What happens when Dodge goes cheap on a flex plate

[gerry]

Last month during an ATV jamboree I go to each year in Utah my 2004.5 3500 started flashing all kinds of warnings like brake/abs, airbag, 4 wheel drive service, check engine and low fuel but only twice would the brake/abs stay on more than a second or two to through a code and they stayed on about 20 minutes then went off. I took it to the local Dodge dealer that told me they only had one electrical tech and he was booked more than a month in advance and he suggested that I drive it back to Oregon and have it looked at when I get home, not very reassuring. On the way home the problem diminished some by only coming on every 75-100 miles instead of every 10 minutes or so lulling me into a somewhat feeling of safety but when I was about 7 miles from home the transmission started making a lot of noise like someone grinding sheet metal on the flywheel teeth and I immediately lost power but the engine was still running so I managed to pull off with my toy hauler and wait for a tow. When I got my truck to a transmission shop I had used twice and trusted they said the flex plate had exploded pushing the torque converter into the pump causing three of the six bolts holding the pump to the case to strip out, wonderful! When I looked at it then looked at the new flex plate I couldn't understand why with the torque these engines produce Dodge would use such a flimsy not much more than sheet metal torque converter behind the engine. The answer of course is money, it probably would have cost another $30 to use a good one so the ''Bean counters'' win and we get a poor flex plate and equally weak torque converter. While my truck was in the shop I called my old friend and TDR corespondent the late Jim Anderson who when I told him the whole story said '' don't be surprised if when you get your transmission ''built'' your trouble light issues disappear'' which is exactly what happen. Since he recently passed away I can't ask him why he would have said that but he did and was right. What I haven't got the foggiest idea of why when the flex plate probably started to fracture would that cause these electrical issues seemingly unrelated to occur. One thing I learned from owning two Dodge/Cummins trucks is they have very crappy electrics and most everybody I know that have them have chronic electrical gremlins as have I, it is a shame Dodge didn't have Toyota design and manufacture all the electrics because you never hear about Toyota's having electrical issues and my old 98 Corolla had none all the years I drove it.
Gerry

 

[Bob4x4]

I think you are being a bit tough on the bashing.The trans behind a stock engine holds up pretty good.I see you are running a smarty that is capable of a healthy amount of increased torque,not to mention an 04.5 is no spring chicken

 

[Prairie Dog]

I don't get the "crappy electronics" either. I haven't seen much in the way of troubles with electronics themselves - seems like bashing for the sake of bashing.
If you think Ram's have gremlins you should buy a GM twin.

 

[cerberusiam]

300k with MANY miles and hours towing +20k GCVW with a tune that is pushing out over 800 ft\lbs of TQ at 2000 rpms and still running the stock flex plate that was on there when I started slipping the stock TC. The flex plate is not the problem, the TC is the real source. The flex plate did not explode and shove the TC into the pump, the TC wobbling around with a bad flex plate did all that damage because you drove with the center of the flex plate ripped out. The Smarty and the loads you were towing are what got the flex plate, pretty standard occurrence.

Electrical issues are few and far between until people start messing with the system and ignore battery connection and ground maintenance. Good batteries, good cables and connections, and don't add a lot of extras will minimize or completely remove electrical issues, aside from rodent damage which is number #3 on the problem list.

Yes, you had some bad luck but a little research years ago would have helped minimize those problems.