andy levy wrote:
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> On 7/6/2004 8:50 AM, Zachary Burcham wrote:
> |
> | I have a 1992 Dakota 3.9 with the A500 Auto. It's got 165K+ on it and I
> | think it's finally given up. Been doing "OK" for the last year or year
> | and a half but it was accumulating and ever increasing number of
> | mannerisms. Monday morning I went to drive from the GF's to my house
> | and it never shifted into OD the whole time, 6 minutes at 2600 RPM down
> | a state highway and never did it shift. It also began to kill the truck
> | at stops as I drove it a bit farther. Talked to a tranny guy and he
> | said it might be a sensor but with 170K on it, it's not likely. Any
> | suggestions on what I should do would be appreciated, I'm wanting to go
> | with a new tranny, as rebuilds tend to suck and kick it after a year and
> | cost about the same.
>
> Tom's had a little bit of experience on the A500's OD unit, IIRC. Hope
> he sees this - I skimmed his Wrenchfest update and it didn't look like
> he'd be on the computer much. Gotta go back & check tho, and I'll be
> sure to bring this to his attention on IM.
>
> - --
> - -andy
>
Yeah I did see this thread but I didnt have a chance to reply to it.
Also I didn't think anyone wanted to hear me thrash and bash the A-500
anymore heh, as I have been known to rant about how much it sucks ass.
First thing, change your tranny fluid. Pay close attention to the
color, smell, and any contamination in the fluid. Color should be
pink-to-red. if it is starting to get orange or brown... you left it in
there way too long. If it smells "burnt" - its been in way too long.
Check the magnet in the pan - small fine metal particles resembling a
paste with a grey/black color is normal. Usually shouldnt be more than
- for a lack of a better way of describing it - a few table spoons worth
of quantity around the magnet.
Chips, flakes, or peices of metal = bad. That means your hard parts
(gears) are Fubar. If the fluid seems good - and you didnt mention if
it shifts normally, save for the OD not engaging, your Overdrive
SOlenoid is prolly dead. The over drive and torque converter lock up
soleniods are visiable with the pan dropped and if I remember correctly,
are bolted to the side of the throttle body.
Said soleniods are not avalible at AutoZone, Advanced, or your local
retail parts store. You may need to go to a tranny shop or a dealer for
those parts. They are sold together - you cannot repalce one or the
other - they are a one peice unit. The tricky part to changing them is
the fact that you cannot remove the wire connector (up at the top of the
tranny, visible with the pan removed) due to the valve body being in the
way. I took the 4x4 into a trans shop - which I later discovered
screwed me over (what a suprise) by doing a crappy job. Instead of
removing the connector/wireharness/soleniod entierly - as they should
have done, they cut the wires and spliced the new solenoids in place.
They also forgot to put my tranny pan magnet back in - Motards. And the
pan gasket was leaking when I got back from the DML BBQ in july 2002.
If the trans is shifting through the gears ok - no grinding, slipping or
shuddering, if the fluid is good, I would say your OD soleniod is the
problem. Another thing could be the OD cut out switch on the dash. I
was lucky that I had another 1989 Dakota with the A-500 that I was able
to swap the switches to see if that made a difference. I was able to
rule that out as a problem. If you know someone else with a Gen I or II
that has a cut out switch - they should be interchangable. Just pull
the instrument panel bezel off - and the OD switch is a peice of cake to
swap.
I've learned more about the A-500 than I ever wanted to know.
-- -------------------------------------------------------------- ***** Countdown to 2004 DML BBQ (14) Days Left! *****Terrible Tom -- AIM & Yahoo Name: SilverEightynine http://members.aol.com/silvereightynine/
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