Would a 96 Ram Van 318 have a magnum roller motor ?

Well, I bought this 1996 Dodge 2500 Van today, it was just too good of a deal and very very well maintained...and I liked the fact that it has a 3 speed automatic instead of the overdrive....much cheaper if anything ever goes wrong

It has 76,000 miles and runs and drives fantastic. The only 2 things that bother me.....is it doesn't just pop off, sometimes have to crank a bit......and the rear end is howling, probably sounds worse because it's an empty cargo van....the original owner took very good care of it and he just changed the rear end lube.....would this rear take any kind of special additive ? It does have 3.90 gears, not sure if it is a suregrip

if it growls from the moment it starts rolling, getting louder with speed, it may be the pinion bearings, especially in a 9 1/4 rear. The long cranking is not normal. All my injected dodges (even the tbi ones) fire NOW when cranked.

No limited slip additive usually will just cause a moaning type of sound around turns.
The 9 1/4 rear ends are known for early pinion bearing failure and have a flimsy axle bearing design as well.
I just had to rebuild the one in my 1500ram p.u. also with only 75K miles on it .

Its a magnum engine great engine, a cargo van is not a quiet ride
new, used, empty, full.

If your worried about it rebuild the rear change all the bearings,if not change the gear lube with synthetic and add the shear grip additive
change all the rest of the fluids and abuse it.

I've had three of them, wish I still the last one a 2000, 1500 with a 5.9 Magnum, I pulled my 24' United Enclosed with it! not fast but it would pull it loaded no problem, great van's

It is noisy right away, and seems to quiet down after 5-10 miles.

How would I tell if this is a 9.25 Rear end ? Turns out his paperwork shows it has 3.21 gears. And would it be relatively easy to replace the pinion and carrier bearings ? Meaning probably just replace the bearings and not the races ? Install the same shims ?

Would the cranking issue probably be related to a weak fuel pump ?

It has a 3-speed automatic....727 trans correct ?

That sounds more like the tires to me.

I would run it in gear with the wheels off the ground to pin point where the noise is coming from . if it,s quiet up in the air , it,s probably just the tires.

Changing the bearings without new races is a waste of time and money. With all the right tools it,s fairly easy ,without them it,s a p.i.a. the 9.25 has a 12 bolt cover shaped like a stop sign.

My 89 (an early roller, not magnum, TBI) likes one cycle of the key to on, then off then start to kick off quickly. If you just crank, it's slower to start. I figure it's priming better with 2 quick pump runs.
96 is a whole different creature, but try it.

The axle bearings are pressed into the housing on these style axles,you use a slide hammer type axle bearing puller to remove them and a simple driver /socket& hammer to install them.

You also nee quite a few other tools, many of which you can make if you have a welder etc. :

carrier bearing adjuster

yoke holder

bearing seperator/splitter

hydraulic press

small inch /lb torque

3/4 drive breaker bar n socket for pinion nut

Do some research on google , youtube and a factory manual before hand to get familiar with it first.