1500 Would Not Move in Drive

[Jwrigh12]

So this is way after the fact, and I havent had an issue since the incident... but am just now getting around to asking about it on here, and am wondering if anyone here has experienced this before.

The Truck - 2014 RAM 1500 Lonestar. 5.7 HEMI with the 8sp tranny.

Couple months ago Im out wheeling with my 5 year old, just exploring, and happened on a creek wash. It had rained a few days prior but wasnt too bad. All of a sudden the mostly dry ground turned into thick mud, and the wheels started spinning.

I put it in 4WD and was able to move a bit...but was pretty stuck. So I threw it into 4Low. I was able to get a bit more traction with this, but after a minute, felt that I was asking for too much speed out of the 4 Low, so tried to put it back into 4WD

This is where it gets interesting.

It started to switch but it refused to fully change. No big deal.. tried to put it back to 4 Lo. Wouldnt go back.
Tried Drive. Nothing.
4 Auto. Nada.

Each time the engine would rev, but no engagement at all.

Temps were fine. Nothing overheated.

Shut the truck off and waited for a min.

Went through the cycle again. Nothing.

Was getting an error message on the dash (dont remember the exact wording, but something like...) - Speed too Low for shift

Shut the truck off again. Spent a about 10 min googling things that made me very concerned. Fired it up again in one last attempt, and put it back into 4 Lo (the last option I was on before I lost power). Miraculously, the tranny engaged, and I was able to crawl out of the mud, and get home.

Once moving again (after clear of the treacherous mud...) It was able to shift from 4Lo to 4WD and back to 2WD. Ive never had an issue since.

So... DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT HAPPENED?!?! Any help would be great!

 

[Daw14]

Maybe your wheel speed sensor became covered in mud and could not send its signal.

 

[ctwalton15]

I wonder if maybe like Daw said above A wheel speed sensor or possibly a ABS sensor. I know in my 09, occasionally Ill hit a large pot hole or something large at a decent speed and will cause my brake light, abs, tranny to shift, and service 4wd light to come on an sometimes it sets a code for me. All of this is a due to a wheel speed sensor I believe rear driver side.

Have you checked the trans fluid recently I do wonder if maybe driving it all this time I wonder if some is leaking or what not. Whenever I hear something like this I always would check the trans fluid first. I do have a leak on my truck. Mine is a 09 4th gen 5.7l with the 5 speed auto. I have had mine slip before so I added fluid due to it being low. I wonder if you are in the same boat. Might not be a bad idea to check either

 

[NETim]

A few weeks ago, my truck simply would not move up and off the boat ramp. The engine would rev up but obviously it wasn't connected to the drive train.

I finally realized that the driver's side door wasn't completely closed.

Not related to your problem I know but dang, these trucks are getting too smart!

 

[Jwrigh12]

I wonder if maybe like Daw said above A wheel speed sensor or possibly a ABS sensor. I know in my 09, occasionally Ill hit a large pot hole or something large at a decent speed and will cause my brake light, abs, tranny to shift, and service 4wd light to come on an sometimes it sets a code for me. All of this is a due to a wheel speed sensor I believe rear driver side.

Have you checked the trans fluid recently I do wonder if maybe driving it all this time I wonder if some is leaking or what not. Whenever I hear something like this I always would check the trans fluid first. I do have a leak on my truck. Mine is a 09 4th gen 5.7l with the 5 speed auto. I have had mine slip before so I added fluid due to it being low. I wonder if you are in the same boat. Might not be a bad idea to check either

So I have the ZF 8sp transmission... which unfortunately is sealed. No dipstick to check it easily (although that is on the list of things todo...)

As far as the wheel speed sensor goes. That's one of the things that I was reading about. Only thig I couldn't figure out was... if the mud covered it, I highy doubt i would just randomly unvover it.

 

[Daw14]

Might have dripped off . I knew that question was coming , this is all internet diagnosis.

 

[Jwrigh12]

A few weeks ago, my truck simply would not move up and off the boat ramp. The engine would rev up but obviously it wasn't connected to the drive train.

I finally realized that the driver's side door wasn't completely closed.

Not related to your problem I know but dang, these trucks are getting too smart!

Yeah... too smart for my liking for sure. I enjoy some of the features, but sometimes, I just wanna live life on the bleeding edge. Door open, seatbelt off, flying down the neighborhood streets at a blazing 3mph. I mean is that really too much to ask?

 

[Jwrigh12]

Might have dripped off . I knew that question was coming , this is all internet diagnosis.

For sure! Im not at all saying its outside the realm of possibility, and the truck has been fine ever since! Just wanted to come back to the brain trust and see if anyone has had anything similar/is aware of this happening.

 

[ctwalton15]

So I have the ZF 8sp transmission... which unfortunately is sealed. No dipstick to check it easily (although that is on the list of things todo...)

As far as the wheel speed sensor goes. That's one of the things that I was reading about. Only thig I couldn't figure out was... if the mud covered it, I highy doubt i would just randomly unvover it.

Interesting, I didn't know those trannys were sealed. Thats kind of a ****** thing. I know mercedes and bmw like doing **** like that. We had essentially a "universal" dipstick you could stick through a bolt hole in the top of the trans to physically check the level but again thats odd I wonder who thought that was good idea to not put a dipstick on engine or transmissions. I don't think you mentioned that it set off a check engine light or not but with a decent scanner someone might be able to scan it and check all the modules to see if there is a trans/abs/speed code. That might not be a bad idea.

