truknut

Hello, I am having a problem with my 98 dually. It has an automatic trans. My first problem started some time ago... The truck would not shift out of 2nd gear. I took to a trans. shop they changed the internal harness, truck shifted fine but then I got this slight surging problem when truck was in O.D. Trans. shop put a noise suppressor on alternator and problem went away for about 6 months. Then it would do this spuratically. I had my neighbor change the oil (he is a young votech student) and when truck came back surging was GONE. Asked him if he did anything to truck, he did not. Did not even unhook battery. About 1500 miles later, truck started this surge again. I changed alternator and BAM surge went away. Drove 2600 miles on trip to Florida and when we got home, truck started surging again.
Truck has always started great... now on rare occassion it will not start...just cranks over. It will eventually start, I don't know if my draining the fuel filter or cracking the fuel cap helps or it has a sensor problem that is not always there. I mention this only in case it may have something to do with the surge.
Transmission was rebuilt but that was long before any of these problems surfaced. The only thing that felt different after that rebuild was the new shift points seemed to be at higher rpm's. Sorry for long story, just trying to paint the whole picture. Thanks for any help or suggestions. Rick

dozer12216

The RPM sensor on left rear of tranny can inhibit upshift. No diagnois, just replace the $20 piece. The other possibility is the governor pressure solenoid on valve body. It easy replace and adjust bands, replace filter, new fluid at same time.

phal

I am not sure if this problem effects your year of truck, but are you aware of the overdrive problem on the autos? Dirty connections cause the OD to lock and unlock.
Look at the last article in the 24 valve tech articles sticky by jrs_dodge_diesel, that will explain the problem.

nickg

hard starting should be a seperate issue, likely an air leak in the return side of the system, vacuum in the fuel tank will haul the fuel out of the VP and the filters, quick test is to leave the fuel cap loose, this eliminates any vacuum pulling fuel back after the truck is shut off and parked for a while.

as for shifting issues there are lots of"fixes" and it appears no one fix all is out there check out the aboved mentioned thread for more ideas,

also check the ground connections near the pass side battery where they are joined in a grey connector, apparently its a common fail point

truknut

Thanks for all the input guys. I do notice that when truck is hard to start that there is pressure or vacuum in the tank. I will try the loose cap trick. Thanks again to all. Rick