My truck makes the same clunk-- but than again, what do you expect from a 12-year old, near 100,00 mile vehicle haha.
I will not make a statement about the specific subject at hand, however.

Uhh... no. If somethings NOT normal, its NOT normal from the time its made until the time its fixed, not just from the time there is a fix until the time its fixed... understand? Thats what wrong with you dealer people, you won't admit to the customer there is something wrong unless daddy-Chrysler says there is something wrong, otherwise its "normal." (In the dealers intepretation, I guess the early 4-speed FWD transmissions that would last maybe 50,000 miles were "normal" as well, because there was no fix from Chrysler on those.)
The piston slap on the early GM Vortec engines was "normal" as well. (Might we add, GM actually released a TSB stating that on engines with less than 36K miles, oil usage of 1 quart per 2,000 miles was NORMAL) These engines with piston slap, when started, could sound like a diesel -- mind you, these are gas engines, not diesel.

 

Joe dealer didnt make your car, and if chrysler doesnt have a fix its not his fault. Trust me They want to fix your car, cause dealing with a pissed off customer every week is not pleasent.

 

I understand that. What I, and I'm sure other people, are talking about is: they will not admit its a problem. They could at least say "no, that does not appear to be normal, however, Chrysler is looking into it." Customers do not appreciate to be told "it's normal," and than sent out the door with the "problem" still here.
The fact of the matter is: on some Dakota's this does not occur. Does that mean the ones this does NOT occur in that they are abnormal? No. If this "clunk" is normal, explain to me why it does not happen on other brand-new cars, trucks, and SUV's.

 

I'm so glad I got a manual transimission.

 

Lol. I wish I got a manual with my truck, but, you can't be too picky with a 12 year old used truck. Maybe on my next vehicle...

 

I purposely shifted slower between R & D and D to R, everything sounded fine, no klunks or clangs. However, no matter how slow I shift between R and back to Park, it always klunks/clangs.

If anyeone else hearing this could see if they can isolate it too R back to Park, at least the issue can be narrowed down.

 

I second Frenchy's statement, I'm so glad I have a manual trans. My truck is a 99 but none-the-less, I despise automatic transmissions with every fiber of my being. Now that said, you might also look for an issue of a bad tranny mount or faulty slip yoke where the driveshaft plugs into the back of the tranny. If this is something that happens on a lot of these trucks (which it seems to be) it may not even be that the tranny mount has gone bad but was instead just made out of bad material. Likewise with the driveshaft slip yoke, it may just be a bad design. In any case, hopefully Chrysler will figure it out and own up to it. That's the biggest challenge, getting the dealer to acutally admit to a recall because they wont unless they're pretty much forced to.

 

this seems to be an issue with the 05's and 06's. I don't remember my 02 doing this.

 

dodge trucks have that clunking sound,i have 01 ram 1500 and my dad has a 00ram and both do the clunk,dont sweat it! its a dodge and they are tough! drive it till the rear end drops! change your fluids and as long as you dont have shavings yor good!

 

My truck occasionally has the tranny klunk, doesn't bother me or the performance of my truck so far.
I've had another type of noise that was bothering me for a while - If I turned my steering wheel too far in either direction, you would here a klunck/snap noise, like metal on metal. It turns out that the steering locks, which I believe prevent the wheel from turning too far in either direction, where rubbing against everything around it when making sharp turns. A mechanic greased them up for me, and that fixed the noise, but he mentioned that it isn't a good think to turn the wheel all the way anymore. As long as I don't need to make sharp turns I guess I'm alright.