Yeah that pile of shit tranny was doomed. My parents had it rebuilt 3 times while they owned it, the last rebuild cost them 2500 and involved a new torque converter and some seals, I think they got screwed on that. They parked it for 3 years nad when I resurrected it (maybe 15k after they had it rebuilt), it was already whining badly from the bellhousing. I drove it for the first time in 3 yeas the weekend before WF, was told it had a 5.9 not a 5.2 (my dad didn't read the sticker under the hood I guess... LOL) then towed with it because I really only wanted the 5.9 out of it originally, so who cares if the tranny blows up? I had tow coverage on it!
A few hundred miles after I got back from WF it started overheating, slipping a lot in a few gears, lurching into gears, not remembering how to upshift, and throwing codes concerning governor pressure. Fluid was horrible and burnt. I toyed with the idea of rebuilding it myself or swapping it to a 5 speed, realized it wasn't a 5.9, then this January I realized that I was really broke, really needed money, didn't need the van, it was dented, rusty, etc so I sold it to a scrapper for 500 bucks. I figure I can always pick up another dodge van in much better shape with a blown trans for 500 bucks in the future if I want to do that.
That van and the chrysler minivans my parents owned while I was a kid are 100% to blame for my hatred of chrysler automatics.
