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Mysterious Knock on VP44 Truck – Need Help! No one can figure this out!
HUGE MEGA ULTRA UPDATE: LINK TO VIDEO I have finally found the issue, I think! I had time today to pull the pan off (btw, this can be done on a 2WD without removing the engine, maybe I'll do a write up on it). After removing the pan, I turned the engine over by hand to visually inspect the crankshaft tone ring. Now, I should say that I inspected this ring before but only with an inspection camera through the sensor hole and did not see any issues. The sensor also is not damaged or nicked in anyway to indicate any issues with the ring. The tone ring is a 2 piece ring. There are 5 bolts that hold the ring in place. 3 bolts on the large piece and 2 on the smaller piece of the ring. Well, one of the bolts on the smaller ring has backed out completely and is missing. The other remaining bolt on the smaller ring is bent. I can literally move more than half of the tone ring by hand! You would think that a ring this loose would cause a CEL for CAM/CRANK correlation codes or something, but I guess not. It must be just off enough to cause a wild timing scatter but just on enough to be within "spec" of the CEL condition. I ordered a new (used but in good shape) tone ring and all 5 bolts. I'm going to remove my ring this weekend and install the new one and LOCTITE THE CRAP out of the new bolts. I will post a follow up update the moment I get the truck running! FINGERS CROSSED THIS FIXES MY ISSUE!
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Mysterious Knock on VP44 Truck – Need Help! No one can figure this out!
UPDATE: I found, in the depths of another forum, someone with the same exact issue as me. Here is a LINK to their video they posted 16 years ago! They went down the same exact rabbit hole I did and ultimately ended up pulling the oil pan to find a damaged tone ring. I inspected my tone ring through the CKP sensor hole but its a very small area and I wasn't able to really good a good look at it. I'm going to pull the oil pan tomorrow and give it a real inspection. I HOPE I find an issue with the tone ring so that I can finally put this to rest!
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Sufarry started following August 2025 Truck of the Month – Enter Now!
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August 2025 Truck of the Month – Enter Now!
📸 How to Enter:Post ONE photo of your truck in this thread. All generations are welcome. One submission per member—please do not post multiple photos. Submissions are open now and will close at 11:59PM on 7/31/2025 from the time of this post. 🏆 What You Win:The winner will have their truck featured on the front page of the Mopar1973Man Gallery starting August 1st, 2025. 👥 Not a Member Yet?Join the community! It’s a great place to share your build, ask questions, and learn from fellow diesel/truck enthusiasts. Let’s see those builds—good luck
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Mysterious Knock on VP44 Truck – Need Help! No one can figure this out!
Sort of an update here: I found the lift pump wiring pulled out of the backside of the connector... I don't know when that happened.. Maybe when I was reinstalling the harness? I'm going to get a new connector for it. Basically the truck was running like **** because there was NO LIFT PUMP. Hope the little bit of idling I did with it didn't hurt the VP!
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Mysterious Knock on VP44 Truck – Need Help! No one can figure this out!
Took some time after work today to try to figure out whats going on with the truck.. still no real diagnosis now. I noticed when I start the truck it runs normally for about 7-10 seconds before it starts idling weird and misfiring. Here's a VIDEO of what its doing now. I'm about this 🤏close to just selling it like it sits. I'm frankly tired of working on it and even more tired of spending money. I'm still not getting any codes... no real path to follow now.
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Mysterious Knock on VP44 Truck – Need Help! No one can figure this out!
The only code is the lift pump code and the oil pressure sensor code for the faulty oil pressure sensor ( the lift pump code has been there for years. I have an in tank factory conversion that i bypassed for my raptor lift pump, so the plug is disconnected causing the code)
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Mysterious Knock on VP44 Truck – Need Help! No one can figure this out!
UPDATE Got the wiring harness back in the truck! While I was in there, I also did the WT mod: Alternator power wire is now routed to the passenger side battery The ground splice near the VP has been removed, properly soldered, and terminated on the backside of the timing cover case All good on that front. Now the new issue: Fired up the truck and it’s definitely misfiring — both at idle and under throttle No codes thrown (verified with a good scan tool) The only code-related issue is the ABS light, which wasn't on before When I press the pedal to the floor, it’s slow to rev and misfiring badly and smoking. Ran out of daylight to dig deeper, but that’s where things stand for now. On a positive note: When the idle randomly smooths out, the knock disappears and the truck idles great — so I think I’m slowly getting somewhere!
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Mysterious Knock on VP44 Truck – Need Help! No one can figure this out!
Sure did! Resistance tested and load tested every thing. No issues found. No crushed wires, no cut/damaged anything. The mystery continues!
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Mysterious Knock on VP44 Truck – Need Help! No one can figure this out!
Small update: Been real busy at work and general life events! Sorry! I got the Tesa tape in the mail today and finally had a minute to re-wrap my harness. I've never worked with this stuff before. It goes on easy and looks so professional, and apparently holds up well under engine heat. Only time will tell if that's actually true though! Look at all that old grimey, brittle and sticky plastic loom. Feels good to get that off of there!
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Mysterious Knock on VP44 Truck – Need Help! No one can figure this out!
So far I have found nothing! It's not difficult, just time consuming. I have this old power supply that I'm using to help load test the wires! Good to know! Im a cheap *** and prefer to struggle my way through this LOL.
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Mysterious Knock on VP44 Truck – Need Help! No one can figure this out!
Well, I decided to pull the engine harness. I want to completely strip it down and go through EVERY wire just to eliminate the possibility of it being a harness issue... The amount of man hours I have into this issue is actually insane.
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Just here in the Gallery under the truck of the month category, for now. I might get with Mopar himself to see if the TOTM can be on the landing page.
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Sufarry started following 20190107_154237.jpg.33f191c1cd5cfedeb21cb36d12797070.jpg
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