2500 Ram Cummins

You have my sympathy. A broken truck or piece of equipment makes me agitated. I hope the fix is cheap and quick.
If by chance it isn't a minor fix then hot rod it. I had a Harley engine seize on me and ended up with a S&S 111 engine. Best break down I ever had.

 

The more I looked into it the more it seems like it could be a cracked flex plate. I found a few instances where people reported the same sound I was hearing if it wasn't a catastrophic failure.

 

Yeah, I agree if the tranny comes out I am going with a Triple disc and billet input shaft as well as new bands etc..... If I am going to do it I might as well do it right. So far I have had a pretty trouble free 135,000 miles on this thing in spite of the fact I routinely pull 8,000 -12-0000 pounds around.

 

Just got back from picking the truck up!!

He said that he had about 4 guys under it taking guesses at what it was going to be. He said the majority of them had money on it being a starter. So he let them pull the starter off since he wanted to see the flex plate anyways. He said the starter was a royal pain to get off and took about two hours of soaking the bolts and working them before they got it off. They put a different starter on and it made the same sound as before. The flex plate and starter gear looked OK.

After messing with the starter they put the original one back on and he said the younger guys wanted to pull the tranny but he stopped them and told them to just take the tranny mount off and it turned out there was a broken bolt with metal on metal contact. They put a different tranny mount on and no more noise.

While they had it on the lift they went ahead and pulled the tranny pan, adjusted the bands, and replaced an electronic board that was causing a weird hunting shift between 1 and 2 gear, and changed the fluids and filter. He said the tranny still had plenty of band adjustment in it. The bill ended up being $230 so I feel like I got off cheap on this one!!

He said it was definitely a weird noise and everyone was standing around scratching their head and guessing at it but it turned out to be a good learning experience. I am breathing a big sigh of relief.

 

Always glad to hear it wasnt as bad as anticipated

 

Seems like he was on the right track! I never had a rattle or vibration though which was weird it was just a good solid bang sound.

 

Cummins, Dodge, everything will break EXCEPT the engine.

 

in answer to your original thought about a rod, if you break one of these you are in big trouble

 

For all the stuff they did, around here that would have been $1500+ easy. I'd bring those guys a 30 pack at least, unless you already did.
I know how tough it is to admit defeat and bring your vehicle somewhere for repairs, but sounds like you have a great connection!

Glad you got it sorted out, and have a good trip!! Walleye?

 

Glad it was an easy fix. I had a truck and some of the bolts for the transfer case bracket were stripped. Had to drill them out and go a size bigger

 

Congrats on the cheap repair bill and the tuned transmission.

 

Good to hear it was a relatively cheap fix. Enjoy your road trip.

 

Awesome news!