A little help from my Dodge Brothers???

Dear new Friends,

I'm Brian, and I am chevy guy trying to help a buddy out. A good friend of mine (i went to high school with him 30 years ago) has fallen on hard times for sure and now his truck transmission has gone out. He also paid somebody (on craigslist no less) $100 to "flush" the system but the guy put bad fluid in there.

Anyway, i went and picked up his truck and towed it to my shop and put it on the lift to see what I see.

I pulled the pan and the Transmisison oil was BLACK and watery. Yep, it's burned up. I did some youtube watching on Strut band adjustment and solenoids and it appears we are going to need to pull the unit. There is 1 inch of play in 1 strut, the other is tight. The truck has NO NEUTRAL and NO REVERSE, i've adjusted the shift linkage and kick down cable properly. still nothing.

1989 Dodge Ram D150, Shortbed
318 Engine (5.2L), Automatic
I have measured the tranny and it's 31 inches long and i've started mapping and pulling speedo, linkages and so on, i'm just trying to figure out what he has so that I can source a good replacement and get him back on the road quickly. I know that the numbers are on the side of the tranny and I will get to that tomorrow. Today I have the cross member unbolted (mostly), most of the lines off and the tranny jack under it for safety.

Tomorrow i will pull her out and post some pictures so that you guys can give me some advice.

As I said, and I am really sorry, I'm a Chevy guy -- with a Dodge friend, i'm not charging him anything for my time only for the parts needed to get him back on the road.

Does anyone know
1) For sure what tranny he has?
2) Best place to source a replacement?
3) Is a new Torque Converter required?
4) Best method to fluid Tranny Cooler other than compressed air or running the engine to pump it out?

any other advice, thanks for reading and sorry for my long post.

Oh, i should have added that I'm in East Tennessee near Knoxville if there are any local guys with spare parts, that would be cool, i need to buy some cheap.

Is it a 3 speed auto, or is it a 4 speed/overdrive?

Ok friends, it's been a long week at the office and I am way behind schedule but I have some pictures and I have found a stamp on the top of the bell housing reading 746-5 I have looked all around the site and cannot find exactly what I have here, but it appears to have an overdrive. My guess is either 998 or a 907. Does anybody know what we have?
Oh, reminder -- 1989 Dodge Ram D150 Truck with a V8 housed it.

Anyway, please let me know because I am searching for a replacement and a replacement Torque Converter as well so I can get him back on the road.

A518? That's what I have in mine.

looks like either a a999 or a 727 to me. it is definitely not a transmission with overdrive. if it had overdrive it would look like 3 sections. main body/overdrive unit/tailshaft.

Yes, thank you for the correction crazzywolfie.

It appears that the serial number stamped on the driver's side base.

PK4446367 9245 0661

Ok. New tranny in there. I found an A999 in Atlanta on sale for $250 with a torque convertor from a salvage yard. I took pictures, measurements and everything, including taking the OLD one with me to make sure this was the right one. Side by Side, aside from Dirt, they were clearly the same unit.

INSTALL TIME.
I learned a lot during this process, but ultimately i got the 999 in there, put all the wires (they were direct connections). I had to swap over the tranny tail shaft mount because the one on the Vans is apparently different than this D150. no biggie.

i blew out the lines with air, fresh fluid (and it's lovely red)

So It started right up and ran for 3 minutes and shut off. NOW it won't restart. It's a bizarre problem and I've been googling and googling it trying to find something about Automatic Shutoff Protection and such, it seems that it's not getting fuel or spark, but I can't be sure about this.

So, i am pretty proud of my work, even repairing a crushed cooling line by cutting out that section and replacing it with a nice brass fitting and 2 flared ends. It looks real good and doesn't leak a bit.

So, does anybody know anything about why it wouldn't start?

Oh, also -- i shouldn't have forgotten about this -- and this is the worrying part. When in Park, it sits perfectly still, but i can roll the truck (not while on the lift, duh) in R, N, D, 2, 1. ALL GEARS. yeah, that worries me too.

