99 Ram 1500 transmission squeal, high rpm in 1st

[anelson1995]

I have a 99 Ram that had the auto transmission and convertor rebuilt almost exactly a year ago. Last night it started randomly squealing when you put it in drive and start to accelerate. Also the rpm's are higher than they should be when the truck will barely move. Once it hits second everything is fine from there on. Reverse is also fine. It only squeals once in a while and only while in first gear. First gear is high rpm and low speed every time I start from a stop or put it in gear. As soon as it started doing this I checked the fluid and it looks more like oil than tranny fluid. It was just checked back at the end of November (about 2500 miles ago) and the fluid was full and looked perfectly normal. Any ideas? Could a tranny flush fix it. Obviously it needs it but could that fix the problem? I wonder if maybe the lines are clogged for whatever reason and the fluid isn't flowing through the tranny cooler? I'm hoping this can be taken care of without having to dump another $2200 into it since it's only been a year. Thanks for any help you can give.

[troy1]

A flush won't fix it. Is your warranty up? Or even if its not go back to the shop and complain.

[anelson1995]

I tried the tranny flush (before I read your post) and you were right, no luck. I drove it again and it is first and second that don't have any power. Truck seems fine after that. If you accelerate slowly you can feel a slight lack of power but if you accelerate normal or faster then the rpms go up and you actually slow down a litte, the truck starts to vibrate, and there is a loud howl, whine (not sure how to describe the sound) until you let off the gas. When you accelerate slowly and get it to third, everything after that seems fine. I gave the tranny shop a piece of my mind and all they would say is there was only a 90 day warranty. They are supposed to do a computer test on it tomorrow. Any ideas would be helpful.

[wafrederick]

Most transmission shop don't know about this and is about the bottom transmission line towards the radatior,the rubber hose part.There is a nylon check ball in thereand there is one problem with that check ball: It melts and plugs the line up causing transmission failure.Drill it out or pop it out with a very long #2 phillips screwdriver.It is white in color and a spring should fly out too.It is removable with a special fuel line releasing tool on one end and two wrenches on the other end.If you want to know,some dumb engineer at Chrysler thought of that and was a very bad design.

[HV2JEEP]

Is that check ball in all the ram transmissions? i have an 02 2500 v10 with a 47RE transmission could this be part of my problem. it doesn't like to up shift unless i give her some gas. with fule prices this isn't a great thing.

[wafrederick]

Yes it is,remove the part of the line and run a long screwdriver it to find out if it has that checkball.

[Moser97]

Do not leave little pieces of the ball floating around in the lines. I cut the valve out completely and put a pipe T in there to put a gauge in. While you are at it take both lines off and run some compressed air through the radiator trans cooler in both directions several times. The ball serves a purpose in that it keeps the torque converter from bleeding off when the truck sits for a while. If you take the ball/valve out you may have to let the truck idle in NEUTRAL for a minute when you start it up after it sat for a few days or it won't want to go anywhere. Daily drivers will probably not have an issue. These transmissions don't move fluid when idling in park so nothing will happen if you idle in park.

HV2Jeep check your Throttle Valve cable running from the accelerator down to the trans. The cable down to the trans should start to move the valve at EXACTLY the same time the butterfly starts to move in the throttle body. Late shifts come from a too loose cable, early/hard shifts from a too tight cable. There is a little release on the cable that will allow you to slide it in or out to adjust the cable tension, make small (1/16") adjustments and then test drive.

[kg@grainer.net]

Is this checkball also on 01 ram?