I have about 30k/2yrs on my rebuilt tranny, the thing was a monster, shifted great, shifted exactly when it was supposed to... no issues at all until Tuesday morning leaving work.. Jumped in pulled across the lot kind of a acceleration/coasting, and about the time it should have went into 2nd gear it just lost everything like it was in neutral, no clunk, no bang nothing... I had reverse as strong as usual but noting in forward gears..

Tranny fluid is as red as the day it was put in, dropped the pan nothing in there, pulled the tranny out and we can't find a single thing wrong. All the clutches (forward/direct/both bands) look as good as the day we put them in, air pressure tested and everything seems to be locking up and working as usual.. The one thing we didn't do was to put a pressure gauge on the tranny before we pulled it out... The only thing that was never touched in this transmission was the rear overdrive assembly, but I can't thing of any reason there is anything in there that would cause this...

Again the truck has strong reverse but nothing in forward gears...

Specs below...

04 Ram 305/555 48re 4x4


-Transgo shift kit (drilled only 1 hole for lock up)
-Sonnax Intermediate Super Servo kit
-Sonnax Billet accumulator
-Governor Solenoid to GM Pressure Control Solenoid Conversion Kit
-Billet Band anchor
-HD Band strut
-4.2:1 apply lever
-Extreme Duty Brass Impregnated Carbon Fiber Flex Band
-HD reverse band
-5 Red Eagle clutches and Kolene steels
-7 Red Eagle clutches and Kolene steels
-Billet input shaft
-Heavy Duty flexpalte
-DPC triple disk converter


Again the fluid looks great, nothing in the pan... I'm stumped....

Could there be something in the valve body that is causing this?

This is a home built tranny, built by my dad (retired Chrysler master tech, and myself) so no shop was involved..


Thank you in advance for any input...

 

I had the same failure on mine the first trip out with the trailer after the rebuild. We made it to the destination, put it in reverse, and thereafter had no forward gears, but continued to have reverse. As I recall, the transmission guy said that all forward gears go through the direct clutch pack. Pull the transmission and go through it again.

 

Forward clutch lip seal failure is what happened to mine. Had reverse, but no forward movement. The lip seal was nicked during install (installer error....aka Me!). Easy fix, $7 part, unfortunately everything needs to be removed to get to it.