First of thanks for all of the answers to the front end questions!!

Dodge Dakota trucks and for that matter trucks in general are new to me. I am however mechanical and have done and will do all of my work on my vehicles.
Ok my new question is I have a noise that appears to be coming from the trans axel area.
I have a code reader and there are no codes showing on the truck at all.
The 3.9 liter starts and runs great there is no noise until I shift into drive
then I get a rattle sound that is present while ideling and seems to go out under load. The truck shifts fine and the noise doens't seem to affect anything but I need to find out what the problem is.
Any ideas?

 

Have you checked your tranny fluid level? I would suggest dropping the tranny pan and flushing the tranny. Change the tranny filter, replace fuild to correct level and enjoy.

 

The fluid level is correct and is a nice red color.
Do you think that a flush will take care of it? Cause I love the easy fixes!!

 

Could be something like a u joint.. But who knows...

 

just a rattling noise from around the transaxle? Maybe a loose heat shield somewhere.....heard of several guys having that issue...including myself.

 

I think that my noise is coming from my transfer case.
I couldn't find a loose heat shield but I do think the sound is coming from there.
I think I will change the fluids in there and see if that helps.
How much fluid and and what do I need? I think ATF+4 is this correct?
Thanks again

 

The ATF+4 is fine, and I'm pretty sure I used a 10mmhex on the plugs on mine.
Caps are:
Transfer Case,NV231..........2.5 pints
Transfer Case,NV242..........2.7 pints
The location of the fill plug is unhandy to try and pour the fluid in in any way, so, a cheap pump can really be your friend here.

 

crawl under there and start moving things around, check out your u joints, heat shield ( previously mentioned), anything and everything, nothing should be loose unless it was designed to wobble or so, etc