I have a 1996 Dodge Ram 2500 with a Cummins 12 valve.
I bought the truck 2nd hand knowing the trans was broken.
I do not know the history of the truck, but I can tell you there was a fifth wheel hitch on the truck.
I rebuilt and upgraded the trans myself after doing extensive research on this trans.
Upon tear down I found the following.
2nd gear band had no lining left whatsoever.
The engine had a terrible vibration when I got the truck that turned out to be a broken torque converter, loose elongated torque converter bolts with the flex plate bolt holes badly worn.
The boost valve spring clip was broken which probably failed the torque converter.
There was a return spring for a valve in the valve body that was broken as well. The biggest scariest about to fail component was the the fine teeth on the forward clutch friction plates were all bend over and about to completely round over. Think about that for a minute.
The owners manual shows that at 100,000 miles that Chrysler replac d the first failed trans under warranty. I bought the truck at 238,000 miles and the 2nd trans was failed.
I rebuilt the trans knowing I would eventually tow fairly heavy.
I put in the following.
A sonnax one piece billet input shaft.
An Sfi approved flex plate that is much thicker than stock
A triple disc lower stall (1650 rpm) torque converter.
An 11 lobe higher volume pump gear set from a 48re that gets the line pressure up very fast a low rpm.
A special thicker Sonnax front clutch seal to fix the machining defect
In the seal groove in the front drum that was machined to deep and did not always allow the forward clutch to apply.
A stator from a 48re that has the additional torque converter seal ring to accommodate aftermarket triple disc aftermarket converters
That are actually all made for 48re and not 47re.
Thin redlined forward clutch plate with the upgraded fine tooth design from a 48re and the matching planetary hub.
All other clutches use the thin clutches to increase the clutch counts by 1 including the overdrive.
An aftermarket 6 pinion aluminum rear planetary and a 6 pinion steel overdrive planetary.
An aftermarket rear overdrive clutch support housing.
I drilled the rear cooler passage in the case oversize to get more oil flow to the rear support.
A bolt in rear sprag
A new solid not flex red line 2nd gear band with increased lever from 3.8 to 4.2 to get more holding power.
A new 800 lb overdrive clutch spring from the aftermarket and the new improved overdrive pressure plate and Torrington bearing assembly as the stock ones bend.
Also the rear cooler line retention clips can blow out from the plastic one melting from heat. There are upgraded ones available.
A complete trans go tfod diesel specific shift kit which fixes all the failure points in the valve body and most importantly raises the line pressure substantially without shifting to harsh.
A Sonnax pressure regulator valve that charges the converter in park.
Sonnax coated thrust washers throughout.
I also installed a mag hytec deep pan.
Also upgraded the dipstick from an "O" ring type to the newer boot type to fix the constant leak.
The trans shift very nice and firm and works perfectly, but until my race car is ready to go I have not towed with it yet.
Theses trans do have lots of problems imho.
