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4/14/2006
23:51:57

Subject: Storm Chasing caused a few issues...
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Was out storm chasing tonight here in Ohio...excluding the fact that my truck got the sh!t kicked out of it by dime sized hail, I ended up swamping it pretty good on a flooded road.

The rain was over and apparently one of the drains was backed up (this was a 4 lane, busy road IN TOWN) and we had standing water from the top of one curb to the top of the curb in the median. Speed limit was around 40-50...can't recall how fast I was going since all I really recall was seeing the plume of water shoot up from the car in front of me and I grabbed the wheel with both hands to make sure I kept my truck from jumping the curb and hitting the ditch. I blasted that pool of water doing minimum 40mph. Never even saw it coming. The pool went across the road and was about 50-100 feet long. Anyway...when I hit it, something started slipping really bad on the Dak. The reason I'm posting it to figure out the cause so one, I can check it out specifically a lil better than a "once-over" and so I can prevent it in the event it happens again during another chase.

My truck never left "drive" (98 Dakota, auto tranny 3.9L engine) but at times it would act as if it were either in first gear and wouldn't upshift or it would even rev like it was in neutral and just wouldn't do anything. My tires weren't spinning either. Even when I got out of the pool, I'd be steady on the gas and it'd constantly be gear hunting and revving, etc. It got to the point where I went into a hotel parking lot and popped the hood to check stuff out and let my truck dry out for a few since I wasn't about to get on the interstate to head home with it running like that. The underside of my engine was definitely a little wet as I could hear the water dripping onto my exhaust manifolds every few seconds, but my intake (Edelbrock 10" chrome air cleaner) had no water on it or anywhere near it. After I left the hotel I drove around running it in each individual gear manually shifting it up and then once in drive I tore off down the road once to make sure it'd go up through all the gears. After that, no more problems whatsoever. However, I want to prevent that from ever happening again.

Any ideas on what was up?

My transmission has a leak in the pan due to a stripped bolt (I'm gonna check tomorrow and make sure it didn't take in any water when I swamped it) and the transmission doesn't shift the greatest as it is...does it sound like maybe some of the tranny wiring got wet and caused it to go apesh!t?

Any feedback would be appreciated.





Josh Blackshire - Founder, OhioDakotas.NET
Red 98 Dakota Sport - Check it out!

Obio3
Dodge Dakota
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4/15/2006
00:15:12

RE: Storm Chasing caused a few issues...
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Going with your statements, makes sense your only problem was water related. I'm thinking the pressure of the water was terrific and it was able to invade electrical connections causing from one to several temperary shorts. The fix? Seal every connection you can find. With what I don't know without thinking it over.Possibly none conductive grease. Same as you use on plug wire connections. Disasemble and grease the connectors good. But you do neede to be able to get them apart and still be strong enough to keep the water out. This really is the only logical explanation to your problem that would make any sense.

So many problems .... So little time



Shatto
Dodge Dakota
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4/15/2006
02:48:45

RE: Storm Chasing caused a few issues...
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If I was stunned as badly as your truck, I'd have trouble figuring out what gear I was in too.

You could have temporarily shorted something that simply dried off, since you said it fixed itself. Our 98 3.9's do that, you know.

Some people are angered by my always talking about Amsoil, so I won't tell you to use 'Metal Protector' on your electronics; I'll remind you of 'Water Dispersant 40' which works good. And is really good on fishing lures.



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