94 dodge ram "Rocker arms" ???

Benn doing some research but havent found my answer.. what exactly do the rocker arms and retainers do ? one of the retainer bolts came loose one day so i had to pop off the valve cover and tighten it. Now my truck doesnt shift smooth and the engine makes a loud clikcing noise from the top of the engine when i drive past 60-70 mph. sucks..

Rocker arms transfer motion from the valve lifter to the valve. Camshaft has 2 lobes on it (conventional 2 valve engine) per cylinder. High part of lobe comes around and moves valve lifter up in it's channel. Lower end of push rod sits in detent hole on top of lifter. The upper end of push rod sits in detent hole in one end of rocker arm. As valve lifter moves up it transfers motion through push rod, the rocker arm in a see saw movement then pushes valve down and open. Sounds like you cranked adjusting nut down too tight. I hope noise you're hearing is not valve contacting piston. What was indicator of retainer comming loose?

hmm well i tightened the bolt down to haynes manual specifications 25lbs i think.

I used to rebuild engines 30 yrs. ago. Back then you adjusted hydrolic lifters using feeler guages or by the seat of your pants with the engine running. I "think" that todays rocker arms may have no adjustment so maybe you just torque them down to specs. as you did. Sorry, thats all I know. But I'm still curious as to what alerted you to the loose bolt. Was it noise from loose rocker arm.

Well awhile ago i replaced the intake manifold gaskets... with the
valve covers off i decided to take off one of the retainers and clean
it.. i only took 1 off.. was driving one day and heard a loud rattling
inside the engine.. sure enough the retianer came loose. I read that
to set the rocker arms you need to loosen all of them then set the TDC
top dead center then tighten all the bolts. Im debating wether i
should take it in to dodge or do it myself..

The guy at dodge said the best way to set them is to have the engine running while tightening the bolts ? Im not gonna do that since oil spits out of the valves

Actually, the lifters are all in separate bores and the bores pass through an oil "gallery". Oil pumped through the gallery passes into the lifter through holes in it's side and up through the pushrod. It's a little messy but not like old faithful to adjust lifters with the engine running. Take off the valve cover after engine is warmed up a bit and lifters are pumped up to normal. Back off the offending rocker arm nut till it starts to clatter. then use short (like) 1/8 turn to tighten down the nut. Give it a moment between turns to see if lifter quiets down. When your satisfied noise is same as the rest of valve train on the rocker arm your working on tighten lock nut (if there is one). If you bring piston to top dead center your on compression stroke with both valves closed: That's the way to adjust solid (non hydrolic) lifters. Both valves closed means there's an ammount of play like .006" between rocker arm and top of valve. At that point you could adjust valve lash (distance between rocker arm and top of valve) if thats the way they adjust hydrolic lifters these days. I'd go with the engine running method myself.

yeah so i guess 2 of the rockers arms for wacked out of tune

I had to adjust the rockers on my old chevy a couple times. I adjusted them as mentioned above, with the engine running. I went to the local wrecking yard, and picked up a spare valve cover, cut the center part out of it(and baffles) just eanough so that I could get a socket onto the adjusting nuts. just take off the good valve cover, and put on the spare(with the hole cut out), adjust the rockers, and replace the good valve cover, and then do the other side of the engine. it worked really well, and kept oil from getting al over the place.