I am original owner of an '02 Dakota R/T that the trans went out in. I installed a replacement ,however now it runs kinda rough and there is a semi loud clicking/tapping noise from passenger side. If I was to guess what it timed to I would say it is as if 1 cylinder is tapping. I pulled the plugs out and turned it over several times for several seconds and there is no noise. I thought exhaust leak, so I bought new manifold to collector bolts and tightend em up good, but I still have the noise. it is definitly louder on passenger side, I slid the trans back and looked at the flex plate and the crank sensor with no aparent marks on it. I am at a dead end, anyone got a suggestion?

 

I will move this to the 2nd generation Dakota sub-forum.

 

How about the manifold to cylinder head? That's the likely place for a leak to occur.

Does it go away when it warms up?

 

No, however, I have only let it run for a minute or two. A friend at work asked how I moved the flex plate when I was installing the bolts. I used the little squares on the outside edge of the flex plate.... apparently that was the wrong thing to do, the Hall's Effect crank sensor see's those little squares and aparently if you mess them up it throws the timing off. He thinks my motor is detonating because the timing is off and suggest I put in another flex plate and hope for the best. I am going to pull the plugs again and look for signs of detonation,, I don't recall seeing them before but I installed new plugs and wasn't looking at them that hard. He said he took a peice of 1/8 inch X 1/2 inch flat bar and made a hook in it so he could pull the trans around at the ring gear. I hope that isnt the issue, I would like to think its an exuast leak from the manifold. FYI he has also made the comment not to lower the motor to much or you will crack the distrubutor against the firewall....

 

I suppose you could have damaged the targets.

Detonating while at idle though? That doesn't seem likely. I'd assume you'd have backfiring if the timing was that off.

 

your right, gonna borrow a obd2 hook-up from a friend and see whats going on. If I use a battery powered stephascope, like mech's use that would also tell me ,maybe? I just dont feel any pulses of air around the pass. side exhaust, maybe I need to hook up my fog machine and do a smoke studie on it. Do you think I need to re-learn the computer to the new shift points ,the resistance is close (from the trans range switch, but not exactly the same, with in 3 ohms) thanks for the quick replies BTW

 

When is the tapping? At idle or while driving?

 

I havent even lowered it down off the jack stands yet...honestly I am scared to, I know the wheels turn in the air, I have just been trying to figure out the noise, started this little venture July 4th and we have been in high heat ever since so I am working a little in the evenings on it, just hooked my dino lap top up to see what codes are present. will be back later

 

Ok I have gotten my scanner and the codes are P0340 and P1391 , pointing towards the cam shaft postioner and the crank shaft positioner. I looked at the cam shaft ps and it looks good, so I must have damaged my flex plate when I rotated it. I am going to order a new one and see if the is the issue.I will keep posting till fixed.

 

It was my drive plate hitting my crank sensor, with the engine running (even crappy) I put my hand on it and could feel it hitting. I tried to straighten it with a dial gauge and rebending it, however that only made it worse.
I resulted in taking the spark plugs out and with the starter and dust cover removed I took a roll of 3/4 masking tape and started taping the drive plate, I put 3 wraps on before I saw where it was hitting.
I removed the section of tape and used a 90 degree grinder with a cut off wheel to slowly take down the high area.
I then started wraping tape again, the next layer showed me the next highest point, I repeated the process 2 more times until I think I had a total of 7 wraps on it. I then removed it, reinstalled everything and it runs like it was before I laid my grubby little hands on it.
Now I have to adjust the linkage so its reading correctly, and I still havent seen it go in reverse yet.. I maybe slow but I will keep you posted.