Bad vibration at start, when giving throttle
 

I started my truck this morning and it ran fine, I left it idling with the heater on because it was cold and when I came back and left, it had a very bad shake/shudder.

at idle, it's not noticeable. The engine seems to be running smooth and fires right up as it normally does but when I give it any gas it shakes, a LOT.
I looked under the hood and all of the stuff run by the belt seems fine and it seems to be coming from.the back of the motor. Any insights? Could this be related to my flex plate?

Best guess is that its time for plugs wires and a cap if its been a while. Slightly compromised plugs and wires can cause a plug to foul. Often it clears up by itself. It just might be an indication that you should do some routine maintenance. Sometimes this kind of thing can just be a passing glitch. Yesterday was our first snow and low temps. It was fairly ugly on the roads for NJ. Lots of very slow driving and wet. I got a misfire code and a service light. I cleared the code and it didn't return.

It's not a misfire, engine would probably throw a misfire code and it would have to be 2 cylinders at least to shake the entire dash like that. Sometgings off balance, really off balance. I'm pretty sure its transmission related it's been having a ting jingle ling and tack tack tack coming from the torque converter area for awhile now. Does it in park and neutral but stops when in gear. I think I drove it 10k miles like that and 20 since I replaced the transmission. I've been meaning to get in there and check it out and fix it, but pulling the transmission to check out the torque converter and flex plate is a lot of work. I'm in it now though and loose bolts from flex plate to torque converter. Holes are ovaled a little but other than that i dont see anything, though i havent fully dropped the transmission because I haven't removed the crossmember. I was hoping to just slide it back enough to pull the flex plate and immediately see an issue.

Tighten the bolts, and see if your noise/vibration goes away.

The noise certainly did go away but I'm left with the vibration. I'm starting to think *misfire* or something more serious.

Last time the truck had a tuneup? Have you fixed the plenum yet?

The last work i did was replacing the heads, cat, and water pump. I did a plenum gasket then, about 15,000 miles ago. I just replaced the coil, cap & rotor before taking the videos, sounds like rod knock in the vid but its really just the dash shaking, there is not really a knock at all or any abnormal engine sound aside from some slight lifter tick.
https://youtu.be/HygOqFjQVyc
https://youtu.be/gHkJ3ia7vfk

I would think if the holes on your flex plate are ovaled, that that's not a good thing. It could cracked too and you might not know it as they can be hard to see. If that is indeed the problem, I wouldn't drive the truck till its fixed right. Dangerous stuff and probably not doing your engine any good.

I just replaced the flex plate and torque converter. Sure was easy, not. But actually it was easy compared to actually replacing the transmission, that crossmember is a pita and requires a BFH to reinstall, and I left it in. I found just disconnecting the trans and pulling it back and to the side, then removing the flex plate, you can remove the torque converter without dropping the pipes. I mangled the crank sensor, so after reinstall got a no Start but since I know already about the crank sensor I replaced that first and it fired right up, with the same issue minus the jingle from the flex plate area.

Is it a misfire??

if it was a misfire It would have to be 2-3 cylinders not firing to shake that bad, and there is no misfire code.... And it runs way too well. I'm borrowing my brothers 99 1500, same motor. I pulled one, then two wires and ran it and not even close to same symptoms.

this morning I pulled them belt, thinking (and hoping) it might be one of the belt driven accessories messed up, but same problem. I'm starting to lean toward maybe the damper/harmonic balancer being messed up. It has about a 1/8th" wobble to it looking from the back side. Thing is, I looked at the one on the other truck and it's about the same. It feels like something is very off balance from the time it starts to any rpm range. When it's not today, I'm going to start some more diagnostics.

Broken engine mount? Trans mount?

Nah. I think it might be something internal, maybe something on the crankshaft throwing it out of balance. I'm thinking harmonic balancer, chipped piston, maybe the tail of the crankshaft is warped. Something like that. Really I feel like just revving it up to 5k till it breaks so I can go 'aha! It was THIS' then rip it apart and fix it.

actually, I decided to buy another one. I'm gonna fix this truck soon but it's my d.d. and only vehicle. I found a 98 1500 with 90k miles on it for 2700

If you have the 5.9 maybe one of the weights came off the flex plate

Neither weight came off, but I replaced it anyways. I'm wondering if the crankshaft got bent or twisted from everything wobbling in there.

got some good leads on 02/03/04 rams tho. Going to look at one tomorrow for 3500. Probably buy it.

I'd NEVER get rid of my 2nd gen. NEVER!!

why not? Actually, I have no plans to get rid of it at the moment.... park it, yes. But realistically is has $580 in back registration, a cracked windshield, body damage on the passenger bed, 274,000 miles, leaks oil, burns oil, has a torn up interior, bad pinion bearing..... and as-is I might be able to rip someone off for $500 for it.

My end goal though is to just park it because dropping 3500 on a new truck is gonna break me, but it will also let me fix the truck when I have time and get some more money. The thing really just needs a rebuilt motor and the pinion bearing fixed, it's been bad since I bought it at 142,000 miles and looking at the yolk a few days ago when I took off the driveshaft I was like ho lee **** this thing is screwed up. It had like 1/2" side to side play. I'm surprised it hasn't flown apart yet.

I sunk about 8K in my first ever second gen before someone hit me. Here is why I would never get rid if mine:
Simple to work on
Love the body, best looking Ram in my opinion
So much room in the engine bay
Did I mention not a lot of electronics which makes it easy to work on?
Work horses
Damn tanks

Yep it easy to work on, when you can properly diagnose the problem. LOL.

anyways, I was just messing with it and the IAC was getting stuck but after I got it to idle I could hear a good knock, not super loud where you'd want to say 'shut it down quick', I would normally not notice it or if i did not be too concerned.... but it's definitely there - sounded like valvetrain. Also, while revving it, it was sputtering intermittently then not holding to 3k rpm, it would suddenly drop to 2500 with the same amount of throttle. I pulled the 1 3 5 7 side plugs and 1 and 3 were normal, 5 and 7 had some fuel or what i assume is fuel, wet / shiny compared to the 1 and 3 plugs. I pulled the valve cover and turned it over and it appears everythings moving, but i can hear a very high pitched metal on metal squeal. Checked the oil, still clean (brand new), and no signs of metal or anything abnormal. I have a feeling I run it any more it'll get a catastrophic failure.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/dodgefo...4c81b01644.jpg
Picked this 02 up yesterday for 3500. Decent truck with some minor flaws. 197k miles on it.

What engine?

More then likely 4.7L unless it's an 02 then probably the 360

It has a cute little 4.7 in it. Lol.


I noticed today on my 96 the second to last lifter on the driver side is not getting oil.