Just bought my first 4 wheel drive truck, not new to trucks just the 4 wheel drive version. Two weeks ago a man pulled out in front of me and it totaled my 98 Ram 1500 two wheel drive and I replaced it with a nicer than my old truck 97 Ram 1500 4 wheel version with almost 100,000 less miles on it. I faired much better than the Toyota or the other man driving it, I do wish him well. Long story short got a nice deal on this truck, runs and drives nice. The thing I am not sure of is when I move at very low speeds not even enough to make the speedomter to registar I get this kind of a clunk clunk noise that I think is coming from the transfer case. You can even feel it. It will speed up as I do up to a point then it just stops and makes no noise at speeds say about 5 or 6 miles pe hour. I think I get it when 4 low, 4 high 2 wheel drive. I've had the truck up on 4 jack stands and I get what I think is slack in the transfer case when I turn the drive shaft. New to for wheel drive trucks not sure how much slack should be there or what it should feel like. I can find any other nouse or anything I think is wrong by turning the front drive shaft, hubs or rerar hubs. I would like to know what to expect, what should be done and how soon. Not new to doing most things mechanical, currently doing a frame off restoration on a 68 Chevy short wide truck, but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Well not sure why there were no replies as what this could be or what I may look more into to give me some direction to go. Anyway I removed the rear driveshaft and I believe the problem lies in the rear end. I removed the rear cover and it seems to have a bit more slack in there than I think is good. When I turn the pinion I notice that the spider gears looks to have play in them. I don't think it is something that is on the verege of being a big problem in the next few months just don't think it is that bad off yet. So I will clean the housing out of old lube clean all surafaces reseal and replace rear cover and put new gear oil in and start looking at replacing the rear end of rebuilding it in the spring. I rebuilt the rear end in my 98 two wheel drive but it was a 9 1/4 and I pretty sure this one is a Dana 60. I do not know what the gear ratio is as there is not tag that I can find, so how to find what what the geart ratio is?

Check all ujoints.. And the 1500's have the 9 1/4 rear.. Most had 3.55 gears.. You can get a build sheet from Chrysler.. Have to go to the 2nd gen section to find the form to fill out for it.

After closing up rearend and putting new gear lube in and not really finding anything to bad. There was some play in the gears but none I thought was to bad considering the mileage. I took the truck to a friend of mine that has owned 4 whell drives trucks most of his driving life anyway. He rode in it and then drove and in all range of gears to inclunde 4 hi and 4 low and he did not seems to thing nothing was bad enough for me to be problem at this point. He did say during hard turning in had a really good lope to the wheels but I was supirzed that he really did not think nothing was to far ou tof bounds so to speak. So for now guys I am just going to drive it for the rest of the cold moths and see how it goes.

dlyter09 thanks for the info you you tell me thst the 1500 have the 9 1/4 but that would be for the 1/2 ton two wheel drive wouldn't it be? My last truck the 98 1/2 two wheel version had a different rearend than this one has as I rebuilt it a few years ago and it looke completely different that this one. After looking in my Haynes manual that covers both models of my old 98 and the now 97, it looks like this truck has a Dana 60 in it. I will go out and try and get a build sheet for it though and perhaps get better info from that so thanks for letting me know that.

All 1500's came from the factory with the 9 1/4 rear end.. Only way it would have a Dana 60 in it would be if it was swapped in there..

follow this link to get a build sheet for your truck.

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...-my-truck.html

Just got my build sheet back and it says 9 1/4 so I will go back and look again to try and make sure which one I have so thanks to dlyter09 for getting it right the first time. just makes me wonder what was in my other truck as I know iit was a few years ago when I put new carrier and bearings in but I sure thought it looked different form this one. Perhaps I will get a build sheet on that one also to see what it shows.