Rear End CLUNK letting off brakes

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RodRam

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Not sure if this is the right section but this is a problem with many ram trucks and I could never get a answer to what caused it. Even my dealer blew it off as inherent to my model truck... well that was Bull. I wanted to share this to all as many will benefit if only by knowing what to tell the dealer the issue is. This should be a sticky!
Here is your problem and how to eliminate it; This is for 1500 2wd Ram trucks with two piece drive shafts, other models may use same design I'm not sure.

Problem solved!!!! Here it is guys i figured it out and fixed it! 2015 crew can 5.7 8 speed developed the clunk when you apply the brakes and stop then as you let off CLUNK or sometimes like someone tapped your rear bumper, 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 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 you 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 shaft was dry and trying to slide it had made ruff marks on the wide splines, so we took some emery cloth sand paper and smoothed all the roughness off and greased the heck out of all the splines with Green Grease this stuff is slick as owl **** and water proof it 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 in under a hour. After my dealers remarks I did this myself as I know my work is better than what they would have done but I'm sure if you can get them to check it, warranty would cover them doing it. UPDATE!!!!!!! The grease worked well for awhile but my clunk started very lightly to come back so I re did the job with C5A copper anti seize its now smoother than ever and seems to be holding up well..
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OUMX117

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Not sure if this is the right section but this is a problem with many ram trucks and I could never get a answer to what caused it. Even my dealer blew it off as inherent to my model truck... well that was Bull. I wanted to share this to all as many will benefit if only by knowing what to tell the dealer the issue is. This should be a sticky!
Here is your problem and how to eliminate it; This is for 1500 2wd Ram trucks with two piece drive shafts, other models may use same design I'm not sure.

Problem solved!!!! Here it is guys i figured it out and fixed it! 2015 crew can 5.7 8 speed developed the clunk when you apply the brakes and stop then as you let off CLUNK or sometimes like someone tapped your rear bumper, 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 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 you 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 shaft was dry and trying to slide it had made ruff marks on the wide splines, so we took some emery cloth sand paper and smoothed all the roughness off and greased the heck out of all the splines with Green Grease this stuff is slick as owl **** and water proof it 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 in under a hour. After my dealers remarks I did this myself as I know my work is better than what they would have done but I'm sure if you can get them to check it, warranty would cover them doing it


I had this problem on my older Chevy 1500 as well. I used anti-seize as it lasted much much longer than regular grease. Good to know!!
 

Granite-1500

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I really hope this is the fix because this drives me crazy when I take off, and I've checked the u-joints and they seem fine, I couldn't for the life of me figure out what it was! Thanks for sharing, I'm sure many of us will be crawling under the truck tonight or this weekend :favorites13:
 

Juniorss

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I'm surprised Ram didn't figure this out yet with the amount of complaints alone on this forum. I guess they will once the splines start getting destroyed on multiple truck.
 
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RodRam

RodRam

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Anti seize is a great option to grease, if mine ever starts back I will try that, but green grease is amazing stuff I used it on off road trail machines and even crossing creeks it would stay put and if you get it on your hands it takes several washings with grease removing soap to get it off. UPDATE I redid the job used C5a copper anti seize and its smoother that ever.
 
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RodRam

RodRam

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BUMP this should be a sticky as many people that have this problem and no fix except this has been posted anywhere that I could find.
 

redpauly11

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RodRam-thanks for the fix. This worked perfectly on my 2016 ram 1500 crewcab Laramie. I lemon lawed my 2014 Ram for this exact reason after the dealer could not fix it after 5 attempts which included a new transmission. Decided to roll the dice and buy another one that seemed perfect until a few thousand miles then it started up with the 2016. When i pulled my driveshaft off at 9000 miles, it had two spots about 5 inches long of metal to metal grind spots. I sanded them down and lubed up a generous amount of the anti seize and its perfect.
 

wiggy999

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The dealers should be fixing this under warranty, if you can pinpoint the problem! No ???
 

