Stiff Gas Pedal and delayed Shift to second
 

2003 Dodge Ram 2500.

Im having a bit of an issue that I nor the dealership can pinpoint. Once the truck is warm (lets say I go to Walmart and park) when I come back out to leave, Ill put the truck in reverse and drive. After that the gas pedal seems extra stiff. When I take off and press the gas, the truck doesnt hit its usual shift point to second gear. Funny thing is if I quickly pump the gas pedal it feels like something gives way or pops loose, and then the truck is fine. Basically I can tell by the tension in the gas pedal if its going to act up and Ill just pump the gas and ride on. Any Ideas :argh:

well there is no throttle cable involved her.........its simply a reostat that varies the signal to the APPS...................si with the truck off get yer head down by the pedel and see whats hangin it up, there are ancore points that the pedel arm goes thru, maybe shoot a bit of lube on em to free things up:humm:

remove the crushed can from under the pedal!

Thanks for the quick reply and advice!

I thought there was no cable involved either, then I looked and saw what looked like a throttle cable. Afterwards, the dodge mechanic said its an early 2003 so it still had a cable before they changed to the sensor mid-year. Is there some kind of sleeve over the accelerator cable that can be accessed and lubed up? Or maybe some interaction between the accelerator cable and the throttle lever on the tranny? Its just weird that it only happens sometimes. One last thing I noticed, I can make the problem occur every time if I put my foot behind the pedal and tap it up towards me. I dont feel any cable resistance when I do it, but it does make the problem occur. Maybe something is mis-adjusted. Why does something that sounds so simple, seem so complicated!?

I wish it were as easy as removing a crushed can! Then I would sober up a little and say "I got this" :tu:

There are actually 2 cables involved here, the throttle cable and the TV cable. Disconnnect the throttle and TV cable seperately form the trans when this is happening and verify both cables are good.

More than likely you will need some VB work. The throttle valves tend to wear in the bore and jam after a while and you get the stick in the throttle. The tip off is the delayed shift, it means the TV pressure is not ramping correctly and messing up the shift patterns.

Sonnax makes a repair kit for the throttle valve and that is probably all you need, although a shift kit would help things along. ;)

Cerberus60, Thanks for the reply!

I checked the cables, and all looks good. No damage...adjusted properly. The VB recommendation seems right on (and I think its the last possibility). I'll check that out in the coming days and let everyone know what the outcome was. How difficult is it to replace the throttle valve? Is it something I should leave to a mechanic, or could I possibly knock it out myself (Im fairly mechanically inclined). :tu:

Its pretty easy to do. Just have to pay close attention install and settings or you get weird shifting.

What ended up being the issue that was causing this? having this exact issue on 2003 3500 and local diesel trans gurus can't solve it for me. Sorry for dragging this post back from the dead, but it's the only one I've seen with the same problem. Thanks in advance!

It ended up being an issue with the valve body and it sticking somewhere in there. A punch of gas would pressurize it enough to get it past the sticking point. I ended up just replacing tje valve

Thanks for the reply! That's what I was afraid of... Hoping for a sticky cable or something like that. Might end up pulling the valve body and sending it out to suncoast or goerends, might as well get some performance out of it while it's out...