1992 Dodge Dynasty Slips

SNAKEMONSTER

MEMBER
1992 DODGE DYNASTY
6 CYL
2WD
AUTOMATIC
140,000 MILES

First thing, I am unemployed and can’t afford to take this car to the shop. My wife and I had to buy another car, which is a Dodge Dynasty Mfg date 8-92, with a 3.2 Liter V-6. A friend of ours whom we bought it from. Said it started to make a noise and she parked it right away. Her husband changed the transmission filter and added fluid. When I went to pick it up, she stated it would not move, but it started great. I decided to tow it home. The first thing I checked. Was the transmission fluid, and low and behold. It was overfilled to the hilt. I called her husband and asked about the filter, and he said it clean and there was no metal shavings in the pan. I drained the fluid to recommended level and started it to take it for a drive. The car will not move unless you rev the engine up and bam, it takes off, tires squealing. All gears work including reverse and drives great, but you can’t bring it to a complete stop, or you have to rev it up, for it to catch the first gear. If you slowly roll through a stop sign, and apply the gas as normal, no problem. Right now it’s just to dangerous for my wife to drive it into town, and get behind someone at a red light for her to gun the engine, and for it to take off, hoping the person in front of her won’t hit the brakes. Like I said it’s a great running car, it’s just you have to gun the engine to get it to go from a dead stop. I spoke with a few shade tree machines and they said it was a sensor, is this true, and is there a way for a poor boy to fix or bypass something to make it work. Please help

1 Reply

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,741 POSTS

It's not a sensor issue. If you have the 3.3L engine, you have the four-speed overdrive computer-controlled transmission. That's what's in my '93 Dynasty. If the computer detects a problem with a sensor, or if it detects excessive slippage between shifts, it will default to "limp-in" mode. This gives you park, reverse, neutral, and second gear. The solenoids are spring-loaded to allow second gear only so you can at least drive to a repair shop. The fact that you're driving it and it's shifting means the sensors are working.

It sounds like insufficient fluid is being pumped at low rpm. There's three possible causes. Low fluid level is the most common, excessive internal leakage causing low pressure is next, and third would be a worn front pump. By activating the right sequence of solenoids, the specialists can determine which clutch pack has high leakage. If nothing they do brings the line pressure up, the pump isn't putting out enough pressure.

When you checked the fluid level, was the engine running? If not, the fluid will drain down from the clutch packs and appear to be overfilled. The engine must be idling and warmed up, then the level is checked after running the shifter through all the gears and stopping in park or neutral. Don't forget to wipe the dipstick off before checking the level. Fluid can spray up on it causing inaccurate readings.

Caradiodoc