Merkaba
Junior Member
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2025
- Posts
- 1
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Shelton WA
- Ram Year
- 1992
- Engine
- 5.2 liter 318 cu in
Hello I'm new here this will be my first post I could really use some advise
but I will explain a bit about who i am. I'm 51 years old and I have worked on my own vehicles also friends and family vehicles my whole life with pretty good success for the most part so I do have some mechanical skills and knowledge..but to be honest have always steered away from working on transmission. So I dont have much experience with them but I do have some knowledge about them. Here is my problem have a 1992 Dodge D250 with 5.2 liter 318 cu in from what I can come up with the
transmission is a A518 46-RH w/127,000 miles on it when I got it transmission was not maintained well fluid was very bad looking did a filter change and fluid but did not drain entire tranny just dropped the pan so like 4 or 5 quarts drained and filled the only problems had before the change was sometimes after putting in gear it and when I came to a stop it would silently drift out of gear so you couldn't here or feel it then when you would apply accelerator it wouldn't move like it was in neutral so I would press the brake pop it back into park and then return to gear I was in and it would go just fine and it would do that only sometimes usually when cold and it would do that in forward gears and reverse and after filter and some fresh fluid in it better did get better had no problems for couple years and here lately I have drivin it a lot more the usually because of my work hand one day I got in to reverse down my driveway to leave and as soon as I put in gear and took foot of brake it jolted backwards and died put in park and tried again same thing happened after a few times I learned if I feather gas really light at first till it's started to move backwards and I felt it grab gear I could apply gas fairly aggressively to get it out to the street so I could go forward I put it in drive and similar situation happen but it was a bit easier to get in gear and go forward.but as soon as I came to a stop it would try to lurch forward and die like I was driving a manual transmission and didn't know how to use a stick..but of course this was a automatic so from my knowledge it was a torque converter problem. And unfortunately I don't have much income so I cant just throw money at it and certainly can't pay a transmission shop to diagnose let alone fix so I need to figure this out and fix on my own I got a couple 5 quart jugs of ATF+4 and disconnected a hose from transmission cooler and while running in neutral would pump out 4 or 5 quarts and reconnected hose from cooler then measured same amount removed and added to transmission same amount of good ATF+4 drove it around and put through gears and drained and added the same way again trying to slowly cycle old fluid out and new fluid in. I did this several times and it did improve the trucks shifting while driving but of course at first it got worse before it got better but it still tries to die every time I slow to a stop or put into gear so I'm unsure if buying a rebuilt torque converter and swapping it out will fix problem and like I said I don't have a lot of money to do that and rebuilt TC are not cheap I'm wondering if maybe replacing the valve body might also be the issue I just don't know what to try next..I have replaced valve bodies before and torque converter and have know problem doing either or both but I'm hoping someone here might have a suggestion on which would more likely fix this problem. Any help/suggestions will be greatly appreciated thank you ..
but I will explain a bit about who i am. I'm 51 years old and I have worked on my own vehicles also friends and family vehicles my whole life with pretty good success for the most part so I do have some mechanical skills and knowledge..but to be honest have always steered away from working on transmission. So I dont have much experience with them but I do have some knowledge about them. Here is my problem have a 1992 Dodge D250 with 5.2 liter 318 cu in from what I can come up with the
transmission is a A518 46-RH w/127,000 miles on it when I got it transmission was not maintained well fluid was very bad looking did a filter change and fluid but did not drain entire tranny just dropped the pan so like 4 or 5 quarts drained and filled the only problems had before the change was sometimes after putting in gear it and when I came to a stop it would silently drift out of gear so you couldn't here or feel it then when you would apply accelerator it wouldn't move like it was in neutral so I would press the brake pop it back into park and then return to gear I was in and it would go just fine and it would do that only sometimes usually when cold and it would do that in forward gears and reverse and after filter and some fresh fluid in it better did get better had no problems for couple years and here lately I have drivin it a lot more the usually because of my work hand one day I got in to reverse down my driveway to leave and as soon as I put in gear and took foot of brake it jolted backwards and died put in park and tried again same thing happened after a few times I learned if I feather gas really light at first till it's started to move backwards and I felt it grab gear I could apply gas fairly aggressively to get it out to the street so I could go forward I put it in drive and similar situation happen but it was a bit easier to get in gear and go forward.but as soon as I came to a stop it would try to lurch forward and die like I was driving a manual transmission and didn't know how to use a stick..but of course this was a automatic so from my knowledge it was a torque converter problem. And unfortunately I don't have much income so I cant just throw money at it and certainly can't pay a transmission shop to diagnose let alone fix so I need to figure this out and fix on my own I got a couple 5 quart jugs of ATF+4 and disconnected a hose from transmission cooler and while running in neutral would pump out 4 or 5 quarts and reconnected hose from cooler then measured same amount removed and added to transmission same amount of good ATF+4 drove it around and put through gears and drained and added the same way again trying to slowly cycle old fluid out and new fluid in. I did this several times and it did improve the trucks shifting while driving but of course at first it got worse before it got better but it still tries to die every time I slow to a stop or put into gear so I'm unsure if buying a rebuilt torque converter and swapping it out will fix problem and like I said I don't have a lot of money to do that and rebuilt TC are not cheap I'm wondering if maybe replacing the valve body might also be the issue I just don't know what to try next..I have replaced valve bodies before and torque converter and have know problem doing either or both but I'm hoping someone here might have a suggestion on which would more likely fix this problem. Any help/suggestions will be greatly appreciated thank you ..
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