When it Rains, it Pours. Help if you can (Not a Need Money Thread)

[David Clark]

Hiya everyone,

Just wondering if we got any Board Members out in the Salt Lake City Utah area that might be able to help me out.
Last thursday on the way to my Doc Appts for the Pre Surgery for my back, the Transmission in our Mini Van Blew. It's Gone. Won't do anything anymore. I was about 15 miles out on my 70 Mile Trek to those appointments. Got it all towed home and everything and got in the market for another one as It's really almost cheaper to get a new used one than to Fix this damn thing that has all kinds of Dash Problems as well as the blown Tranny now. I found one. Not a Bad Price, Almost Identical to the one we have now (with blown tranny), hell even the Rims Match, so we'll have a Parts Van (minus the tranny) which in this day and age of Overpriced Parts, could be VERY helpful. Anyway, Long story Short, We are buying this thing over the internet from a Dodge Dealer in I think it's called West Valley suburb of Salt Lake City, and was wondering if anyone down there would be willing to Pick it up and drive it about halfway to us at the Rawlin's or Casper Wyoming Mark. I have the Loan Check in Hand and Probably Mailing it out tomorrow to the dealer, but These damn Auto Transporters want a Small Fortune to Haul it and we don't have much to spare on my VA Disability Checks but could pay a small sum if we could find anyone to help us out. I'm Looking to get all this done before my Back surgery so the Wife will have a Decent Car to take me down and pick me up the 110 mile trip (I really don't trust the Dart or the Diplomat toooo far as they both need some parts but are good for the mile or so the wife drives back and forth to work in) to the Back Surgery spot. My Back surgery is on Jan 19th so I gotta get this done before then. If worse comes to worse, I can get the POS dually and Trailer Dolly unburied from the snow and make the entire trip myself but it's cutting it close to the surgery date. If anyone Can Help, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. Either On this Thread (if the thread needs to be moved to the proper section so be it) or Via Messages.

Thank you all in advance.

Dave

 

[89.Fifth]

I'm on the east coast so I can't do much but I hope you find someone.

 

[BudW]

I can’t help in the transportation aspect – but do have some minivan experience.
Can you give any details on you old & new one?


Minis that has been in my fleet before:
’91 Grand Caravan
’96 Town & Country
’99 Town & Country
’00 Town & Country
’02 Town & Country (still going at 185k miles)
I’ve worked on a whole lot more of them, as well.
BudW

 

[David Clark]

The old one is Shot. It's an 06 T&C and the Transmission Fried last thursday. New one is an 05 T&C Virtually identical to ours except color, Same Engine, Stow and Go Seats, Same Rims, Same Tranny.
Ours Old one also has a Dash Problem where the Gauges keep cutting in and out and sputtering (except the speedo) and the it's gotten so bad that the cutting in and and out is shutting everything on the dash including the radio on and off at about once every 2-5 seconds. the Chrysler Dealers up here NO clue what the hell is wrong with it. Was Driving to my appts and whole dash was cutting in and out for about 50 miles of the 70 (well 60 since the tranny blew up 10 miles shy of the doc) driven. Somehow the Tranny Fluid in it just purged and it was bone dry, no amount of fluid added to it got it going again.

 

[Darth-Car]

Those boards behind the dash gauges were known to go bad. I have seen folks take a long amount of time and touch up each solder connection, and the dash would come back to life. They also had issues with the voltage regulators on those boards.

A604 4 speed electronic trany, never liked the thing, or trusted it. Dealers made a fortune on it, and ended up hiring a devoted tech just to perform trany rebuilds, and replacements on A604's. Then finally it was figured out that many problems could be fixed in the short term by reprogramming. Finally for a longer term fix they found that the dextron 4 fluid would allow this animal to live long enough to get out of warranty.

 

[David Clark]

My Dipstick called for ATF Fluid so that's what I used in it. Not sure what the hell happened, earlier that week it was Full and right at the Full mark, then Boom, No fluid whatsoever. We'll keep it around for a parts car though as it still has tons' of other still good parts on it.
We set up something with Auto Transport Direct, just waiting to hear back from them on getting the Car Shipped. They quoted 750 bucks, 175 going to the Auto Transport Direct Broker and the Balance to the Trucker who hauls it. I just hope to hell they can get it here before I go in for the surgery on the 19th.

