Three problems related to transmission slip out of gear have been reported for the 1996 Dodge Ram 1500. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
Normal driving into mountains and auto transmission shifted out of overdrive and would not shift back, even down hill. Checked fluid and very hot and started to smelled burnt. Has been shifting hard.
Somthing under the truck rattles/ stalls in reverse ,will not shift out of 2nd gear,acts like it is locked in 4wd all the time.
I purchased the truck in 1996 new from parks motors in augusta, since that time I have had the transmission rebuild 3 times for the same problem, the transmission will not shift out of 1 or 2 gear or if it does it takes high rpms to do it. It was determined that a seal in the upper half of the transmission was faulty from the factory. The first time I had this rebuilt I covered the cost myself because of the low mileage warranty the second time I had this rebuilt Chrysler agreed to pay for half of the problem because they knew it had been rebuilt once before and failed a 2nd time, the third time I paid to have it rebuilt out of pocket, I am now at the point of needing it rebuilt for a 4th time my truck has 120,000 miles on it now and I have yet to see a recall on this problem I have talked to many people who have had the same problem and have also been to many web sites describing the same problems I am having, the transmission also has a 5 mile an hour difference than what it should be. My incident date is not exact as this problem has occurred many times now over a 10 year period, I have also reported this before but never had any letters or have been informed as to what was going on from the dot.