Over the past few weeks under different circumstances my overdrive / torque converter keeps "unlocking". I remember reading in the thread it was electrical. My voltage at idle reads 13.8v which seems low to me. When I check the Red Tops when it is shut off it is 12.5 which seems low also. The lights seem dimmer also.

The Red Tops are about 2 years old. I do leave a DeWalt battery charger plugged in all the time, but it shuts off automatically when the battery is charged.

I read a thread about this problem awhile back but could not find it on the search.

Any ideas?

 

Clean the battery grounds and all other grounds on your truck. Then do a search for ' noise filter'.
Dtt makes one that seems to solve quite a few of these issues.

 

Come to find out it was the bruses in the alternator. After replacing them the voltage output is up to 14v. Easy fix for $30.

 

Where did you get the brushes? The dealerships don't seem to have them.

 

http://www.fostertruck.com/dodge/

You may as well order the HD starter contacts and plunger as well...will save you some big $ in the future.

 

Glad you found the problem. I looked and could not find that thread either.
9 times out of 10, IMO, the electrical problem points back to weak/dying batteries on the 47re. Only takes one weak battery to do it.

RJ

 

When I had this problem I had the trans serviced (time for it anyway) and did a APPS reset, helped but not a complete cure. Battery load test (Snap On tester) showed both yellow tops crapping out, one at 60% and one at 70%, replacing the batterys did the trick and trans is just fine now, kind of surprised me as I didn't think that being down 30-40% would cause that kind of problem, everything else was ok electrical wise

 

Dr. Evil is correct and has the link above!

 

I read a post from Barracuda (THANKS MAN) and tried cleaning the ground on the passenger side battery to the passenger side fender. It is just screwed into the painted fender. I scraped off the paint in that area and cleaned the parts on a wire wheel. It's worked great so far. It's a small black wire just screwed into the fender or the best fix is to run a new ground wire from the PMC to the battery itself. The grounding system DC uses is pretty weak after time. Cost $2.00.

This is after I reset the APPS by the correct voltage. The reset helped 90% and the regrounding ended the jumping all togeather.

Here are the instructions for re-grounding.

OK, I took a look last night at the wiring I had did for the extra ground..First thing you will need to do is remove the factory air box to get access to the PCM and disconnect the batteries as a precaution b/c you are playing around the PCM, you will notice their are (3) seperate connections going into the PCM w/ multiple wires in each one. The one you will need to work with is located furtherst right (3rd one over, closest to the drivers side) , you will find (2) wires which are both ground wires, they are black w/ tan tracers and are located right next to each other . Once located, use a "scotch-lok" type connector to attach to one (or both if you choose) to the wire that will run to the battery (i used a 14 awg wire, i do not think that is critical), they are small wires and you do not have a ton of room so be careful not to rip the wire from the factory plug, i pulled the plug from the PCM to make it easier . Run the wire over to the passenger side battery and make a good connection to the Negative battery post (clean ALL terminals of all batteries at the same time), you are done! I had tried the "re-flash" from the factory to cure this problem and it worked for a week, tried the "APPS Reset", didn't work at all. I will tell you that I first ordered the DTT noise filter (about $30) to cure this problem, I hooked it up and it helped but did not totally cure the problem and about a week after that I ran the extra ground and for around 8 months it has NEVER once acted up, the reason I am telling you this is I can not say for sure if the ground itself TOTALLY cured the problem or if both needed to happen to ultimately cure it. The ground makes a lot of sense if you think of the root problem causing the erratic TC lock and un-lock, if you find you need to do both, contact DTT Transmission and get the noise filter too, it is well worth the $30.....Please let me know if the ground alone cures your problem, I am very interested to know if I even needed the DTT filter...Good luck, let me know if u have any other questions.