Transmissions and questions about em.....

They had some problems the first year or two they were made but I heard they got that straightened up. My experience with a A518 was great. I bought a brand new 93 Dakota Sport with no options except the 318 mag eng. A518 and A/C, tilt and cruise. Did some bolt on mods on it right away and got it down to running consistent 14.40's. That might not sound so fast but considering with me and a half a tank of gas the weight was 3880 and only 318 cubic inches with full exhaust. I owned it for 13 yrs. and put 90,000+ miles on it and ran it down the 1/4 at least 1,000 times. In between it served as a parts runner, junk hauler, car trailer puller, etc. When it hit 90,000 miles I found a great deal on a 02 so I sold the old Dak to a guy that used it to pull a stump grinder and waste wagon. It was still working good at 130,000 miles when the front U-joint snapped and bound up and broke the case. Seemed like a pretty strong tranny to me.

BTW: all I ever did to it when I owned it was change the fluid at 40,000 mi. and install a Trans-Go kit.

I have also known several people that have them and they lasted fine for a long time. You gotta remember some people aren't car savvy. For instance a guy brought me his Dodge Ram last year thinking his tranny needed rebuilt cause it slipped. I checked the fluid then added 4 qts. until it was full and it worked great again. Still going today with over 150,000 mi. on it.

From what I've seen for every one bad 518 you find out there you can find 100 good ones. Maybe even more. JMHO