A little update. I hauled it home from the beach, and took it the trusted transmission shop. He plugged in and pulled the codes, and I forget the numbers...but it showed a shift solenoid malfunction. He cleared the codes, and added almost a quart of fluid and said to drive it and see if it sets another code and turns the light on again. He said it should do it within a hundred miles or so, if it was going to. He said these transmissions are very finicky about being even slightly low of fluid, and that I may get lucky and that caused it. I've run the hell out of it for a little over a hundred miles, and it's still fine. I'm gonna run it some more and see, but so far....so good!
They are only that "finnicky" about fluid level when the filter starts separating.
Yeah, he said the same thing. The salvage yard that I bought the trans from is a big, professional operation. They drain fluids and install tags to refill before use. The trans came out of a wrecked 2007 Chrysler Aspen with 37K miles on it, and had probably been sitting for a few years when I bought it in 2013. It then sat sealed up in my shop until 2019 when I installed it in the Dakota, after I ditched the idea of putting the 5.7 Hemi and 545 in my 70 Duster. All that time sitting makes me wonder if the filter separated due to being mostly dry and sitting. I've run the living hell out of it, both on the interstate and around town since he said to drive it, and it has worked flawlessly. I may just go on and get them to fix it, rather than wondering when it will F up again.
