Just kind of curious here. I live in a small community, less then 1,000 people, and I know of 9 people who owned early 90's dodge trucks that the automatic transmissions died with less then 100,000 miles on them.
So, the question is. How many of you all have had or know someone that has had the same problem?

Depends on who you talk to. I've personally had really good luck with both the old 3 speed torqueflites and the newer OD 4 speed ones as well. All of them have had 180+k miles on them either when I sold the truck or finally had to rebuild them. The only exception to this rule was my current truck but that was directly caused by the previous owner's abuse.

With that said, it does seem that the average mileage at which the OD torqueflites die is much lower than what I've been able to pull out of them. I personally believe that a lot of the cause is due to operator abuse and/or neglect, but there are some failures that can't be blamed on that as well (such as yours that looks like a bearing failed).

IMHO no automatic is going to last forever as there are clutches and bands that wear in them just like the clutch in a manual transmission. People are racking up a lot more miles on modern cars than was previously possible without the car falling apart and I believe that the automatic transmission's lifespan is now shorter than the rest of the car's which is why we see more issues with such things now, coupled with the fact that there is more stress placed on the parts when cruising in OD. Also keep in mind that GM and Ford have just as many if not more automatic transmission failures but for some reason everybody likes to bitch about the mopar stuff the most.

My $0.02... :flipoff2:

My 90 with the A518 4spd has had the transmission rebuilt twice in 400k miles. Im pretty sure the second time was poor maintenance on my part (the truck sat for a few years after I wrecked it and I didnt change the tranny fluid before I started driving it again.)

Duane

The main problem with the OD automatics is idiots who think they know everything and refuse to read the owner's manual. It clearly states that you are not supposed to ride around in OD all the time. I know of a '90 Cummins W250 with 300k miles on it and the original transmission and a '92 Cummins D250 with 240k miles with no problems. Use it as intended and do the maintenance and they will last a long time. Almost every one I have seen that burnt up could be attributed to driver error, lack of maintenance or cooling issues.