Auto Tranny Issue!!

[Ram50-Newb]

Hello All,

Been awhile since my last post, I've been sitting back soaking up all the information in this forum; and it is a lot!! Anyway down to the issue at hand. I'm at the point where I believe I have all the mechanical issues resolved with the motor on my Ram50 (1987 Dodge Ram 50 2.6L 4WD). Put the motor back into the truck verified driveplate/flexplate was installed correctly on the torque converter. Truck fires up, sounds strong pulling about 21" of vacuum. Put the truck in gear and it goes nowhere.

When it is shifted to R, D, 2, or L there is no kick from the gear getting in gauged. I get the accelerator up to about 2k RPMs and the truck does nothing no movement, no attempt to move. I'm at a lost on this one and the shitting Haynes manual's troubleshooting touches on it and promptly says "The home mechanic should only worry about fluid levels and filter." But, I want something to look at, something that it could be.

I can say that before the motor was pulled, it would move when in gear, but I had to run it at almost 60-70% acceleration before it would move. Quick background - This truck was sitting for 2+ years before I inherited it and I have had it for about 1.5 years trying to restore it. I did not (but should have) drained the old fluid, but I lacked mechanical know-how; which is no longer the case thanks to many of your threads.

If anyone can provide some ideas I would greatly appreciate it. I have been keeping a photo album of progress and will start a build thread once it runs.

[Fordubishi]

Is the tranny full of fluid? Having to rev the engine to get it to move is one sign of low fluid. Start the truck, pull the tranny dip stick, clean, insert, pull out and check level. yes you must check the fluid while the truck is running.

[DroppedMitsu]

When my old 2.6 auto tranny got even just a lil low it would do what you described. New oil and filling it with the right amount fxed my troubles.

[camoit]

When you pulled the engine did the torque converter fall out? If so you may not have it indexed correctly.
When putting the engine back in, did it mate up to the trany easy? Or did you need to pull them together with bolts? If the later then you have a problem and need to index the TC. There was a thread on here or the archive about indexing. do a quick search for it and read through it. It went on for about 20 posts or so with pictures.

Found it in the archive.
http://www.mightyram50.net/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=91&t=1508&p=9652&hilit=converter#p9652

[pennyman1]

Also make sure you have the cable kickdown hooked up and adjusted correctly - if disconnected, it may not build up enough pressure to move the truck.

[Ram50-Newb]

Ok, I drained the fluid and replaced the Filter and filled to tranny until it would take no more. Turned her over and dropped through the linkage returned to neutral, let it run for a few minutes, popped into D and then R each gear still no kick like it was getting engaged. Put the tranny in neutral and check the fluid dipstick and the tube was still pretty full of fluid; almost like the pump was not pulling anything through.

Shut the truck off and looked under the truck to see a puddle of tranny fluid. Traced the leak to a release valve-like hose on top of the tranny. Finally decided to disconnect the hose running to the radiator/cooler, put the hoses into a bucket and turned the motor over again and ran through the linkage with no fluid dropping to the bucket and still a rather steady leak coming from the hose on top of the tranny.

I don't know much about transmissions and unfortunately my more mechanically inclined neighbor is at a lost on this one.

Camoit - to answer your question, yes the Torque Converter did drop out when the motor was pulled, I did re-insert it and spun to ensure that it was securely engaged. However, with the struggles we had putting the motor back in I'm pretty sure that it slipped. I bolted the driveplate to the TC and then hand cranked the TC until I heard it drop back into position (or at least I believe that it was). Tightened down the engine/tranny bolts and hand cranked the crank to verify nothing was binding. Is there still a possibility that it might be off?

[Ram50-Newb]

Update - Just so anyone else experiencing this issue is aware. Camoit was correct! The TC had disengaged and using the bolts to crank the tranny and engine together did in fact break something loose. I pulled the tranny and replaced with one from the local Salvage Yard and found that the old TC would not come off. You can feel that something came loose inside the TC and now it is stuck. Luckily the new tranny came with the TC.

Almost had the same thing happen when putting the new tranny in, so just so everyone is aware; if you use the bolts to bring the engine and Transmission together, make sure that when you turn the bolts in 1-2 full turns, double-check that the crankshaft will still spin freely. My tell tale sign on both transmissions (that indicated the TC was disengaged) was, when I had the engine and transmission about 3/4-1" apart, the crankshaft would not turn by hand. When we re-engaged the TC (with the tranny removed again) and returned to the same distance the crank still moved freely by hand.

Don't make my mistake!!