Catching up with this: FCA has offered me a buyback, with terms that I'd agree to today. The catch? There are no '18 diesels available yet, not even to order.
So, because they need to keep me on the road until they can replace this van, the combined FCA engineering team decided to replace my flywheel, pressure plate, clutch slave cylinder, and a handful of associated hydraulics.
A few days after picking up the van I left for a 10-day ~2400 mile swing through ID, OR, CA, and NV. I was surprised that in the first ~1600 miles of this trip, including 100+ miles of rough, often steep dirt road, I didn't get a single CEL or P2872. None. Unprecedented, and that gave me a glimmer of hope that this most recent fix was "the one".
Nope. CEL, P2872, and P0571 on Saturday, and again (twice) yesterday.
Coming down the long grade off the San Rafael Swell last night. I got the SERVICE TRANSMISSION crawl on the dash. Also the flashing red exclamation point.
Near the bottom, where the road flattens out and you'd get back on the gas, I tried to do just that. No response from the accelerator. Gear indicator still read "D", but nothing happened -- not even an RPM increase -- when I pushed on the gas.
Tried shifting manually, and the gear indicator would change to "5" or "6", but still no response from accelerator, and no RPM increase.
Coasted to a turnout, manually selected "1", and it went in and worked normally.
But then the cruise control was no longer functioning. Pulled into the next turnout, shut the van off, turned it back on, and the cruise functioned fine from then on.
That's where we currently sit.