How to Replace Overdrive Switch 1994-2002 Dodge Ram 1500

Hey, friends. It's Lenny, here at 1A Auto. Today, we're going to be working on our 1996 Dodge Ram 1500. I want to show you something fairly basic, the removing and reinstalling an overdrive switch. It'll be super easy. I can do it and you can do it, too. As always, if you need any parts, you can check us out at 1Aauto.com. Thanks.

Okay, friends, so we're inside the vehicle. We have a clear view of our dash plate here.

You can give it a little tug. The majority of it will break free, just like that. Okay? But you'll notice as you get along to this side, it seems like it's kind of stuck in there, isn't it? Huh, it's not that big of a deal. Just grab this, pull it out of here. You're going to notice you have a Phillips head and a Phillips head.

We'll remove those: one, two--both of those are the same. Put those where we can't lose them. Pull this right out of here. There's going to be a couple more screws up here. These ones are a little bit harder to get to, but it can be done same as the others. There's one on this side, of course. I'm just going to pull out this whole unit here. Here's our little cup holder tray. Awesome.

All right, so now we're just going to run our fingers along the side. Awesome. Okay, pardon the noise. Get that out of the way. This should lift right out. Awesome. Just got a little bit of wiring here. Let's disconnect that one. So now we'll just take this off. You just grab this little tab and this little tab. Come on, baby. I lift one, the other one goes under. Oh, okay, and there's that. Awesome. Let's get this out of the way.

So now that we have the face plate off, you can see where our overdrive switch is. You have a mounting screw right there, and then two on the other side. We're going to remove those screws.

There's all three screws. Awesome. Get that out of the way. On the backside you can see where the connector is. I'm just going to lift up this tab, slide that right out of there. At this point we can continue. We'll use a small pocket screwdriver. I'm just going to go right along this, get that little tab. Do the same to the other side, right along here. Push down on the tab. It should come unlocked, and then the other side's going to lock itself in again, typical. Here we are. Here's our overdrive switch. Easy peasy.

So now it's time to put it in our overdrive switch. In case you're wondering which way it went in, you had the two mounting holes on one side and one on the other. Obviously, you want the overdrive switch facing up, so it's going to go just like this. All we're going to do now is just press this into the plate or the mount. Listen for the click noise. You want to hear two of them. That feels great. When you push your button, you don't push the switch all the way out. That's super important. Last thing you want to do is have this whole thing together. Go to switch off you overdrive and go, "Boop. Hello?'. Anyway, we'll take this. Clip that right in there. Give it a nice tug. Put this up here. Now we're going to grab our three mounting screws, and we'll be able to mount this back in.

I'm just going to start in all three screws. Once they're all started at that point, we can tighten them up. Okay, all three are started. Let's tighten it up. Awesome.

All right, so it's time to get our face plate on. It's going to go right over here. Just bring it down. We'll rest it there for a second. Come right over here. We'll connect this in. It's very basic. You just line it up, give it a squeeze. It locks right in. We've got this one, and go right like that. That slides in. Easy peasy. Take the face plate. Carefully line it up with where it belongs. It looks pretty great. Give it a loving bonk. Love it. Let's get a couple screws in, and we can move along.

All right, so let's get this in here. Just going to slide it in. Theoretically it should, once it's just go in there. Two mounting screws. All right, grab a bar. Some people call it an ashtray. It's more of a change tray for me, but everybody's got their thing. Awesome.

All right, so we've got our cup holder. You've got the little tab right here. That tab has to go under this, right here. So as you slide this in, let me just pay attention to the bottom. That looks pretty good. It looks as though the screw holes are lined up. That's great.

They were lined up. Try again. Just got to get that in there. Get that one started. Get this one over here. Once they're started, let's snug them up. Awesome.

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