46rh transmission troubles.

46rh in my 95 Dodge Ram. I have had this thing out 5 times now and it’s really kicking my rear. Just rebuilt trans with a lot of performance goodies. Red alto power packs 3.8 kickdown lever the list goes on.... Installed transgo tfhd2 shift kit and 2800 converter. I could not get 3rd gear. Accumulator pressure port tested in at 65 psi at. Took tranny out went through it again. Rechecked VB instructions followed perfectly. Reinstalled and still no 3rd. Also have late shifts on 1-2. So checked governor pressure. Pressure is low about 25 psi at 40mph. So I pulled od housing. Put in the new and improved Sonax gov valve. Pressure improved but still not equal to road speed. Still no 3rd gear.

Dropped the pan and went to the junk yard and got another valve body and Installed. I now can catch 3rd gear at 55mph and it’s going in and out. My theory is with the factory VB it requires less pressure to get into 3rd because of no kit being installed. I knew gov pressure was still low and not correct but at least now I know 3rd works.

I go back to the junkyard and pull the OD unit and install it. Now my gov pressure will not get above 25 even at 70mph.

Tubes are not bent or cracked. I don’t know of any other place this thing can bleed off other than the shift valves themselves.

Only thing I can think of is get a reman or cleaned up gov valve online and use steel sealing rings.

I’m in need of some help. I am running out of ideas. I am about tired of R&R this trans.

Why did you rebuild this trans - what was going on then?

Today -

Good reverse? What is the pressure in reverse?
What is the front servo release pressure doing in 2nd and when you get third?
What type of governor weight did you first take out - what was it made of? Not the valve, the weight.
Did you remove the overdrive piston retainer when you rebuilt the trans?

PM sent.

I remember we had some problems with front drums when the trans did not want to go into third many times. I remember replacing the front drums with an updated one to correct this in some years but I forgot what years. Something to do with the finish on the drum causing the seal to stick some and not work right ? Ron

I ran into this as well. Not the drum itself, but the finish on the high /rev apply piston inner surface. Never caused a 2/3 flare. trans just stayed in 2nd gear. Occasionally would shift 2/3 very late.
Doug

Your right Doug as I forgot we replaced the drum and piston. Ron

No upshift to third, isn't this caused by the sleeve on the throttle valve installed wrong?
How about a check ball wrong?

The problem we had in production was primarily on the 998/999, late 90’s to early 2000.

There were two issues - the crappy seal material would shrink from heat aging and you would have difficulty getting third until warmed up. That was fixed by going to Viton seal material. Some guys in the dealers even wrapped string in the seal grooves to expand the seal.

The other issue was a mismachined front clutch retainer - the register on the piston would not allow the proper fluid travel from the hub to the piston. That was fixed by a new piston. The field fix we used in the interim was to place 4 equally spaced grooves to allow the fluid to travel.

The seal finish would have to be horrendous not to allow the piston to apply, or the piston bore grooved from piston cocking, or the inner bore very oversized from stock.

The short lip inner seal is more vulnerable than the old long lip inner seal.

the gasket and seal kits nowadays also comes with a revised inner seal for the reverse high drum as some were machined too deep and the new seal has a wider cross section. reverse normally will work because of the pressure applied in reverse but third gear can be quite iffy as to whether or not it will apply. the revised inner seal will normally rectify the situation. How did it do during air checking while assembling?