My Trans quit for some reason

Clubbs

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 15, 2008
Location
Blounts Creek
My Trans (48re) lost second gear while I was on vacation in Florida. Dropped the pan and threw some pressure solenoids at it in a desperate attempt to get it home. I pulled a 32' enclosed gooseneck down so was a little desperate.

Upgraded gov solenoid and ducer didn't fix anything. Everything looked nice and clean (I service the thing every 30k) did the whole dealership exploration, but I'm too poor for that big money. Left the trailer there, sent the truck to a reputable Trans shop with instructions to build it and took Dad's truck home.

Only had 165k miles on it. Do some towing a few times a months like the pics below... Not sure why it gave up so soon. Told the Trans shop to plan on 800ft-lbs up hill with 20k pounds behind it, foot on the floor with warranty... He said "got it, see you in a couple weeks"

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Stuntman Autoworks said:
Change the trans fluid every 25k miles and it should last alot longer. Also every 50k check the band adjustments.
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There is an interesting divergence point there.
If it cost ~$200 for a full fluid change...at 160k he'd be $1200 into fluid changes. I wonder what the break even is on fix it vs fuck it?

That was Kilnger's oil change strategy. "Im saving for a new engine. Its a 6.0. How long will it last? Dude its been 80k miles since the last oil change."
 
Ron said:
There is an interesting divergence point there.
If it cost ~$200 for a full fluid change...at 160k he'd be $1200 into fluid changes. I wonder what the break even is on fix it vs fuck it?

That was Kilnger's oil change strategy. "Im saving for a new engine. Its a 6.0. How long will it last? Dude its been 80k miles since the last oil change."
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At roughly ~$100 per oil change every 5k miles plus time and effort to take it to get done, I’d say at 325k miles, I was $ ahead. :D
 
Ron said:
There is an interesting divergence point there.
If it cost ~$200 for a full fluid change...at 160k he'd be $1200 into fluid changes. I wonder what the break even is on fix it vs fuck it?

That was Kilnger's oil change strategy. "Im saving for a new engine. Its a 6.0. How long will it last? Dude its been 80k miles since the last oil change."
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$1200 is alot cheaper than building a trans getting towed getting another vehicle to tow whatever you were hauling back to where you were going etc...
So at 320k miles he would have spent $2400 in fluid changes. Still less than the cost of building one.
 
I did the fluid and filter every 30k miles. Did it myself some and had it done most of the time. I intentionally never adjusted the bands. As the band wears the servos will account for the change in material thickness. Eventually the friction surface gets too thin and stops engaging quick enough and you start feeling a slower shift / slip. But if you realize this is happening you can replace the band without dropping the Trans, at least in the 48Re you can. I had to change out the second gear band at about 115k miles. Had I adjusted the band I wouldn't have had any different shifts until the friction material was all gone and I was grinding the band into the drum throwing metal everywhere.

So that's my school of thought on Trans service and it seems to have paid off. The Trans shop sent me pics today. No hard part damage just worn clutches which obviously can't be replaced without removing the input shaft.

So I could have gone back with stock soft parts a rebuilt torque converter and been back on the road pretty economically. Hard parts get expensive. But since I didn't have to buy any hard parts I'm upgrading the Trans to hold around 800 ft lbs of torque. Since the truck is in Florida I can't do any of the work myself and sort of guessed at a Trans shop from some local references. All in the quote is $3,620 with a warranty. So far I'm pretty pleased with this experience other than the fact it happened 800 miles from home.

Truthfully I abuse this truck. While the motor is currently stock (because of the previously stock Trans) I have it tagged for 26k and frequently tow close to or at my rated tag. Also tend to let it pull hills at wide open while loaded heavy. Actually my foot is on the mat alot while towing. I keep up with service intervals and have had zero issues other than tires seem to melt off in less than 30k miles.

Now that the trans can handle more power, I'll probably pick up a smarty and turn it up a bit. When the injectors wear out, I'll go up a size and add a compound to keep things cool. It's been paid off for 10 years and this is the first "major" expense. Beats the heck out of a new Cummins payment even considering oil and filters.
 
I was going to say...I know you're hard on that truck. Not abuse or anything, but you and Hoop aren't/weren't afraid to load a trailer down! I fully support your future mod selections, but would absolutely suggest some EFI Live tunes vs a box/canned tune setup. Price isn't much different best I've seen. Plus, with bigger injectors and twins, they can dial it in a lot better.

