overdrive kicking out and electrical issues

highrollintj

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2005
Location
Rolesville
lately my truck has been having some issues. sometimes when i am just driving around and sometimes when towing. first off its a 1995 dodge ram with cummins and automatic transmission. the problem consists of the torque converter locking and unlocking while in over drive and kicking out of overdrive and then just about every light on the gauge panel blinking and the rpm gauge jumps sporadically and eventually reads 0 rpms. the transmission will kick in and out of overdrive and finally just run in 3rd at high rpms. i searched google and found something that mentioned a speed sensor on the front of the engine.

could it be this sensor going bad? just seems to me that it is not a transmission problem and more of an electrical issue. it also effects the a/c when it messes up for some reason.
 
TPS can usually cause this. If your truck has a faulty brake switch that can be a culprit sometimes as well. Not sure about the gauges or the speed sensor you mentioned. Hope ya get it figured out.
 
Sounds like the Cummins beggin for a trans that worth a crap...Mine does the same thing from time to time
 
i doubt it is the transmission. when its not messing up, the transmission runs fine. its also an aftermarket tranny. like i said the reason i figured it had to be electrical is because the gauge panel goes crazy with the flashing lights and the rpm gauge going crazy without any actual fluctuation in rpms and the a/c going from cold to warm
 
Mine was doing the same thing.... TPS fixed it. If you are up my way i can scan it and we can look at the TPS readings. It may not be setting a check eng light, but we can look at the readings and see what they look like....
 
could be the tps like others have said. another common problem those had that caused your symptoms was corroded/bad grounds. i believe this is your problem if you are having dash lights go crazy too. check the grounds and clean them at the batteries as well as on the side on the engine block (there are 2 if i remember). even if the grounds look good do this b/c i have seen this fix the tcc lockup problem.

if that doesnt fix it try to splice into the tps ground circuit and run to an additional ground.
 
without being a dodge expert, my first thought was bad ground. I once had a dodge that had the converter lockup problem, and it was a tps, however, i didn't get crazy problems with the dash
 
Well first, the 1-2-3 shifts are hydraulically controlled on that transmission so if they are fine then the problem is definitely electrical. Other than the TPS I don't know what else to tell you to check but I can suggest a workaround for the tranny issues...you can wire the TQ lockup and O/D engage to ground switches, there is only one wire for each one going into the tranny.
 
the battery terminals and grounds were a little corroded. cleaned em up but havent had a chance to drive it far enough to see if that fixed the problem. it shifts fine through 3rd so like i said earlier, i figured it wasnt the transmission messing up. i'll update this weekend once i have time to drive it around to see if the problem is fixed. thanks for the help.
 
make sure you clean the other ends of the main grounds on the engine block too. like i said above there are at least 2.
 
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