Hey guys!
Found this forum because I have a question. I have a 04 Dakota 4x4 I use as a work truck. 175k. Been a real good truck. Have recently changed ball joints and Universal joints but other than that just normal routine maintenance. I've been having a problem that has gotten worse. When I back up I hear a loud popping/clicking and grinding noise. I only get the noise when backing up and it doesn't seem to be related to turning. It has gotten to the point that it almost holds the truck up, in fact I put the truck in nutueral from reverse on a slight incline to see if it did it in nutueral and it actually wanted to hold the truck up, if that makes sense? After I back up and shift to Drive it may click a tad but never really does it in Drive. Any help would be awesome. Thanks in advance.

 

Possibly one of your CV joints? (front axles) Have you checked the boots on 'em? May not hurt to jack it up, and give things a spin. See what you find.

Welcome to DF! Moving this to Second Gen Dakota for ya.

 

How are the parking brakes? The OEM parking brake shoes have a habit of the liner falling off the metal and rolling around in the hat. Remove the rear discs/hats and see if this might be the cause.