yoda

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It's funny this problem pops up about every 10-15 years. I have not seen this on the new trucks yet, very few 2wd trucks sold up here.The last time I ran into this was probably about 10 years ago on Grand Cherokees I think.
The story then was it was an issue in the 80's. They eliminated a manufacturing process to save money, Zink coating on the driveshaft splines or something like that.
They fix a problem, then a new young bunch of engineers comes along and say, why are these driveshafts so expensive, we don't need this zink coating, lets get rid of it.
Problems pop up then, oh maybe we do need it.
Not sure how much truth is in that story, but sounds about right.LOL
 

joek

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They fix a problem, then a new young bunch of engineers comes along and say, why are these driveshafts so expensive, we don't need this zink coating, lets get rid of it.
Problems pop up then, oh maybe we do need it.
Not sure how much truth is in that story, but sounds about right.LOL

There is so much truth to this statement it is scary. I experience this on a daily basis.
 

yoda

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To the OP. Nice find, congrats on figuring that out on your own. The first time I experienced that on a jeep you would swear it was the transmission.
Sounds like a problem FCA may address at some point with a revised drive shaft, hard to say for sure.
It's not something that will ever cause a problem, just annoying. What happens is as you brake, the rear of the truck raises as the nose dips, the driveshaft has to extend inside the slip yoke, as you come to a stop and the truck levels out, it binds instead of sliding back togeather, then goes in all at once, and you feel it. Your grease will probably fix it for a while but it may come back.
You probably already knew that being you figured out how to fix it, thought I would give an explanation to those who may not know.
 

VB712

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I have the same clunk but I have a one piece driveshaft. I always here everyone talking about having a two piece driveshaft but my crew cab has an aluminum one piece driveshaft. Why is my truck different?
 

powderbrad

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If this is the issue couldn't you simply pull the driveshaft up and back while laying under the truck in gear or not?

Or just make a spacer to fit in the "fluted? Portion to take up the slack?
 

yoda

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The slip yoke has to be able to freely move in and out as the rear suspension goes up and down, the distance between the rear diff and the transmission (or carrier and bearing and diff. with a 2 piece shaft) gets shorter and longer.
The problem comes in when the yoke temporarily binds in the splines instead of sliding, when tension is removed from the shaft at a stop, it moves all at once and you feel a clunk
 
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powderbrad

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Either way..isn't the front of driveshaft lubed by tranny fluids, and the rear by diff fluid?

Maybe the front doesn't have an oil line for the tail housing of the tranny. I can't remember it from memory. If not, easy enough to tap a fitting and line, not?
 

yoda

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Either way..isn't the front of driveshaft lubed by tranny fluids, and the rear by diff fluid?

Maybe the front doesn't have an oil line for the tail housing of the tranny. I can't remember it from memory. If not, easy enough to tap a fitting and line, not?

If it is a 2 piece rear shaft it may work to install a grease fitting.
Even the 1 piece shaft where the shaft is lubed by trans fluid I have had them with this concern. They can bind in the splines, that's why I say it may come back.
On the jeeps it took a revised shaft, some kind of coating or different manufacturing process on the splines of the shaft to make it slide better with a load on the splines/driveline.
 

cptwing

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My truck does the same thing and of course the boneheads at the dealership say there is nothing wrong, its normal. I am likely the odd man out here with a regular cab 8' body dually, but as soon as the weather getsa little better gonna have a look at this. And thanks for posting
 

-B-

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use 243 it is oil and grease tolerant

I doubt many can get the bolts and threads clean enough for 242 to actually cure
 

joek

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I was having this problem for some time ( clunking ), but after the dealer loaded some updated software, the clunking has disappeared.

Prior to the software up-date, I noticed that when I had a few hundred pounds in the bed, the clunking also was not as prevalent.

Not sure what this all means, just my experiences.
 

spiffy

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Thank You

Thank you RodRam! I had my truck at the dealer today for this problem and they pissed me off by saying it was "normal". I never knew that a clunk was normal. I'll be taking the shaft out tomorrow and doing what you mentioned.
 
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