 

[Klules]

For sure! Im not at all saying its outside the realm of possibility, and the truck has been fine ever since! Just wanted to come back to the brain trust and see if anyone has had anything similar/is aware of this happening.

A few weeks ago, my truck simply would not move up and off the boat ramp. The engine would rev up but obviously it wasn't connected to the drive train.

I finally realized that the driver's side door wasn't completely closed.

Not related to your problem I know but dang, these trucks are getting too smart!

my truck would not move. seemed fine except it would not engage in drive or reverse. it was due to drivers side door open. i shut the door and realized the park break had engaged itself.

 

[DawnChatham]

Same thing happened to me a last month. Come to find out, it was the small little hose that goes from the tranny to the heater. It had popped off. Not to mention that the O rings were going bad. Soon as I had put it drive, it dropped all the tranny fluid right there. Got it fixed but, now there is a small leak from the under carriage (tranny fluid). Not sure as to what that is all about. I was told to watch the Trans Temp, which fluctuated between 188 and 194. I am no mechanic, but that does not seem normal to me.

 

[Jeepwalker]

My suspicion is in the process of your initial rocking/shifting, eventually the transfer case got to the point where the gears didn't mesh and the electric shift motor (that does the shifting in the xfer case to hi->low, etc) couldn't 'force' the shift fork (gear/s) to mesh when the teeth were not in alignment. This is a normal occurance in most trasfer cases. The usual instructions in the owners manuals say you need to be moving ...or MAY need to be moving a little to complete a shift. Even a slow crawl speed. That allows the gears inside the xfer case which may be moving slowly to find a place between the teet to slide together and fully 'mesh'. And also there's the front axle disconnect that slides a collar back/fourth...and that needs to line up to the axle splines. It's possible that got caught between splines and wouldn't shift either. Guys who've used manually shifted old-school transfer cases have probably felt where they cant get the transfer case lever to physically go into 4x4 mode they want to go into.

Plus....there's got to be an end-switch when a shift is complete, which in your case wasn't sending the right signal to the TIPM (computer) letting it know the shift had been completed, and it sounds like a speed signal is also part of the the shifting sequence. So...I would say your condition was unfortunate but I'm speculating it's a built-in 'safety'. Because what most people would eventually do out of frustration is floor the engine for a moment and suddenly the gears mesh and then it goes "BANG!!" and the owner just gernaded his xfer case (and THEN you would be walking!). So I suspect it was just a way of protecting the truck's mechanicals.


I've been in situations in the old days with manually-shifted trucks when I knew I was suddenly getting into a mud situation (e.g. going into a ditch). Guys who know their older trucks know you really want to shift into 4x4 WHILE the vehicle is still moving. B/c if you get stopped and wheels can't move, there's a decent chance you won't be able to get it into 4x4 or low. And of course you want to keep your momentum.

 

[Wild one]

Same thing happened to me a last month. Come to find out, it was the small little hose that goes from the tranny to the heater. It had popped off. Not to mention that the O rings were going bad. Soon as I had put it drive, it dropped all the tranny fluid right there. Got it fixed but, now there is a small leak from the under carriage (tranny fluid). Not sure as to what that is all about. I was told to watch the Trans Temp, which fluctuated between 188 and 194. I am no mechanic, but that does not seem normal to me.

There is "no" small hose from the transmission to the heater . There's 2 bigger coolant hoses that feed it coolant on the top of the unit,and there's 2 bigger hardlines that feed fluid from it to the cooler and back.The O-rings that are on the transfer tubes that feed fluid from the transmission to the heater are prone to leaking with age,there are updated versions of the transfer tubes that do away with the O-rings

 

[Wild one]

Same thing happened to me a last month. Come to find out, it was the small little hose that goes from the tranny to the heater. It had popped off. Not to mention that the O rings were going bad. Soon as I had put it drive, it dropped all the tranny fluid right there. Got it fixed but, now there is a small leak from the under carriage (tranny fluid). Not sure as to what that is all about. I was told to watch the Trans Temp, which fluctuated between 188 and 194. I am no mechanic, but that does not seem normal to me.

Post #263 on this thread shows the external lines to the thermal management unit (TMU) and the updated transfer tubes that do away with the O-rings. As you can see,there is no small hose from the transmission to the heater/TMU

RevMax 8 speed thermostat bypass

I'd do exactly what I did with my Harley. Heat the thermostat up and take measurements of it when it opens up. Then make a solid plug (likely aluminum) that copies those dimensions. This way, the cooler/heater operate exactly as the factory designed it to when the trans is HOT. It would just...

www.ramforum.com

 

[DawnChatham]

Post #263 on this thread shows the external lines to the thermal management unit (TMU) and the updated transfer tubes that do away with the O-rings. As you can see, there is no small hose from the transmission to the heater/TMU

RevMax 8 speed thermostat bypass

I'd do exactly what I did with my Harley. Heat the thermostat up and take measurements of it when it opens up. Then make a solid plug (likely aluminum) that copies those dimensions. This way, the cooler/heater operate exactly as the factory designed it to when the trans is HOT. It would just...

www.ramforum.com

Thank you. I have no clue as to what I was looking at. It looked like a bunch of various shapes of metal to me. All I know is that the person that fixed it had told me that. However, she is still acting a little funny. Not to mention, she has a slow leak of the trans fluid. From what I can see, it is coming from that black box looking thing from under the truck. SMH.