Transmission maintenance

I recently got a 1997 Ram 1500 with 5.9l and 4 speed Automatic. The owners manual says to change the fluid and get the bands adjusted every 12 thousand miles. Isn't this a little too often? The guy I got it from had it done at 50k. It now has 91k and seems to be running ok. Getting it done every 50k or so sounds about right. Any comments?
Thanks. John Murray

That's what it says, but I'd say do what you feel is right.

My grandfather's truck has 120k miles on it and he's never touched his transmission. I personally would do it on my own but the way I see it, nothing's wrong yet so why bother with his?

Only thing to do is change the fluid and filter.Also check the bottom transmission line to the radatior,there a plastic check ball inside it and it melts.Drill that plastic checkball out if you can see it,there should be a spring inside too and blow that spring out if you do not want to have the transmisssion go out later on.

It was about 48k miles that I had tranny problems. I was lucky that changin' fluid & filter fixed it, but I'll do it every 20 or thereabout now on. Heard lot of bad stories w Dodge trans. that might have been avoided w reg. maint.

The reason why the dodge transmissions go out sometimes is inside the bottom transmission line going to the radatior.Inside the bottom transmission line is a plastic checkball that melts.My father removes the bottom, line removes the that plastic checkball by drilling out the plastic checkball out and blow out the spring out and put the line back in(No more transmission problems after that)

Thank youall for the info. This is the newist auto I have ever had. I normally restore antiques and drive them. I traded a 62 T-bird for this truck and it's a whole different ballgame. Thanks again.
John Murray

I would have kept the T-bird.

I would have kept the T-bird.
I got the bird in 1999 for $5095, invested $650 in it for a Base-clear paint job and have had a lot of fun taking it to local car shows. I traded it even for the Ram.