Clunk in rear end

So I work with a guy that recently got his new ram after suing Chrysler to buy back his previous 2016 ram. Ended up there was a clunk coming from somewhere they couldn't find. Replaced the transmission and transfer case. Told him the rear end is within spec.

I noticed mine starting to do it coming off the highway last weekend pulling the rv. Did a little throttle feathering and I can make it do it every time.

Coworker said his new one is starting to do it as well. I'm at 15,500 and he's around 12,000.

Haven't hit up the dealer yet but I do plan to.

Anyone else? It can't just be coincidence.

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Years ago Mopar had a real problem with a clunking coming from the back. Sounded like a bad u joint. U joints were fine but the rear end had slop in it. The rear end never failed me but it didn't have huge power plant in front of it either. Just sounded like the drive shaft was going to fall off every time you put it in reverse. Haven't heard this in my truck yet but I am still under 10,000. At $50,000 I better not hear anything like that for a long time!

Yep, sounds exactly like a bad U Joint. Crawled under the truck and checked everything. U Joints are tight but there is a bit of slop between the pinion and ring gear. Not sure what the spec is.... Pinion bearing feels tight...

I grew up mopar and back in the 70's our 1970 Dodge Dart swinger with a 225 made a terrible "clunk" when shifting into reverse. And our 1979 D100 with a 225 made the same noise. Sounded like stuff was going to drop out from under the vehicles but the drive train was fine on inspection. Both were in our family from new. As well our 72 Newport, 75 Duster, 80 Aspen. My dad was a mechanic and he just said "that's just what Dodges do".

Fast forward almost 40 years. My ram will occasionally have a rough shift into reverse and a clunk from the rear end coming off the highway, decelerating. I'm at 13,000 miles. I'm starting to think that's just what Rams do.

my 15 made a clunk/rattle was particularly obvious when coming from over bumps and sometimes on rough roads. Checked everything with the dealer and nothing was out of place... decided to take a gamble and install airlift helper springs... kept them at the lowest pressure and no sound since then.

i figured the spring would come out of its perch from time to time and by installing the airbag it keeps it tight in its place..not sure if you are experiencing the same thing but its worth checking out.

opie said:

Told him the rear end is within spec.

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Chrysler/Ram's response to anything that hasn't completely failed seems to be something like this.

I've got a terrible thunk in my transmission and am being told it's normal. I really love my truck but would have to think long and hard about buying another Ram product after their lack of standing behind things.

Mine had a bad clunk, dealer said was normal. BS! I fixed mine, youi might check yours to see if this might be your issue. Here is a repost of my fix I posted in another topic.

UPDATE TO MY ORIGINAL FIX FOR THE CLUNK WHEN STOPPING; After about a month my clunk started too come back so on more research I pulled the driveshaft back out and removed the green grease and replaced it with C5A copper based anti seize. Its been a few months and 4k miles since and everything is still smooth as butter, no clunk at all.
Originally Posted by RodRam View Post

Seems like this topic has two different types of things going on well guys listen up my 2015 crew can 5.7 8 speed developed the clunk when you apply the brakes and stop then as you let off CLUNK well i figured it out and fixed it today, now all my stops are smooth as butter. These trucks have a two piece drive shaft on the rear section if you get down and look you will see a rubber accordion looking boot with two metal bands securing it this covers where the drive shaft is two pieces the rear one that slips inside the front one these two parts are fluted and slide together on the splines well i had a chevy Z71 that had a similar set up that did the same thing so it dawned on me this is exactly the same thing so today we pulled the back section of the shaft and removed the boot sure enough same concept as the chevy both pieces were supposed to be greased up good so when ypu stop the piece slides in smoothly and when you let off brake it slides back smoothly, what i found was dry spots and even some light rust ( only 10k on truck) also you could see where the the shaft was dry amd trying to slide it had made ruff marks on the wide splines, so we took some emory cloth sand paper and smoothed all the roughness ofd and greased the heck out of all the splines with Green Grease this stuff is slick as owl **** water proof and stays where you put it. Put shaft back together be sure to mark the two pieces so you get it back like it came apart then torque flange bolts to 85 lb and use 242 lock tight. I guarantee you this will fix that damn clunk! I hope the fix lasts a long time the chevy did. But if you had to redo it in 20-30k its not that hard to do took about a hour and a half but now that i now exactly what to do i could do it in a hour. Hope this helps some of you,

Rod, thanks for the idea. The 2500 has a 1 piece shaft with the slip yoke at the tail of the transfer case.

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