The trans price isn't bad. Hopefully they set you up with a good converter. A double or triple disc would be awesome. Let's also hope you never have to use the warranty!
 
Do they have DSP switches for Dodges? I'm not well versed in the Dodge world enough to give a good recommendation of who to get tunes from though. I know a guy with some from Ashby's in Sneads Ferry and he's happy with them.
 
You can put a multi position switch in the Dodges, I have a 5 position switch in my 15. CTT tuning is probably the most recommended tuning company I've seen for the Cummins, and probably who I will be going with when I re-tune. The guy who built my 47rh in the flatbed (and will be building the 68 in the 15 when the time comes) uses T&K Performance tunes on all his stuff, but they don't have Cummins tunes for the EZ link platform yet and that's what my truck has.

Duane
 
Sadly efi live isn't available for my 05. I think they only go down to the 6.7. Thought I read they had it working or the 06 5.9 too, but haven't dug around enough.

Truthfully I've always been against programmers because I don't know what it's doing. Custom tunes would be nice but then I'd like a custom tune with feedback so it would pull back on its own based on egt's. I don't think such a tune exist yet...
 
Clubbs said:
Sadly efi live isn't available for my 05. I think they only go down to the 6.7. Thought I read they had it working or the 06 5.9 too, but haven't dug around enough.

Truthfully I've always been against programmers because I don't know what it's doing. Custom tunes would be nice but then I'd like a custom tune with feedback so it would pull back on its own based on egt's. I don't think such a tune exist yet...
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04.5+ can get efilive. My 06 has it with a csp5 switch. I like the change on the fly of the switch, just wish I would've gotten a tuned by a different shop. All of my tunes are crazy dirty for a stock truck.
 
Trans is back in, the shop is road testing today. Through more parts at it as things progressed hopefully I didn't blow the budget too bad.

You guys are right about tuning. I've never been a fan of the box tuners because I have no idea what they are doing to my motor. Hptuners is compatible with the 05 ecm and optimal welding (weird name) recently announced a 6 tune csp. Not sure how this works on the 05 ecm because of ram limitations and lack of storage space. 06 and up use a different protocal and apparently have more ram. Never thought I'd be custom tuning this truck and I may back out, but for now it seems promising.
 
tsconver said:
I had the optimal welding tune on my 05. They are willing to work with you to get it right. They sent me a starting point and then I logged it and they tweaked. Did this several times.
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How many tunes did you have and could you switch between them on the fly or did you have to connect with a laptop to change between tow and street?
 
Clubbs said:
Sadly efi live isn't available for my 05. I think they only go down to the 6.7. Thought I read they had it working or the 06 5.9 too, but haven't dug around enough.

Truthfully I've always been against programmers because I don't know what it's doing. Custom tunes would be nice but then I'd like a custom tune with feedback so it would pull back on its own based on egt's. I don't think such a tune exist yet...
Click to expand...
not the same platform but on my 08 6.4 it has a H&S mini maxx that had custom tunes wrote for it, they start cutting fuel if egts get to hot. only time ive got the egts to hot is with the biggest tune on it and putting it to the floor and holding it getting on to the interstate.... somewhere around 100 the tires stop spinning and egts start pegging out
 
Went to pick up the truck and trailer this past weekend. Took a couple days off work etc... Paid in full about a week ago. Get down there pick it up drive around town for a few days. Feels pretty much stock. Trans temp gauge isn't hooked up to the dimmer switch so it's blinding at night - no big deal. Hook up the trailer and make it 140 miles. Check engine light comes on and engine derates. Uhg. Pull over and read the code for the TTVA or Trans throttle valve actuator... Essentially the electric version of the kick down cable. The code wouldnt clear so back to town at half power towing 20k not shifting well at all. The next day the Trans shop claims the main harness plug was loose under the hood and cleared the code. I scheptically left again. made it 9 miles further and same problem. Back again... This time the Trans shop is replacing the actuator, but seeing as I had the family with me I had to buy the wife a car and a plane ticket to try again this weekend. hoping the new actuator actually fixes it and it's not some weird issue from the shift kit destroying the actuator.

Considered trading it, but the dealer would only go 9k on trade in...
 
Let me know if I need to head down to Florida.
 
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