I just put a rebuilt 46re in my 2000 ram 1500 5.2l. When I first started it , it idled fine for 4-5 min then stalled while I was topping off the atf and would not start again for 2 hrs. Now it will start and idle in park or neutral for 4-5 min then I here a loud whine from the bell housing that seems to choke out the engine. After this happens it won't start again for 1-2 hrs and the same thing hAppens. I have little experience and took 3 months of weekends to pull and reinstall the transmission on the ground in a dirt driveway. It sounds like the noise is from the torque converter which I also replaced. Any thoughts on how to fix this would be appreciated . I also abandoned the stock cooler and put on an 11"X11" aftermarket one. The fluid level seems fine and when I do the key dance it shows "p done" which I believe means there are no codes saved

 

I wonder if the crank sensor didn't suffer from the trans swap? It's located right behind the passenger side head, and reads off the flex plate. If you didn't remove it for the trans R&R, chances are good it got crunched a bit. Might wanna pull it out, and see what it looks like. (it would make an interesting noise if it were contacting the torque converter/flexplate....)

Welcome to DF!

 

Thank you I will check that as soon as the blizzard we are getting let's up. Would that be enough to stall the engine though and also it doesn't make the noise for the first 3 min that its running then gradually starts after that till the engine ultimately stalls out

 

Also I can record a video with my phone that will have the sound clearly on it but I don't know if I could put that on this forum or not?

 

Cranks sensors can do funny things... They have more failure modes than I really care to think about. If you don't *need* the truck immediately.... wait for the snow to stop at least. Crank sensor is a real bear to get to...... And it may just be heating up, expanding a bit, and THEN making contact. When you have it in your hand, you should be able to see if it is indeed the problem with the noise.

 

So I've checked everything including replacing the starter just in case it was not disengaging and overheating which wasn't the case. I can definitely hear a werring noise that sounds like some kind of friction coming from the torque converter or transmission itself while in every gear except reverse. Someone told me it sounds like the torque converter is binding which could be caused by a bent flex plate or input shaft or the torque converter is defective even though I just bought it. How can I confirm or deny this diagnosis?

 

Also this might be a stupid idea but if I have to pull the transmission out again anyway, how much extra work would it be to put in a manual and also what manual trans will fit on this truck(2000 ram 1500 5.2l 4x4)

 

NV3500, or NV4500 out of a 2nd gen is a direct bolt in. Needs to come out of the same style driveline though. (2 or 4 wheel drive.) Lotta work to swap, having a parts donor truck is the best way to go.

Why was the torque converter replaced in the first place?

 

I replaced the torque converter because I was putting in a new transmission anyway and it wasn't much more money to get a torque converter too so I figured just do it all. I still have the old torque converter in my shed. When I drained the old transmission it was full of metal chunks and looked like liquid mercury and for that reason I replaced everything including the cooler. I'm very disheartened now cause I don't know what my next move is to get my work truck on the road and I hope I didn't waste months of weekends and all the cash for parts. If I take the transmission out again is there a way to tell if it's the converter or something in the transmission itself that the guy rebuilding it messed up.

 

Ok, that was a good plan. Do NOT install the old torque converter on the new trans. It is darn near impossible to clean all the crap out, without cutting it open.

If you only spent 80 bucks on your torque converter, it may be bad right out of the box. Most of the companies that do 'remans' on them, don't do the best job....

When the truck dies, will the engine still crank?