 

[BudW]

’05 and ’06 are the same body and same as my ’02 (for the most part). The good news is there is quite a few of them in a pull-a-part not far from my home (but you might not need parts for a while, except for transmission).

By the battery, is a section called the IPM (Integrated Power Module) which consists of the FCM (Front Control Module) and PDC (Power Distribution Center).
The PDC contains the front fuses and relays.
The FCM more or less controls the fuse/relay bank (PDC).

Both items are a tad troublesome and is the most likely cause of the dash cutting in/out and so forth. The BCM (Body Control Module, or Body Computer) is also a likely cause/source of problems.

One concern to be aware of is if any computer needs to be replaced (PCM, FCM, BCM, EBCM (Electronic Brake Control Module) or others) then the “replacement” module will have to have the VIN burned into it (re-programmed) before any of them will work.
The ONLY workaround is to replace ALL computers from same donor vehicle at same time.

If your newer (to you) van has all of these working, then you don’t have anything to worry about.

A person cannot install a known good computer, even for testing purposes, without getting it programmed first (VIN burned into it).

I don’t think you will need to, with the new used vehicle, but are you going to fix the old one, or park it for now?
BudW

 

[Aspen500]

Sounds as if you have had all the "normal" problems with your T&C (cluster, TIPM, trans, etc). The Daimler and Cerebrus years were not good years for Mopar (ESPECIALLY he Daimler years).

Sorry, I know that doesn't help you get your new one home though.

 

[BudW]

I don’t see a lot of problems with the 41TE (four speed automatic transaxle, sometimes referred to A604), nor do I have any problems trusting it. I’ve even rebuilt quite a few of them, but not nearly as many as 904/727/500/518 transmissions.

Now the newer 62TE (six speed automatic transaxle) I still have questions about – but they seem to be holding up.

All of the minivans I’ve owned (see above post) all has had the A604/41TE transmission, I’ve driven maybe 850k miles total with, and has only experienced two transmission failures. I suspect what happened to one my might have happened to you, maybe.

My first failure was on my ’91 with odometer reading of 290+k miles. It only needed a soft part overhaul (clutch plates/disks) to fix it.

The other was on my ’96, with 130+k miles on it.
I was driving on interstate going straight and even speed when I heard a thud, van jerked (as if I ran over a small pothole) then car continued as if nothing happened. I drove about ten more miles then transmission started to shift funny, as if it had insufficient transmission fluid. Also I smelled what could be transmission fluid. I pulled over to open hood to see what was wrong, and saw a trail of transmission fluid behind the van. I didn’t see much under hood, but figured if I was leaving a trail, I’d better get back home, ASAP.

After I got home and up van up on stands, I saw a huge chunk of transmission case had blown out by the differential. After I had removed the transmission, what had happened was the bolt that holds the differential pinion shaft bolt had backed loose and out. What happened was the pin started to walk out and then hit the case, leaving a 6 inch by 6 inch hole. To be honest, and with pin walking around, I was lucky to get home.

One can’t fix a broken case, so I obtained a used transaxle, rebuilt and installed it, and all was good.

So far, my experience with the A604/41TE transmission has been better than my experience with 904/727/48RH ones have been (which hasn’t been that bad).
BudW

 

[David Clark]

It's getting parked for now. I'd Like to Fix it eventually (if we don't end up robbing parts off it in the next year) but I will be out of commission for at least 6 Months from the Back surgery here in 9 days. I'm no good with FWD vehicles, Rear wheel Drive, boom 2 hours tops and I have a transmission Swapped or Rebuilt. Bad Part about my place is no Garage so most of this Fixing would have to be during the summer months when it's warm. I never thought to look for a fluid trail (although what I did add is staying in there, it's just not working) as I was soo pissed and ended up being an hour and half late for all my appts and the stress caused my White Blood Cell Count to Skyrocket to 17k (Normal is 5-10k) so now I gotta go back and get retested on thursday and if it's not down, they nix the whole surgery thing. I probably ran the hell out of it for a Good 2 miles (revving it up thinking something electronic just failed) before finally pulling over. Carry Out Tranny's are about 1200 bucks here, plus core, so I may save up for that. Would be nice to have a Beater mini Van plus the new one to keep spiffy for the family (yeah, with kids keeping anything spiffy lasts about an hour).

