all this hits the fan.

Lil Dog

But you can do what Bill said and see if it makes a difference. Either way its not going to take much to fix it and there are lots of guys here that have already blazed the trail..

ZPOD

It's in the transmission shop right now, I will be relying upon their honesty which is in short supply these days. I printed out the information and greatly appreciate all the help, this way I have something to argue with the mechanic about if I think he is dishonest, although I do not know a bad internal part from a good one so either way they have me by the chestnuts.

Lil Dog

The OD clutches are usually the ones to go first if not the torque converter. Most of the other stuff is just orings and seals..

ZPOD

Word back from the transmission shop is that it appears to be a worn out TPS, they want to tear into it then go from there and he confirmed that this is a very good transmission, when I suggested at near 270,000 miles it has likely been built before, he said not necessarily... yet the same guy is telling me 70,000 miles is average on my wife's blazer. Are the trannys in the 95 Dodge Diesel that much better to actually last so much longer?

I think it's better to let them go through it since I read that if the tranny is not functioning correctly then it can severely affect fuel mileage and that is the main reason I chose the cummins, the second reason is the reliability of the engine.

gorms

A few months ago I almost bought a 95 2500, similar to your truck with a utility body on it, price tag of $3800 on the windshield, in good shape. When I talked to the (original) owner, I asked why so cheap? 370K miles, original tranny. He said he's flushed it a few times and keeps up with maintenance in general, but I drove it just to see how it went, and it shifted just fine with stock power. So yes it is a tough tranny, but when you start adding power and USING the power it will decrease the lifespan dramatically. I happened to pop a cooler line (actually my father was borrowing the truck) and subsequently burnt the tranny at 95k. After that rebuild it was never the same, so after the third big issue I put a 5 spd in. If I could have had the truck back the way it was when I got it, I'd be happy.