v8440
Well-known member
A buddy of mine got hired to swap transmissions in a 2000 model ram 1500 2wd. It has the electronic 518 or 46re, whatever that thing is. I went and helped him do it, and I've learned about a couple of subtle differences in the transmission cases that can bite you in the ass if you don't make sure you're replacing one with the right stuff.
First thing that happened was last week, he was gonna start the process. We carefully compared the replacement unit with the one in the truck, and it's a good thing. As it turns out, the replacement had a different speed sensor than the one in the truck. On the replacement, there was actually a little "nub" sticking out of the housing where the sensor was, and the electrical connector was different also. The sensors were different to the extent that they were not physically interchangeable, even if the electrical connections had been the same. So, they took that one back and got another that had the same electrical stuff.
Today Randy and I pulled the bad transmission out of the truck and started swapping the little linkages and stuff over from one to the other. There's a metal bracket on the left side of the transmission that has a hole for the shifter bar to slide into. What I mean by shifter bar is that horizontal metal rod that's oriented right to left, and is bolted to the truck down behind the left front wheelwell. The right (passenger side) of that bar is supposed to be slid into a hole in the bracket I just mentioned-this keeps the bar stabilized where it needs to be. As it turns out, the second transmission had both places that the bracket bolts to, but they were not the same distance from each other as on the original transmission! Why in the hell they would change such a small detail is beyond me, but they did. So, we had to do some engineerin with a shitload of washers to make it work. But, work it did, so we finished up bolting it in. When I left the shop Randy needed to bolt the starter back up and fill it with fluid. Another buddy went by there and said that the truck was running, so I assume we did it right.
I just wanted to point out the weird variations between cases of otherwise-identical transmissions.
First thing that happened was last week, he was gonna start the process. We carefully compared the replacement unit with the one in the truck, and it's a good thing. As it turns out, the replacement had a different speed sensor than the one in the truck. On the replacement, there was actually a little "nub" sticking out of the housing where the sensor was, and the electrical connector was different also. The sensors were different to the extent that they were not physically interchangeable, even if the electrical connections had been the same. So, they took that one back and got another that had the same electrical stuff.
Today Randy and I pulled the bad transmission out of the truck and started swapping the little linkages and stuff over from one to the other. There's a metal bracket on the left side of the transmission that has a hole for the shifter bar to slide into. What I mean by shifter bar is that horizontal metal rod that's oriented right to left, and is bolted to the truck down behind the left front wheelwell. The right (passenger side) of that bar is supposed to be slid into a hole in the bracket I just mentioned-this keeps the bar stabilized where it needs to be. As it turns out, the second transmission had both places that the bracket bolts to, but they were not the same distance from each other as on the original transmission! Why in the hell they would change such a small detail is beyond me, but they did. So, we had to do some engineerin with a shitload of washers to make it work. But, work it did, so we finished up bolting it in. When I left the shop Randy needed to bolt the starter back up and fill it with fluid. Another buddy went by there and said that the truck was running, so I assume we did it right.
I just wanted to point out the weird variations between cases of otherwise-identical transmissions.
