Hard Shift into 2nd Gear

Hello,

It sounds like you have a broken pressure regulating solenoid which slows down the shift engagement. This mean the transmission will need to come apart to replace the solenoid. The pan must be removed, here are some guides to help you get the job done.

to pull the pan

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-service-an-automatic-transmission

Detailed diagrams (BELOW)

Raise vehicle on hoist.
Remove valve body assembly from transmission.

Remove Solenoid/Pressure Switch Assembly retaining screws (2) from solenoid.

Please let us know what happens.

Cheers, Ken

I have a 1997 dodge dakota ext cab, 4x4, and 190k km's.
One Day I went 4x4ing and I got stuck and some how water got into the transmission and I drove for about a week with water in there then one day the transmission started to rev high when I was going anywhere from 0-40 km/h so I looked into the problem and noticed pink transmission fluid so I changed it and the filter and have flushed out the transmission several times since and still no second gear. It is eritating under acceration especially. I tried adjusting the TV cable, still no go. Disconnecting the battery to rest the TCM. Still nothing changed. I am just out of ideas now and I don't have the money to go into a shop and repair it right now. Second gear does not work either when you select two manually or in DRIVE gear.

Thanks
Chris

You should have just changed your fluid, you should have flushed your system as well, there are back bleeder tubes and channels that also hold the fluid...in your case...water. just drining the fluid got out what was in the pan...now have it professionally flushed and a new filter installed. Then if you still lost 2nd gear, you will probably need a rebuild. Also be a ware that a ton of sensors sit back there that can cause real funky things to happen that wont always seem intuitively obvious...if you trany went under water then so did the sensors, so it is probable that maybe one of them is malfunctioning (and not all of them shoot codes), but I would also get an ODBII/III scan from autozone of any of those chains that scan for FREE and see what codes are stored. Yours is a tough one without actually seeing the vehicle.