Hey, guys:

I have developed a rattling noise that (so far) shows up only when I'm in gear at low rpm's. For example, if I'm in second gear (5 spd) going 5-15 mph or so, it will rattle. The rattle is sporadic and sounds like it's coming from the front end. I am paranoid that it may be the timing chain, although the engine does NOT rattle at start-up, and has yet to rattle in neutral. I have a 302 with 98K miles.

Any suggestions where to start looking? I know I'm not giving y'all much to go on, just curious if anybody had this problem before. I'll start by just tightening all the bolts I have, it does sound like it could be a loose part. The rattle is pretty loud.

thanks

Scott

PS The engine does not stumble and it idles beautifully.

 

does this sound increase with engine rpm increase?

 

No, the sound does not increase with engine speed. As a matter of fact, increasing the rpm almost always makes the sound go away. It's only noisy when I'm basically going a little too slow for a given gear, or barely on the gas.

-Scott

 

Sounds alot like the cat heat shield, but that's under the middle of the truck. You can't recreate this sound while the truck is parked? Is it an auto tranny? if so, have a look at the tranny dipstick tube. See if you can move it at all by hand, and if it does, see if it comes close enough to anything that it could vibrate against.

Take care,
-Chris

 

I have yet to be able to recreate the sound when the truck is parked, but I'll try again tonight. It doesn't sound like it's coming from the cat, but I've been wrong about the origin of noises plenty before--I'll give that a check tonight.

Manual tranny.

-Scott