41TE sometimes does not engage

I went through a similar problem with my 1993 Voyager. It had an intermittent electrical problem where the solenoids were not getting power when they should. The shop cleaned and re-fitted every connector. It has now been four days and 82 miles without a problem.

When this tranmission has an electical failure, it will go into "limp" mode, or 2nd gear. That is most likely what you are noticing.

I would suggest taking it to a competent shop that has the proper scan tool for diagnosis. The fault codes read from the transmission control module should give an indication of why it went into limp mode.

-KM

Well, the shop found codes indicated that the box had overheated, and that the temperature sensor had failed (due to the excessive temperatures) and some other issues. They suggest that a snap ring had warped and fallen off the clutch shaft.

Why is it that Chrysler cannot get enough cooling in these tranmissions for anything other than flat roads?

Good question. I had always understood that a tranmission cooler was not necessary except for pulling trailers, or under heavy load conditions.

Your experience seems to indicate otherwise.

-KM

A minivan is not very "mini" any longer. Minivans since the late 90s are a pretty big and heavy chunks to drag through the wind, and are at least as hard on a transmission as a more aerodynamic car pulling a small trailer.

Also, the early electronic transaxles like the 41TE run full hydraulic line pressure all the time and generate more heat as a result than older all-hydraulic transmissions (eg 904 and 727) that vary the line pressure depending on throttle position.

Yes, but I believe that the designers at Chrysler may know about this. It's clearly a design problem.

Question: because the brakes are also under-specced on this vehicle (I've had them fade out several times), I sometimes shift down to use engine braking -- could this result in excess transmission temperatures?