Hey I know eyes will roll at this thread, but I've got a guy who wants to sell me his Durango for dirt cheap because reverse is out. Usually I'd turn it down outright but I've owned a mid 90's w140 Mercedes that had reverse out for years that never effected anything else. I dont know anything about the tranny in 5.9 durango, is reverse going out a quick death sentence for forward gears? What exactly happens in these trannys to make reverse go out?

It depends. If reverse dont work at all the first question is does it have third gear ? If it does then its not the front clutch which means it may just be a problem with the low/reverse band which if its not working and it has a problem then it also wont have eng braking in manual low so you can try that and see what it does. It could also be a problem with the direct clutches in the overdrive unit. If they are not applying in the forward gears or reverse it would still have the forward gears because the power would go through the over-running clutch in the overdrive unit which will hold in the forward posistion but will freewheel in reverse. And it thats it that over-running clutch in the overdrive is not made to hold all the time in the forward gears as its there to stop the flare in between the third to overdrive shift so it could give trouble soon.
I would drive it and first put it in manual low and see if it has eng braking in manual low and make sure it has third gear. If it has eng braking in manual low and also has third gear then the trouble is in the overdrive direct clutches. But find out about third gear and the eng braking and that wil tell us what we need to know. Ron

those trannies are so easy to work on, if its a real nice truck at a sweet price i would grab it.

Cool thanks for detailed info! I'll let you know

No eyes rolling here, more like because your question reminds of my neighbour.

He had a Durango R?T with no reverse and towed a trailer with it. It was his daily work vehicle and he drove it like that for 5 years. I'm sure he retired the truck for a reason that was not transmission related.

In construction he would often drive into unfinished streets with houses under construction. Stories of 4 wheel drive was necessary a few times because he would need to drive through 3 backyards to turn the truck/trailer around to leave the jobsite.

https://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/ubbt...tml#Post1090054

This was my experience with reverse going out on a '96 Ram 1500 I had with a 5.2/46RE

383Man described my issues to a T. Very lazy going into reverse and no engine braking in low gear, but I had 3rd. Servo piston that applies that band was shot.

Just an absoulte pita to get out of the truck......then it's easy. IIRC, r&r pays 8 hours.

Ed