My 97 Ram 4x4 makes a knocking type of noise near the front/engine area when I first accelerate (actually happens just before I press the accelerator as I remove my foot from the brake).

We're talking <3 mph

It almost sounded as if I was dragging something or something (like a stick) was scraping the bottom.

Any ideas?

Sounds like loose bolts on the torque converter doesn't it?

Is that a hard (or expensive) fix?

How worried should I be?

I reread your 1st post again. It might be the front brakes.

If you don't work on brakes, ask around to friends & kin in your area for a good shop with a free inspection.

I reread your 1st post again. It might be the front brakes.

If you don't work on brakes, ask around to friends & kin in your area for a good shop with a free inspection.

I hope it is the brakes, but it doesn't sound like the brakes. Sounds like it's coming from underneath.

Also, I crawled under the truck this weeken and saw some grease on the front axle. That might be a grease point and just some excess grease...hope its not a leak.

I had rust & grease on the drivers side u-joint just outside the front differential tube on my '70 GMC...it was a bad u-joint.

I read somewhere that it might be a grease leak at the vacuum switch (little box on axle).

Not sure if it's a big deal or not.