I bought a 2000 1/2 ton 5.2 Ram a couple of weeks ago and it has 60,000 miles on it. A handful of times (when it's cold) when I pull away from a stopped position I feel and hear a faint clunk underneath the truck. It's not right away but after I moved a few feet it seems. It isn't violent but just enough to tell me it's there. After the initial clunk, it drives like there's no care in the world and there's no slipping sensation like it would be the transmission. However, with everything hooked up with electronics anymore who know what it could be. Does anyone? Thanks.

 

if it is wen it is cold it could simpley be the weels have frozen down and there breaking lose wen you move (if by cold you meen below freasing of corce)

 

By cold I mean just started up (although our temp is in the teens in the morning and upper 30s in the afternoon) and maybe driven a couple of blocks, stop at a stopsign, accelerate a few feet and there's a clunk. It's subtle so it's like, did I hit a bump? kind of thing. After that it's normal as can be. It's happened at all times of the day, never multiple times in a series, and I don't recall it happening more than once a day.

 

check the u joints maybe?

 

That's what I was thinking because it's like the back of the truck trying to catch up. Also, after I bought the truck and then read all of the bad transmission threads I thought I've bought a piece of garbage that will shell out on me.

 

Check the U-joints in the rear driveshaft as well...see if there's any play in it [>:]

Also, not ALL transmissions are bad. The only ones you hear about are the ones that DO go bad. The transmission in my V10 is still original...143,000 miles on the clock. I plan on replacing it with one built by DTT within the next year though, due to the fact(s) that my motor will be putting out quite a bit more power after I'm done modding it....I want a better torque converter...and the trans would need to come out (my tq. converter seal is leaking [:'(]).

 

Could be a few things. Could be the exhaust shifting around. Could be shock that is bad. Could be a tranny mount. Could be something in the rearend itself. More than likely though it is something simple and easy to fix, just gotta find it.

 

Okay, thanks everyone.

 

My front u-joint went bad after 60,000 miles. A quick check is to shift back and forth between Drive and Reserse ( while stopped) and you can hear a distinct clunk. A quick shake of the driveshaft by hand and any movement at all between the output yoke and the driveshaft means the u-joint is shot.