Hello,

I have noticed here recently when I am stopped and my 99 Ram is in gear I hear an inconsistent noise coming from where the engine and tranny meet. When I take the truck out of gear and put into park or neutral the noise stops. I crawled under the truck to verify where the noise is coming from. Trying to describe the noise is tough but it almost sounds like a nut bouncing around inside the bell housing. Any suggestions or incite on what this could be?

gman99

 

Mine likes to do this in park. Could be a lifter.

 

id drop the tranny pan and have a look inside....

 

Your description of the noise makes me think of a cracked flex plate. You might want to take a look at that, because if that's what it is your expensive transmission is in grave danger.

 

I had the very same problem right before I rebuilt the transmission, it can from the very same location you mentioned and would also only do it in gear and not in P or N. I post the video of the sound on youtube but I couldnt find it. Mine was a lifter that was sticking and it went away went I changed the fluid and filter.

 

i got almost the same sound, i was thinking it was coming from the cat. how would you manage to crack a flex plate? my truck only has 108k miles and i was thinking about rebuilding the tranny soon so far on my list i have the sure cure kit, dodge to gm solenoid, deep tranny pan and temp sensor and guage, i guess ill have to add a flex plate and tq too

 

My favorite way is to put too much power through it.

More commonly, a defect in the steel cracks and grows over time, or some bozo who doesn't know what he's doing R/R's the transmission and does something stupid to get a crack started. Among the more common of the stupid things: bolting up an improperly stabbed converter, leaving the converter to hang on the flex plate (which is bad enough) then banging on it while trying to stab the transmission to it, and/or torquing the first bolt down to spec without starting the others (because turning the crankshaft is a pain in the ***) and prying on things to get the remaining bolts in.

A neighbor once had the bright idea of putting lock washers under the heads of the converter bolts... when he romped on it, the bolt heads hit the inspection cover. He drove it like that until the flex plate cracked. Then he bought a transmission because the floppy converter ate the front pump and filled the trans with metal shavings.

 

well im pretty sure my trucks tranny has never been taken out, so i know no one stabbed on a converter. but the po did replace the fluid and filter before he sold it. so maybe theres something in there? damn that sucks!