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Paul Vachon
Dodge Dakota
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9/07/2005
13:27:30

Subject: 1999 tranny issue
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Hello, i own a 1999 Dakota Sport club cab with 4 wheel drive with 96,000 miles on her. It the 3.9 engine. I love the truck but last week i had the engine check light come on. Actually when my wife was driving it. But it now seems to rev really high before it shifts into second gear until it warms up alittle. I did notice that maybe i have a little too much tranny fluide in there but i dont think this would cause a shifting problem. Any thoughts would be appreciated.



Craig
Dodge Dakota
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9/07/2005
21:00:33

RE: 1999 tranny issue
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It's a shame the truck is pretty new out of warrenty, unless you got an extended warrenty. Of course it migh not have come with the 7/70 powertrain warrenty the new ones come with.

Your symptoms might indicate something wrong with the electronic controls on your transmission, especially if the Check Engine light is on. It's probably going to tell you a transmission code of some kind.

Otherwise you should definately change the transmission fluid if it hasn't been done yet. That might help some. If when you check codes you suspect a mechanical problem, I would try a quart or two of TransTech or something like that. It actually has worked for customers in the past, at least for a while. You would have very little to loose if you're looking at a transmission rebuild by trying it anyway.

I am hoping you don't need to be told this, but assuming the worst anyway: You need to havae the engine running and the truck in park to check transmission fluid. If I'm giving you an idiot lesson please don't be upset; being around customers since I was very young has made me assume that people don't know something- best to be safe anyway.

See, overfilled in my expereince generally equals leaks, not poor shift quality. I suppose long term being very overfilled could cause a problem though... I would still think you would have to be drastically overfilled not like a fingernail thickness above "full". Low transmission fluid would generally make the transmission behave like you described, only it would do it for every gear.

Another brief thought: could be a ground wire somewhere making your transmission go nuts- kind of a longshot though.

Now after reading your post more carfully, I need to make a couple of clafifications; your engine has to wind up in order to make the shift, or it "scrubs" shifts and allows the motor to wind up in between gears. Second is, are you sure that the transmission is starting in first gear? It is possible your transmission has entered a "limp home mode" as I call it. In caravans this is very frequent. It will start the car in second gear and drag out shifts. This would certainly indicate a serious issue with the transmission (either mechanical or electronically). I have never seen a Dakota enter its "limp home" mode, but it might certainly behave differently from a Caravan! ;-)

If the issue is mechanical, get a Mopar factory rebuild tranny, not one from some independent rebuilder. While some independt shops do a good job, most don's, so I always recommend a factory reman job.

Good luck to you.



Paul Vachon
Dodge Dakota
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9/08/2005
08:18:27

RE: 1999 tranny issue
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Thanks for re[pling to my messag. Last night on my way home from work witch is 40 miles my truck would not shift into 3rd gear, so i pulled over, shut the truck off, and re started it. This worked. So on the way home i stopped at Auto Zone and had them read the codes. PO720 was the code. This turned out to be the output speed sensor. So i bought one for $28.00 and replaced it in 10 minutes in the driveway. Seems to have done the trick. No shifting proplems at all this morning on my 40 mile treck back to work this morning. Thanks again for your reply. I appreciate it. This board has helped me on more than one occasion and its because of people like you that make it a success.

Paul Vachon



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