Dodge Ram 1500 Truck 4WD ,automatic transmission

I have always been a dodge owner most of my life there was one big ford mistake years ago which made me an even stronger dodge man,Well anyway I got my current 97,ram with 56,000 miles on it and so far have had nothing but problems Starter,a long hesitation when you place it in drive sometimes where it just sits like its in nuteral (and yes I checked the fluid level and its ok) and eventualy with a loud clunk it goes into gear finally on its own ,it also has that viberation at about

45 mph is when it starts almost like a front end viberation I have goodyear tires ,when i put it in 4wd and turn the wheel hard right or left it does make noise and seems to kinda bump along oddly ,,the brake lines went ,broke between the gas tank and frame of the truck so I had to take it in to have it repaired because of the location which required it to have to be put up on a lift,and funny how when i called they told me exactly where the rupture in the brake line was A defect in design which causes it to rot out there ,well all lines were in bad shape after 56,000 miles and had to be replaced i saw the lines they were horriable,the damage $500.00 bucks ,Now what makes me wonder is I hardly ever go off roading with it and only put about 10,000 miles on it a year at best seems to me thease problems are a bit premature for the light use it gets anyone else having similar problems ,by the way be prepared to pay $200.000 for the cheapest starter you can get but you do get a core charge back for the old one still way over priced for a starter. Smal
Reply to
smal
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This sounds like a defective check valve in the transmission cooling lines which allows the TC to drain. Try putting it into neutral for a few seconds before shifting it into gear and see what happens.

,it also has that viberation at about

Did you have the tires balanced?

That is because it is a PART TIME 4 wheel drive and is not designed to be used during dry conditions like you are doing.

Yea, they did use a somewhat low grade material there but what are the road conditions where you live as in salt usage.

It is a 9 year old truck, hardly brand new and many of the problems that you described are more due to age than anything else. Do you know who owned it before you? Did it used to pull a trailer like a boat and put it into salt water? There are many reasons why these problems could occur.

Reply to
TBone

I have a 99' Dodge Ram 1500 4x4 Quad cab W/ 360 v-8 and auto trans. I am on my forth trans. My truck currently has 145,000 miles. Every 40-50 thousand the tranny would go. I'm always off-road camping or what-not, but nothing that would justify needing 4 transmissions.

Reply to
JLAKE

Wow, I have the same truck (year, model, engine, trans, 4x4) use it for 4x4 camping regulary and have never had a problem at 110K miles except for 2 recalls. Maybe the only difference is I have the tow package with it's better cooling. I have many rolling hills and as soon as the trans starts hunting between D and O/D I take it out of O/D until I'm back on flat ground again. When decending long twisting mountain grades I put it into 1st for as much engine brake as possible and don't up-shift without a little pressure on the accelerator so I don't get such a hard shift.

Reply to
Ed H.

I have the tow package as well. I also have programmed the trucks computer with a superchips power programmer(it made a big positive difference in performance). Mabe that could be the reason for my trucks tranny problems, what do you think?

Reply to
JLAKE

Reply to
night_caper

If it made big gains in HP and torque and you have a heavy foot it would put more stress on the trans, so yeah, I can see it might be a factor. However, superchips web site says it won't harm the transmission, so I don't know.

Reply to
Ed H.

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