Waiting on the Transport service to get a hold of me now, I made the 175 buck Deposit with Balance due to Driver at delivery. Hopefully they can get it here before I go to surgery. UGH.

 

[David Clark]

How does one RECODE those Items with the VIN number when you buy a NEW one. (boy that's gotta be the stupidest damn idea I have ever heard of on these NEW cars)

 

[kkritsilas]

Dealers can program or reprogram. New ones from Chrysler get reprogrammed by dealers.

 

[Justwondering]

David ...
I'm sending calming thoughts your way.... feel the vibes?
What's that quote 'don't sweat the small stuff and its all small stuff'.
We just finished with husbands surgery and all went well.
I'll ship some good kharma to you.

 

[BudW]

How does one RECODE those Items with the VIN number when you buy a NEW one. (boy that's gotta be the stupidest damn idea I have ever heard of on these NEW cars)

By taking vehicle (ie: get car towed to dealer) to get it programmed.

When you first start the car, all computers talk to each other.
If VIN matches, car will start.
If there is any VIN mis-match, then no go, you are stuck and time to get out the sneakers.

Why, IDK.
It makes testing or simple computer changes real fun.


Now I got the engine computer rebuilt for my '02 a few years ago. They either fixed mine or gave me another one with correct VIN burned into it (which can be done by some rebuilders). I plugged it in and car was back on road again.

 

[lowbudget]

I would have done is as I'm 3 hours out of SLC and could have visited friends in Wyoming. But I'm hanging out at work in Kuwait for another 3 1/2 weeks. I was enroute when I saw your post. Good Luck!

 

[jeepstrnm]

Have you tried Facebook for a college student in the area? Their always up for a road trip.
Regarding your tranny shelling out, don't forget to completely flush the tranny cooler it probably has metal shavings in it now, and will shell out the next transmission you install.
Take Care and God speed with your surgery!

 

[old yellow 78]

Good luck tomorrow with your surgery David. It will be nice to have it over and get on the road to recovery! Let us know how you are doing when you can.

 

[Darth-Car]

Hope all went well!

 

[Justwondering]

David ...
so spill the beans... how did the surgery go?
Better yet, how did the car hauling turn out?

Did the truck driver doing the hauling look like Snake Plisskin?

 

[David Clark]

Greetings and Bright Blessings everyone.
Sorry I've been away so long.
Me and My Buddy Took off on Monday afternoon when he called me and said he was free from the Family Christmas (Celebrated it late due to weather up here on his wife's side) and he could ride with me if I still wanted to go get the Mini Van. We left at 1 in the afternoon, got there by 3 am in the 86 Diplomat. Dealer opened at 9 Am, got over there, Got Car, Hit up the Local Toys R Us Looking for a Specific Action Figure, their selection sucked ass but I did get a Star Wars Model while there. LOL. The Auto Transporter was Cancelled on that monday (their excuse was they were having trouble finding a Driver that goes to our neck of the woods) and I am STILL waiting on the Deposit Refund as of today. UGH. Drove Mini Van Back (Buddy Did) while I drove the Diplomat Back. We Left there about 11 Am and I pulled into the drive with the Mini Van (Left Dippy at his house 70 miles south to Pick up next day instead of bringing him up here and then taking him back the same night) about 1 AM. UGH. Long Fucking Two Days. Next day, went down and picked up Diplomat while wife was on Lunch Break. Mini Van Purrs Like a Kitten and only major thing I see wrong with it so far is the rear wipe motor does not work. No big deal. Also, the Factory DVD Player in it was Stolen, hence the Lower Price on the Mini Van. BB Value was listed at like 6k, we picked it up for just over 3k. If the Computer Programming on all these parts is going to be that Big of a Bitch, I may just part her out then. Would have been nice to fix her up and use her as a Shit Hauling Van but oh well. Parts car will do Nicely too.

