So it snowed pretty good last night and a lady got stuck in front of me on a hill. I had to pop into 4wd and pull her out. After pulling her out and continuing on my way I had to make a quick stop to use the bathroom on the side of the road. Put it into park and got out .. when I got back in nothing would shift, except park still held the truck in place.. Shifter moved but nothing happened. By this time it was already 3AM so I was dead tired so I just turned it off and slept in my truck. Woke up this morning and the truck won't shift out of any gear, and the rear wheels are locked in place. Transfer case seems to shift between 4wd 2wd etc ( the light indicates it does at least ). Had someone pull me backwards so that people down the road could get out and the rear wheels are dragging. 4wd is disengaged and front driveline spins freely. Transmission fluid is still full. Reverse lights do not light up when shifting into reverse which leads me to believe it's simply not shifting period. No grinding noises or anything like that. What should I look for? I'm limited on time and came home to grab tools and head back out. Any ideas? I know next to nothing about transmissions, always had shops take care of that ...

 

Check to see if the linkage is moving the trans shifter (meaning if the shifter is moving is it really moving down at the trans). Make sure you have the park break on! Only thing that comes to my mind is the rooster comb thing. But then again I'm not an auto guy

 

Rooster comb thing?

 

Yhea inside of the trans. I'm trying to find the tread I've seen it in before, for you. I think it's the thing that attaches the shifter linkage to the manual valve inside of the valve body. But I'm not sure. It's just something I've read about before.

 

dont have an auto dodge truck but i know on chevys and fords that the linkage would come loose at the steering column under the hood next to the firewall..there is a rod usually that goes down to actuate the arm on the transmission..it sounds like to me that your shifter linkage has either come apart at the column going down to the transmission or perhaps the arm on the transmission has come off..usually there is a nut or bolt holding them on..there will be a certain way that the arm will go on so it corresponds with the what gear the shifter indicates...in the past we have just gotton under the vehicle and with pliers or a wrench turned the shift arm on the side of the transmission to the gear we needed to get home...3 detents for drive..one detent for reverse..do this with the motor off if by your self (remember you might not be able to start if it has the safety switch) and if you have another person then start it and let them hold the brake while you adjust..the reason for the wheels sliding would be that it was still in park more than likely..hope this helps and let us know what you find

 

Nevermind on the rooster comb thing. It's for the detents on the shifter. Sorry.

 

IF it isn't just a simple linkage problem I would venture a guess that the "rooster comb" (proper name is manual lever) has come off the spline in the valve body. The manual lever rides on a shaft and against the detent ball inside the pan on top of the valve body. The lever is just pressed on a spline and it sometimes works loose. When mine messed up I only lost the detent ball into the pan. Hopefully it is just an external linkage problem that you can get by with. BE CAREFUL. We have already had one member run over by his own truck messing with transmission linkage while the engine was running.

 

I'm just trying to figure out if this is something I can fix by myself or if i need to have it towed. There is no way I could get it on a trailer the way it is right now so it would be a an expensive shame if I had to go that route. Could this have anything to do with the transfer case? If it was perhaps stuck in neutral would these be the symptoms? It shifted roughly into 4wd

 

It could be but you say that the revese lights don't come on. And I assume that they used to?

 

If the transfer case does in fact go into nuetral then the truck should roll no matter what the tranny is in. If the case is in nuetral and the rear wheels are still locked then you trouble may be in the case. Does the engine lug at all or free rev like in park?

 

It shifts in and out of something .. like if it's in park and i go to shift it into drive it takes it out of park but doesn't put it into anything. The driveline doesn't torque like it usually would when shifting into drive, and like I said no reverse lights. Sorry if I'm pretty vague - I was by myself and couldn't shift and check things at the same time. If I accelerate it's not like accelerating in neutral, it feels bound up or something. No grinding. Wanted to roll forward like it was in a forward gear but locked up when drug backwards.

 

check to make sure the shifter arm on the trans moves when you shift the gear selector in your truck. check the adjustable part of the shift linkage, basically if that gets loose, your shifter in the truck will shift thru all the gears, but it wont actually shift them on the trans. This part is located on the driverside frame rail, right by the front of the trans, it has a spring on a shaft and the gear shifter linkage connects to it, the linkage has a bolt that you can loosen to adjust the shifter on the trans to match up with your gear selector in your dash, if this came loose, put the parking brake on, push the gear selector in your truck to 1st gear, then crawl under your truck and push the trans shifter arm into first gear, which means push the arm forwards, towards the front of the truck all the way, then tighten the linkage adjuster bolt.

jason

 

sounds almost like its stuck between two gears, which would mena you shifter linkage is loose, when its loose some times it will sorta shift thru gears, but not properly and can somtimes get stuck on two gears, or halfway on a gear, so your valvebody gets the wrong pressure and your truck doesnt want to really move, im willing to bet your linkage adjuster is just loose, all you need to fix it is a 1/2 inch wrench if you like give me a call and i might be able to talk you thru it. 1-209-764-0632

jason

 

I would also check the rear end. I have blown them up before and sometimes they would roll one direction and then bind in the other. Sometimes bind i both directions.

 

If it was the rear end the truck would still show shifting into reverse correct? I've blown up four dodge rear ends over the years, all of which made horrible noises and like you said locked up one direction. I'm just trying to get everyone's ideas all lined up before I go back out, it's a long drive back there and no cell phone reception. Being in a foot and a half of snow really makes it special too.