Any of my dodge brothers have any ideas on these 2 issues? I am almost finished and can't want to get this D150 back on the road again.

might want to check the asd relay

being able to roll a vehicle while it is in any gear other than park is normal

Dear Dodge Brothers,
You guys are AWESOME. The best part of this project has been the support and advice from YOU GUYS. I pulled the codes and received a code "12", which means "battery disconnected within last 50 starts". ok nothing MAJOR in the computer, but not firing so it's not getting any spark.

I took off the dizzy and found this.



Yep, that little metal thing should be on TOP of the dizzy, not laying on it's side.. Whew! It's a $9.00 fix and I found it after 9pm tonight or I would have already fixed it up. Fix coming in the morning. WHEW!!

Thanks again for everything, i'll post a video of this ride after she's trucking down the road again.

makes you wonder what caused that to pop? at least it is a cheap and simple fix.

I suspect that the engine was running a little bit out of balance because I had left out 1 transmission bolt and it was not torqued to 100 pounds on the bell housing. I think it was a little rough trying to start, perhaps that wobble caused an already loose cap to give it up.

Also, we have been turning it over and over trying to get it to fire, maybe we broke it. It STILL might have an relay tripped, but we won't know until tomorrow morning.

turn the engine over should not have caused that to break. a loose cap might have but not likely to happen. if the engine was running rough that might have actually been the reason it was running rough because the rotor was failing.

you could check for spark at the coil. if you get spark at the coil you are fine.

Crazzywolfie, it was running VERY rough, so I'm sure that was it.

Great news! I am happy to report that the 318 Runs like a top. Smooth as a sewing machine.... It was just for a $8 rotor on top of the distributor..

now for the bad news... The truck doesn't move under it's own power. This is very strange. I checked the rear differential fluid and it's full (looks good actually), and i marked the driveshaft to note that it didn't move either when in drive and the foot to the floor.

So, there must be some sort of neutral lock-out or protection switch that is preventing the solenoid from shifting it.. right? other thoughts that i should check? Is the TV cable hard to adjust? I just hooked it up and I suspect it might be something that simple.

Thanks again to my Dodge brothers for all your pointers and assistance, i have found so many small issues with this thing it's amazing that it was running, soon it will be a daily driver again. (today's find was a leaky rear brake caliber and very low fluid in the reservoir. * I will be adding that to the checklist once she's running again *.

did you check the transmission fluid with the truck in neutral? you are most likely low on transmission fluid.

i went out and ran the truck for 5 minutes while in neutral -- i know it was neutral because it wouldn't start in either gear on either side of that (D or R).

I then checked the fluid and found it to be a lovely red, and about 1/2 the way up the section. i am feeling that I need to drop the pan -- yuck

Man you dodge brothers really do know your stuff.

I dropped a transmission cooling line and started the truck, expecting it to squirt out all over the ground -- NO LIQUID. I shut it off right away.

So, i pulled the other lines as well, no fluid anywhere. I dropped the pan, it was 100% full of liquid and the dipstick showed it was full.

I went to the store to buy a new filter and gasket, i also picked up 2 more pints of Dextron ATF-4 to put in there, i am thinking i should pre-load the radiator with a hand pump, clean the bottom of the tranny, put the new filter in there (again) and use some compressed air (low pressure, maybe 10 PSI) to clean everything out before reloading and trying again.

I don't think he pump burned up, we didn't run it long, and the fluid is still beautiful red.

Trying again, MORE LATER tonight.

if the pump was burnt out it was not your fault. dodge transmission do not pump fluid when they are in park. i think you can get a kit to fix that but most transmission seem to last pretty good without it plus usually the 3 speed auto transmission are fairly cheap to have rebuilt or rebuild as long as nothing it broken.

Last night I preloaded the radiator with fluid and then dropped the pan and put fresh fluid in it. She took the standard 5 pints (in addition to the preload).

I started it up, let it run in Neutral for 5 minutes to get warm and checked the fluid. it appears to be a little above the top line (but not too much). I am still getting ZERO movement of the tranny, i think the pump is dead.

sounds like it is dead. do you got the old transmission still? might be able to swap them over.