After Picking up the Diplomat at Buddy's House, Came back home, Got some shit done real quick before wife got off work, then headed down to Rapid City to Stay in a Motel for Surgery the Next day. took Wife to dinner with some of the left over Auto Transport Money (also gave my buddy 100 bucks for his time and Help)and had a very expensive Steak Dinner before gettting to the Motel Room. Woke up at 5 am to take shower with Anti Bacterial soap and be at the hospital across the street by 6 am. Surgery was scheduled for 8 am to Noon. I didn't get out of Surgery until 3 pm. They ran into difficulties getting the Old Hardware out of the back and spent some extra time stuffing the bone Cage where the fusion is supposed to take place. OMFG, the Chest Pain alone after waking up from being on my Stomach for 7 hours with people yanking and pounding on ya and bruising your Rib Bones and muscles was astounding. In fact, my Rib Cage still hurts a week after surgery. I have a follow up appt Monday and then at the Next follow up (between the two an Xray will be obtained) we'll be able to determine if the fusion is taking or not. Let me be up front here fella's, I've been dealing with Chronic Pain since getting out of the Military almost 20 yrs ago. and some of this Pain has been Terrible. The Day I came home from the Hospital, I had a Bout with the severe pain that was usually handled at the Hospital with some Liquid Morphine Injections for the Flare Ups. That Night at home I had no way to deal with the Flare Up except Oxy Codone. Oxy is about the only pain pills that work on me. The only other Pain Pills I have in the house are 2 Types of Morphine Pills, 15mg and 30mg, Slow and Fast actings. but you can't take them with the Oxy, Liquid morphine is fine, but the Pill forms are a slightly different formula and can cause lots of Havoc and Possible Respiratory Shut down when combined with Oxy. Taking too much Oxy can do the same thing. But I know how my body responds to Oxy. that night I came about 2 Pills shy of Overdosing on the Oxy to bring the Pain Flare up under control. While IN pain the only thing I wanted more in life was to blow my damn brains out. I actually called the wife into the room and asked her if I could leave now. 2 hours later, and about 8 Oxy's over the span of 4 hours, the Pain finally subsided. I knew what the Limits were on my body and how it responded to the Oxy and got lucky. The Pain was worse that night than even in the Hospital, it would start at the Hips and go all the way down the legs into the Feet. Couldn't stand, had to be helped up from Sitting postion, couldn't lay in any position without pain. I am doing much better today (surgery was on Thursday and it's Friday Evening/Saturday Morning Right now. Still sore and I am down to one oxy every 6 hours right now from 1 every 2. One of the Few things besides thoughts of the Family that kept me going that night was well fuck, I can't take my Road Runner and Mopars with me, so I gotta stick around and get them fixed up LOL.
All in all, the Hospital stay was great, Almost all the Nurses were fantastic (you always have that one nurse at every hospital it seems that is only there for the paycheck and I think I got a hold of two of them while there) and the Physical Therapy Girls that showed up on Friday where Just Fantastic Gorgeous little things, all 3 of them, Patient and Helpful. Could Barely move that friday and By Monday when they came back, I was up and walking with just my brace on and no walker, and they were quite in awe.
So now is for healing time. Getting it all healed up and getting better and praying that it fuses this time. And This year Plans are to get the at least half of the Credit Cards paid the hell off and one of the Big Loans (probably the mini van as it's a smaller of the big loans) paid off too and get the hell out of debt so we can start saving money, getting the Cars Fixed (we are down to just the Mini Van and Diplomat right now as the wifes Dart is leaking brake fluid from one of the Cylinders in the Master Cylinder, so I had her park it for the winter and start using the Dippy that still needs the header panel replaced, and the Dually Died about 2 days before I went to go pick up the Mini Van (electrical problems from the shithead owner before me that bypassed the glow plug system and a shit ton load of other things) and getting the 40 acres cleaned up, A garage of some sorts built out of the SuperSteel we used fore the Pig pens since I am thinking we won't be getting back into Hogs to sell as we only make about 20 bucks per hog when we sell them out. No profit on them animals at all.