I have a 2001 Ram 2500 with just a little under 320,000 miles. When I bought the pickup last year I drove it home and it started doing the rapid torque converter cycling. When I got home I cleaned all the battery terminals. No help. I zip tied the ground wire to the frame of the alternator and it cured it. Then I was getting random dead pedals for about five seconds and I finally just got around to doing the ground relocation on the drivers side of the engine. I left the charge wire to the PDC because I’m not sure how to delete that (if anyone could give me input on that too that would be great). Now that I did the ground relocation I have intermittent dead pedals and torque converter surge again, as well as kicking out of overdrive. I just had the transmission rebuilt about a thousand miles ago too. Any input is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I’m to the point to where I’m wondering if it might be PCM related. Like I said, the pickup quits downshifting and cutting throttle when the thermostat opens. I am honestly lost and frustrated at this point.

Check the control cable for sticking or frayed wire and make sure the return spring on the tranny is good. Also check for dirt, mud, snow packed in the cable area. While your under there unplug the tranny wiring and clean connectors. You might try swapping  the trans relay in the PDC with one of the other ones. Did you relocate the PCM ground with the WT mod? That part of the mod is very important.

36 minutes ago, Great work! said:

Check the control cable for sticking or frayed wire and make sure the return spring on the tranny is good. Also check for dirt, mud, snow packed in the cable area. While your under there unplug the tranny wiring and clean connectors. You might try swapping  the trans relay in the PDC with one of the other ones. Did you relocate the PCM ground with the WT mod? That part of the mod is very important.

Where is the pcm ground located? I might not have seen that part of the article.

Here it is.

 

 

Alright I performed the pcm ground wire splice repair. Still didn’t fix it.

Give @Dynamic a shout and talk to him.

1 hour ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Give @Dynamic a shout and talk to him.

Do I post on his part of the site?

Give him a call I guess I figured if I tagged him he would respond but it seems he's busy these days. Head over to his forum section and his contact info is listed.

 

https://mopar1973man.com/forum/173-dynamic-transmissions/

1 hour ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Give him a call I guess I figured if I tagged him he would respond but it seems he's busy these days. Head over to his forum section and his contact info is listed.

 

https://mopar1973man.com/forum/173-dynamic-transmissions/

Okay, thank you for your help. I greatly appreciate it!

Okay, I talked to Dynamic and changed the coolant temp sensor, and also jumped the transmission relay. Neither worked. I did manage to get a video of the problem tonight to try to describe what the pickup is doing, if it may hell with further diagnosis.

Update: I returned the tuning back to stock via the smarty and it still does it, but it’s not nearly as dramatic.

Looks like electrical problems. Your fuel pressure gauge is in perfect time with your tach jumping around with whatever else you got going on. Does it make it worse on a rough road? How does it work when you shove the skinny pedal to the carpet & hold it there? Can you replicate it in different conditions?.

Your playing with fire running a Smarty with that low of fuel pressure!

Have you checked for ac noise, any codes when you scan it? Sorry I may be missing some info, just thinking out loud. I don't think your fuel pressure is related to cutting out, it seems that you have electral issue.

It does get worse on rough roads. When I board the accelerator it stumbles and defuels, then starts accelerating, then repeats in this condition. I have an air dog Raptor 100 and it was set at 20 psi at idle and it dropped to 14, now it’s at 16 at idle and 10 at wot, I’ll have to readjust. Only time I can replicate it is when the pickup has been sitting and is somewhat cool, and ambient temps are below 60°. As soon as the temp on the dash reads 190° everything is normal and it functions as intended. I have checked for AC interference, there is minimal (20mV iirc) and there are no codes. 

I would do WT mod, it's easy, cheap and cures/prevents a lot of issues. Good place to start, if you find any noise isolators get rid of them. 

The W-T mod has been done

5 minutes ago, Bfranz said:

The W-T mod has been done

 

And... What happened?

The W-T ground mod didn’t change anything.

This is what happens during wot before the temp gauge reads 190. Tuning returned to stock, same as the last video. It appears as if the rougher the road the worse it is. It also seems to be getting worse the colder it gets.

 

Here’s a list of what I’ve done to try to cure this issue in order:

-  Cleaned battery connections

-  W-T ground mods

-  Relocated alternator charge wire to passenger side battery with 150 amp circuit breaker

-  Timbo apps sensor (cured p0121 dead pedal)

-  New alternator

-  Unhooked field wire to alternator

-  New coolant temp sensor

-  Jumped transmission relay

-  Returned tuning to stock map via smarty

 

Edited October 16, 20204 yr by Bfranz
Added info

I really don't see any converter cycling in that video. I'm trying to make heads or tails of it, though to be honest. It looks like you take off from a stop, and at the 1-2 shift, it shifts, but then the tach jumps UP a few hundred rpm, and then back down, then back up a couple of times before continuing to rev up toward 3K. If I had to guess, based on this video, I'd say it was a 1-2-1-2 shuttle shift going on. What governor pressure solenoid is in the transmission? It also seems like a LOT of rpm going on for how fast you're accelerating. Where is your TV cable set? At what rpm is your WOT 1-2 shift point?