That's a misfire louie. What is happening is, the engine is misfiring anyway, but, at 45 mph, you drop into overdrive, and the torque converter clutch locks, so, you have a direct mechanical connection from the engine, all the way to the tires.... So, it gets magnified greatly. Kinda feels like the truck is trying to shake itself apart.

First thing to do, is verify your firing order. I had to check mine four times before I found my mistake. While doing that, re-route the wires per the tech service bulletin you will find about that in the FAQ section here.

Next, some info please. How many miles on the motor you swapped in, and where did you get it from?

Did you remove the crank sensor before pulling/installing the motors? They tend to take a real beating if you don't.

Welcome to DF!

 

Hey you! Thanks man Im glad you responded I just became a member but I've been checking out the dodge forum for a while and you've always been good help. But yeah that's exactly what it feels like I thought I had a misfire plus something wrong with the driveshaft. So i bought a 95 dodge 1500 5.2 2wd auto rh about a year and a half ago and I ended up with a dui soon after so I had no license and a lot to deal with. So after that was all done I tried to figure out getting it registered but couldn't get the title in my name I guess it was an out of state title with California plates and dude passed away and it was just a nightmare. Exterior was kinda busted anyways and it was single cab so I was on craigslist and saw a 97 dodge 1500 5.2 2wd auto re extended cab and super nice. It was right down the street for 700. Dude drove with a bad water pump and the motor was running but shot. So I got that like a couple months ago and did the swap. I put the 95 block into the 97. I took the intake manifold off the 97 and kept it with the truck since the egr and other things were different. All gaskets replaced, freeze plugs, and I swapped flexplates so the 97 still has that the same too. Only thing is that I got plugs and wires for the 95 and put those in. The plugs are 0.035 I think and the 97 is 0.040. I'm not sure if they use the same plug wires and same with intake manifold gaskets. But we pulled the 95 donor motor first and didn't realize the crank sensor and it busted and was made of plastic. So when we pulled the junk motor from the 97 we were careful and it was fine and a metal bracket so we used that one and it stayed on the same truck. I didn't change the dist cap or rotor though. Oh yeah and the blue 95 1500 5.2 auto rh donor motor-130, 000 miles the red 97 1500 5.2 re junk motor was at 134, 000 sorry its long and detailed man thanks hey you!

 

I would take a look at the distributor cap anyway. I had a bad miss, and it was because the contacts in the cap were EXTREMELY carboned up.... Changed cap and rotor, and it started running MUCH better.

I think most of the 'hard' parts, (not electrical) are pretty much exactly the same, from 94 all the way to 02.... Things on the intake changed a bit over the years.... EGR went away in 96, and the center divider disappeared in 98, I think. Aside from that, exactly the same. (in fact, my 96 has a provision for the EGR valve, with a cover plate over it...... 96 never had EGR. )

So, check the cap, see what it looks like. Take it from there.

 

Alright sweet thank you man. After work today I got a new tb mounting gasket and I took the throttle body off then took the tps, iac, and map sensors off then cleaned the tb and everything with carb cleaner then just wiped the iac off with a clean blue papertowel it was pretty gunked up. I did this because I was having that hissing sound come from the iac port when I cold started my truck. So far its gone but then again I've only had one cold start. So tomorrow I'm going to re route and check to make sure all the plug wires are ran right and check out the distributor. I found that page in the faq you were talking about and I'm about to print it. Its like tsb-18....something like that. I also got an inline spark plug checker and I'm going to get a noid light just to check injector connections. #3 had the least rpm drop. Anyways I have a lot to do but ill start with wires, plugs, and distributor. Ill continue to post as I go along all the way to the day its running right and smogged just in case it could help somebody else along the way.

 

Hey you so I forgot to ask, you said it took you four times to find out your mistake; if you don't mind, what was your mistake

 

I had two plug wires switched. It is REALLY hard to see back there, and difficult for me to work back there, due to health issues.... so, simple mistake, and something I continued to overlook, as I "knew" it was right..... So much for that huh?

 

Aw man it is way to hard to see back there and a pain to do. Thats how I feel though, I know I'm right haha. But I doubt I am and hopefully I figure it out today after work ill post then. Thanks again

 

Let us know what ya find.

 

Dadgumit man, so I had like 3 hours of daylight and had to go get some stuff but I rerouted them like the paper said, but it only talked about two plugs on each side and kind of showed more about the passenger side. I just kept them all as far away from each other as I could and put the black plastic over every wire inbetween clips. No crossing unless it was a right angle and atleast an inch apart. They were all correct from dist to plug though. When I cranked it up the dreaded hiss came through the intake again so I didn't fix that like I thought i did yesterday. I'm lost.. I bought the performance tool inline spark tester from oreilly so I guess ill try that out tomorrow. I just know when I bought my plugs I got the rc12s that were for the 95 so a 0.005 difference and when I got plug wires they gave me omnispark 9461 and they're the long boot with 90º to dist. The coil wire that came in the pack was weird though it was straight and had a long connector going past the insulator which obviously didn't fit my truck. My ignition coil is supposed to be a 90 on both ends. I ended up using the better one from the two older ones. I just wish it was more obvious. I have the best obd2 harbor freight sells but it does the fuel trim and all that will that help me to diagnose? And maybe where could I find where all the appropriate levels. Thanks again I'm so tired of working on this truck. An extra punch in the gut its supposed to rain here in sunny California for the next 5 days. Ill be under a tarp

 

Did you gap your plugs before installation? They are not always correct right out of the box.....

Verify you have good spark on all eight, and take it from there.