2001 Ram - no gauges and trans has only 1st and reverse

Hi guys, looking at a 2001 ram 3500, was advertised as being stuck in first gear. Well I get there and I see the dash is all torn apart. I immediately asked what that was all about and he says it's got "electrical issues". It does run well, and the lights and heater work which is all I really care about (will only be a plow truck for my long driveway).
But would be nice to get the gauges working and I have a sneaky suspicion that 2nd and 3rd gears would come back once that is fixed.
For the most part the odometer says "no bus", but if I wiggle it while driving the odometer does tell me the mileage, but still no gauges working (and no 2nd or 3rd gear).
Not sure where to even begin, other than looking for the obvious broken or cut wires? This thing was a municipal truck with a dump bed installed - I was amazed at the butcher action on the install of the electrical portion of it (might be part of the problem).
Is this something I need to run away from, or am I having a pipe dream if I think this is fixable? Thanks for any help!!!!!!

No bus.....theres no communication so there's a computer/wiring issue.

Yeah that was allot of help LOL

Unless you can get it for free and You and a Helper have lots of time on your hands to follow every inch of wire in it, it's a parts truck.

with scan tool hooked up you need to start unplugging every module on the bus one at a time and hope like L the communication comes up. That will often give you a general direction in which to go.... BUT!! On many occasions things might come alive, you reassemble, and all continues to work. Seen this more times that I care to think about. I had a truck of this era experience this and I unplugged the ABS module and the cluster came alive and communication was restored. We drove the truck a couple of days with the abs module unhooked and the prob didn't reoccur. Plugged the module back in and it still didn't act up. It was a regular customer and it went for years and didn't ever happen again. Things I have seen.... crank sensors, the solenoids in the 46re trans, seat belt module on 99 only pickup.... could be a lot of things.

hmmm, so it sounds like it might be a timesucker.....kind of what I was afraid of.....thanks for the replies so far!

This.

Although its probably not an actual wiring issue. ( not 100% impossible though) Good chance its a module or sensor on the buss network. Without a DRB11 connected to it. Odds of finding get real slim for the uneducated on how the Buss system works

in that case, I am TOTALLY uneducated in the buss system.....I don't even know what that is???

The problem is evidently widespread, read on:

https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&...1.0.msP_tkDzMN8

Yep I agree with J_body. I will say I have seen a few bad ABS modules on trucks and on some years (I forgot what year) from trucks in the 2000's I saw water get in the ABS module connector cause all kinds of bus problems. Anything that can take the bus (communication) system down will cause many problems. As J-body said you start by unhooking the modules on the bus and if you get lucky it will come back up and you will find a bad module. If that dont fix it then you need to understand which bus system it has and you will have to start testing the wiring and bus voltages to track it down. Most of the time I found it to be a module problem but not all the time. Also make sure no one put an aftermarket radio into it and plugged into a bus wire as I have seen that a few times also. Good luck , Ron

so would this bus thing also cause the loss of 2nd and 3rd gears?

Probably in limp mode because of the BUSS failure.

Did 1996-1997 Rams have no digital buss from PCM to gauges?

About what year of OBD-II Rams did the troubleshooting challenges of buss faults come up?

I was going to post something along the lines of Stumps reply, but I honestly can't remember if this issue would cause limp in and to what degree... and if it did, I don't recall it not upshifting. I can see it limiting OD and lock up, but not shifting out of first all together?? not really seeing that.

"Limp mode" isn't first gear, it's usually 2nd or 3rd and hard to tell which because of the converter; without a reliable tach or speedo it's hard to tell what gear it's actually in.

If it is actually in 1st and won't upshift, a loss of signal to the governor pressure sensor would prevent any upshifting and that could coincide with other electrical problems.