Daily Dose of Sultnpapper 06/10/18> The end has been reached…

Well, well, well, and well. Yes folks, it is with great pleasure that I bring the news that you all have been waiting for with baited breath. Why do they say “baited breath”, I could see saying “bad breath”, also “coffee breath” or even in my case “tobacco breath” but “baited breath” makes it sound like someone stole a bunch of fishing worms and are just standing around munching on them while they are waiting for someone to tell a story. Well grab a handful and listen up, because I do have a story to tell.

Saturday, in between the showers that Mother Nature decided that we needed, I was able to finally solve the disagreement between Dodge Van and myself. It turned out to be a very small 20 gauge wire that had an issue. The wire supplies the ground portion of the control circuit for the shift solenoid pack inside the transmission. What complicated things the most for me was that the electrical schematics that I found online for the van are kind of chopped upped, a better way to put it is that it is segmented by area. I like seeing the whole picture when I am looking at something. I don’t do well with blue prints either where you have to “match lines” and remember what was on the previous pages.

I was always taught to start at the problem and work your way back when it is electrical with cars, providing that you know you have a battery that is fully charged, which this one was. So, when the scanner that reads the codes was telling me “P0765”, which means shift solenoid “A” malfunction. I started there and started working my way back. I won’t go into all the details but, it lead me to check out every wire associated with the shift solenoid pack because they are all housed in one unit. I checked for continuity, I also powered the wire using a test light, and even measured the resistance of the wires. Everything checked out good, which sounds good, but I would have been much happier if I would have found a bad wire in the bunch.

So that brought me back to the computer, and I needed to make sure that I had power from the integrated power supply to the computer so after extensive scouring of the 9 different wiring diagrams I was able to determine what wires were providing power to the computer and on what connector. The computer has four different pin connectors each capable of holding up to 40 wires on each connector. Most of those connectors used pretty much all the wire slots.

So by Friday morning I had determined that I had power going to the computer and I had good wires going from the computer to the solenoid pack, I forgot to mention that I had tested the solenoid pack and the resistance on those coils checked out fine. So my determination was that I had a bad computer, but as you know if you had been following along for the last couple days, the computer also checked out good since the new computer showed the same codes.

Luckily for me on Saturday the computer started showing me another code that was totally unrelated to the transmission codes. As luck would have it, when I would clear the codes and start the van the first code that show up was P0443, which code has to do with the emissions control purge solenoid. In my mind I needed to track that one down first, so that when I would test drive the van I would be able to see the ‘freeze frame data” in the scanner for the transmission codes. The scanner that I was using only records data for the first fault it detects, and so I set off in that direction.

I spent a good bit of time pouring through the schematics; purge control solenoid was nowhere to be found on the schematics. So I was pretty lost at that point, and so then I started looking for any devices related to the emissions system and came across an EGV control and happened to notice that it shared a common ground wire on the control circuit with none other than the transmission solenoid pack. That was my lucky break; the only problem was that I would have to undo a whole slew of wire bundles in order to track down where the splice was that tied the circuits together.

It was one tiny little 20 gauge black and orange wire that tied into the 16 gauge black and green wires for the transmission, those wires and about a dozen other ground wires all then tied into the main ground wire that grounded on the back end of and down low on the engine block.

Where the connections came together the twenty gauge wire was pretty corroded and came apart in my hand once I had unraveled all the tape and conduits off of the wire bundles. So I cleaned up all the connections and ended up soldering the 20 gauge wire to the 16’s and then I was able to test the connections. When I started the van the P0443 code didn’t show up, that was a great sign, the sign I was looking for. That pretty much told me that the transmission codes would probably be gone to if I took it for a test drive.

So I had to do some temporary rigging of the wires and took it for a short test drive from back at the shop and out to the road. Normally by that distance the transmission code would have already been set in the computer, but not this time. So I went down the road about a quarter of a mile to make sure the transmission was shifting properly and it was.

I headed back and started the lengthy process of rebuilding all the wire bundles. In the end I got them all back together, it may not be as good as when it left the factory but I’m pretty damn sure that it will be fine. If not, at least I have a better understanding now on just how that system all goes together and what to look for in the future.

My biggest mistake was that I assumed that because I had power at the computer, and the transmission solenoid relay tested okay, that I was getting power to the solenoids, but there was no way to check that with the type of connector the solenoid pack uses and the location makes it damn near impossible even if it was a different connector.

It took me three hours just to bundle all the wires and get them back into the right locations and secured properly. Six rolls of electrical tape also was a bit more than I probably needed but I don’t want to have to do it again.

So the good news is that when I got it all wrapped up and done the final test drive went smooth, no problems that produced a check engine light or a pending code in the PCM. So, I and Dodge Van are finished with this fight. There is another fight in our not too distant future however, as I discovered another problem while fixing this issue with the wiring. It turns out that I discovered where there is a tiny, and I mean tiny, coolant leak up on the top of the engine where the intake manifold bolts to the engine block. About once a month I would have to put about a quart of antifreeze in the van and I attributed it to the radiator which did have a small leak, I had put a new radiator in it back in May so I thought I had that coolant issue solved.

This new discovery is going to have to wait; I have some other things I want to get accomplished before I tackle the coolant leak. I can add some coolant in the mean time if need be, but I will have to get my mind right to do this next job because it involves basically taking apart the whole top end of the motor to get where I can replace those intake gaskets.

I knew in my mind that I could find and fix this issue; it might have taken longer than I expected but that doesn’t matter. I just don’t trust the auto shops any longer and the one man I did trust died in a four wheeler accident about 5 years ago, since he died, I have just started doing my own work.

I did talk to a transmission shop about the P0765 code before I started in on this repair; the shop told me they would give me a free estimate. I asked the young fella who I was talking to how they diagnose the problem and he told me that they would pull the transmission out of the van, take it apart and see what parts needed replaced. Then they would give me an estimate on what the price would be to put it back together. I told him that rather than do that, how about you just tell me the range on “about” how much I would be looking at for a repair of this type, they work on these Dodge transmissions all the time. He told me that the repairs usually run between $2,000 and $2,500 BUT IT ALL DEPENDED ON WHAT THEY FOUND INSIDE.

The thing is, taking the transmission apart wasn’t going to fix the problem, and sure there are parts in there that aren’t brand new by any means. I know how these places work, it isn’t my first rodeo, once they have it apart the average person will just say, go ahead and fix it. On older models like this that aren’t worth that much the owner will just tell them to junk the car or will have a junk hauler come take it out of there and junk it. The wiring was the issue, I didn’t have to spend $2,000 or junk the van and it will still be able to haul Girl Scout cookies for Shorty and Blondie next year, even if I don’t get around to fixing the coolant leak.

The manufactures build these vehicles to fail and when they do it isn’t easy to figure it out, but if you can, you can save yourself a bunch of money. I tackled this problem more for me than for anything else, I like a good challenge and the feeling of accomplishment that comes with being able to resolve an issue. I can tell you that the feeling is pretty damn good right about now.

Thanks for sticking with me through this, for all of the encouragement and for not hounding me for having a little mini-series on the minivan.

Until next time,
@sultnpapper

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