billmac

I did something stupid yesterday. I was stuck in traffic on the freeway; the transmission was in drive with the OD off. Traffic speeded up, so at about 52mph I was going to push the OD button on but instead I pulled the shift lever into neutral. Prior to doing this, the engine rpm was about 1900-2000. After I shifted into neutral I believe the rpm's stayed about the same. Almost immediately, I shifted back into drive and pushed the OD button on. During this whole affair, I kepted the engine rpm about the same 2000. When I got home, I got the owners manual out and looked at the driving section under automatic transmission. There was a sentence in capital letters that said " DO NOT RACE the engine while shifting out of park or neutral".

My immediate thoughts were that I screwed up something. Everything seems to be working ok but who knows. Anyone have any thoughts on what kind of damage or excessive wear that I might have caused? Thanks

smokin_dodge5_9

I am not a guru, but probably no damage. The transmission may have been a little confused for a second but the only thing that would happen is that the two clutches that apply when shifting into gear maybe would have slipped for a second while the clutches were applying. My guess is no harm if done rarely but nuetral drops on a regualar basis is asking for broken parts and burnt clutches.

AlpineRAM

The manual states this because they mean you not to shift from N to D at 2000 rpm with the truck sitting still. This would place high shock loads on the tranny. But since you already had the speed matching the rpm very closely it didn't do harm. (Due to the speed you had governor pressure theredore it went to 3rd directly instead of starting out in first which would have been bad news)

Doing the same at standstill would mean that the first gear clutches were used to slow down the rotating masses of the TC and the engine while they are getting applied. Lots of torque, pressure and slippage in that!

HTH

AlpineRAM