What to look for on a bad 65RFE valve body

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TheEnder

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I ordered a new vb/sp for my 65RFE, sonnax of course.

This truck clicked when it shifted into 4th, missed the 6-5 downshift, and did strange things at 25MPH, as most of you know.

What should i look for when i tear it apart after installing my new vb?


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Burla

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Piston Compression or lack thereof, ring condition, springs, Warpage, leaks, junk in the balls, for the VB. Did you pay core fee?
 
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TheEnder

TheEnder

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Piston Compression or lack thereof, ring condition, springs, Warpage, leaks, junk in the balls, for the VB. Did you pay core fee?

yeah, i did pay a core charge. I’m in the mindset of something major, one of the springs/rings/etc has to be bad. the torque converter wouldn’t do this


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TheEnder

TheEnder

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Piston Compression or lack thereof, ring condition, springs, Warpage, leaks, junk in the balls, for the VB. Did you pay core fee?

last time i dropped the pan there wasn’t any metal armageddon, so there’s probably carnage inside the vb that’s stuck in there. the fluid looked like i just picked it off the shelf and it had 33K on it


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Hemi395

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Like Burla said, check the pistons/bores for slop and check the piston retainer plate. The plate has a tendency to warp and bend out from the pressure from the piston springs.

Are you replacing the solenoid pack as well?

Heres a great video on what I'm talking about. Its a transgo shift kit install and its long but it shows exactly what I'm referring to:

 

bigdodge

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Did it just rev when it goes to 4th grear?

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TheEnder

TheEnder

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Did it just rev when it goes to 4th grear?

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Yes, only on speeding up on deceleration. It revs to 1.9K for a few seconds, then the revs go down VERY slowly, climb back up to 1.9K, and then it shifts into 5th.


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TheEnder

TheEnder

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Like Burla said, check the pistons/bores for slop and check the piston retainer plate. The plate has a tendency to warp and bend out from the pressure from the piston springs.

Are you replacing the solenoid pack as well?

Heres a great video on what I'm talking about. Its a transgo shift kit install and its long but it shows exactly what I'm referring to:


Yeah i’m replacing the solenoid pack too. Thanks!


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TheEnder

TheEnder

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Interested to see what you find out. Good luck with the repair.

I am too, the truck acts so strangely. I took the line pressure booster off it today, the transmission started to shift so badly that they weren’t really shifts, it’s was just casual RPM movement. It eased itself out, and then all the sudden the clicking in 4th went away for the most part.. The 6th to 5th downshift is still missing, and the 25MPH thing is still there. But hey, atleast it’s kinda shifting well through the gears now.

The truck is starting to click in 5th and 6th, so there’s probably more carnage in the vb than i’m expecting. I can’t wait to rip it apart and see what i can find. Probably an implanted checkball and or a stick 6 to 5 downshift valve, massive piston bore scuffing, and a bad 4th valve which is what i’m expecting. Sounds like that’d be it too, if you decelerate and try to gain speed without fluid pressure, you’re gonna slip until it can gain enough pressure to master a downshift.

Still no metal in the pan, fluid is bright red, so atleast it’s not damaging the torque converter clutch, torque converter, or the clutches/planetary gears inside. But i truly can’t wait to get it fixed and have a truck that shifts like how it’s supposed to for a change.

Still no check engine lights or stored TCM codes, i’d expect atleast a solenoid to set a CEL if it’s slipping so badly in 5th, but i guess i’m wrong.

I will let everyone know the final results this week; whenever it comes in.


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So you had a line booster, was that before or after you started having issues? How much does that boost psi?
 
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TheEnder

TheEnder

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So you had a line booster, was that before or after you started having issues? How much does that boost psi?

10-25PSI. I was having these issues before installing it.


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TheEnder

TheEnder

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So you had a line booster, was that before or after you started having issues? How much does that boost psi?

Truck just stopped doing the 25MPH thing and now it’s shifting so hard into second and clicking so badly it sounds like a guns going off. It’s also now pausing between gear shifts, revving up before the transmission shifts, and i got a check engine light for the solenoids (finally.) Can’t wait for that new valvebody.


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TheEnder

TheEnder

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So you had a line booster, was that before or after you started having issues? How much does that boost psi?

Hey burla, last question. When i get the valve body, do i soak it in fluid or put some fluid in it so it’s not dry, or just leave it dry and put it in neutral on the first start?


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I don't know.
 

Hemi395

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Hey burla, last question. When i get the valve body, do i soak it in fluid or put some fluid in it so it’s not dry, or just leave it dry and put it in neutral on the first start?


Sent from Blue Onyx
I just looked in Alldatadiy and all it says is to lubricate the seals with atf4 before reassembly. So I'm going to say you don't need to soak in in atf4.

Also do you have the ability to do a quicklearn or someone that can? As soon as you disconnect the harness to the solenoid pack a quicklearn will be necessary....
 

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Also do you have the ability to do a quicklearn or someone that can? As soon as you disconnect the harness to the solenoid pack a quicklearn will be necessary....

Great info as usual. These aint plug and play, damn. So what happens if you don't do quick learn?
 
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TheEnder

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I just looked in Alldatadiy and all it says is to lubricate the seals with atf4 before reassembly. So I'm going to say you don't need to soak in in atf4.

Also do you have the ability to do a quicklearn or someone that can? As soon as you disconnect the harness to the solenoid pack a quicklearn will be necessary....

I’m gonna take it to the dealer to have a quicklearn done if needed, what happens if it’s not done?


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Haven't had any transmission problems in my Ram but I had a WJ with the 545RFE transmission and when I dropped the valve body a pair of the machine screws that hold the end plate on were backed out around 1-2mm. I was installing a shift kit anyway which included a thicker end plate and I replaced all of the screws with new ones from Ace Hardware & a dab of blue loctite.

Separate of that, the same transmission had a wire that had fatigued and broken in the harness directly on top of the transmission, a few inches from the big multi-wire connector up there. That was a pain in the everything to diagnose and repair. But it was smooth sailing after all that!!
 
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TheEnder

TheEnder

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Haven't had any transmission problems in my Ram but I had a WJ with the 545RFE transmission and when I dropped the valve body a pair of the machine screws that hold the end plate on were backed out around 1-2mm. I was installing a shift kit anyway which included a thicker end plate and I replaced all of the screws with new ones from Ace Hardware & a dab of blue loctite.

Separate of that, the same transmission had a wire that had fatigued and broken in the harness directly on top of the transmission, a few inches from the big multi-wire connector up there. That was a pain in the everything to diagnose and repair. But it was smooth sailing after all that!!

If you have a 8 speed i expect you to not have transmission issues as they’re built amazingly well.

The 6 speed, not so much. If you don’t maintain them down to a T they ruin themselves. They hate themselves to put it that way.

This truck didn’t start having issues until last year, it was smooth sailing until then, but then the 25MPH thing started, and a few months ago the clicking when entering 4th, and then 5th gear engaging late if that makes sense. I couldn’t figure out what it was for the life of me, i originally thought it was the torque converter but the lockup is fine, unlock is fine, and the stall speed is where it’s supposed to be, so it can’t be the issue. That leaves the VB/solenoid pack. Since it hangs in shifts now too, that’s what it HAS to be.


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