Transmission Not Going into Overdrive

Vacuum leaks. ( hissing noise around the engine). Tune up (plugs and wires). clean the throttle body(inside of it). All these can cause rough idle. The dieing can be from transmission problems. Can you rev the van up and keep it running while in gear? Or does it die then too? You can replace the solenoid pack on the outside of the transmission for around $250, if you do it yourself. If you do this, DO NOT get any dirt in the holes of the transmission where the solenoid pack sets. Clean it well before you remove the old pack.

check the fluid level.

Take it to a transmissision shop to be check out, Before it gets worse, Unless you got money to burn,

Lots of possibilities from a bad solenoid pack to a broken gear or blown internal seal. No way you're gonna DIY your way out of this. Get it to a shop.

MOST LIKELY HAS A PLUGGED TRANSMISSION FILTER.
TORQUE CONVERTOR CLUTCH FAILURE COMMON.
CHANGE TRANSMISSION FILTER AND ROAD TEST.
IF NOISE IS GONE AND RUNS NORMALLY, CHANGE TORQUE CONVERTOR AND RESEAL TRANSMISSION.

Most likely the second gear section of the transmission has gone bad. There are 3 or 4 different gear sections or assemblies in an automatic transmission, when they go bad, they go bad.

The transmission is probably shot. the only other thing could be dirty linkage if you mean "hard" as in hard to move the shift lever. The first thing I would do is get a tranny fluid and filter change.

the speed sensor is for Overdrive only, it does not shift the gears it sends the signal to the transmission control module that in turn signals the overdrive shift solenoid to engage/shift into OD.

replace the input speed sensor to transmission and the wiring pigtail all are available at your chrysler dealer take your vehicle registration in to the parts counter so they have your vin # to get the right part and it is the front of trans by fluid linres to radiator.

Hello,
I also was concerned about my tranny in my 1998 dodge caravan. I replaced the fluid & filter and it worked for a while. I finally had to bring it to AAMCO Transmission and they gave me a free evaluation of it & an estimate for the job. I had the option of ignoring their evaluation results and bring it home or just bite the bullet and have it repaired. I thought I could get a lot more miles out of it so I had it fixed for $1400 with no regrets.

Perhaps if you can find a similar place with free evaluation & estimate then that would be the thing to do as you seemed to have covered all the other bases.

Good Luck!
Rich Lilja