Hey Everyone,

I have a pretty gnarly clunk going on in my front end. It happens most noticeably when I hit the brakes in revers, it's like a loud pop.

It has Brand New (Less than 50 miles) Ball Joints and Control Arm Bushings, all 4 of each. Everything is nice and tight, I've spend hours trying to figure this out.

The ONLY thing I've noticed that I wonder about is, there is a bit of play in the front driveshaft, not in the u-joints but i can rotate it just slightly and it turns in the t-case and the differential, where as my rear driveshaft is totally solid. Could this somehow be causing the clunk? Anybody had this problem?

Thanks!

-00XJCO

 

try your track bar bolt on the axle. Mines doing the same thing and I held my head out and turned the wheel side to side and noticed that my axle was moving so I climbed under it and had the wife turn it side to side and my track bar bolt is loose.

 

trakbar for sure check the 0trac to frame bolt as well. they are notorrius for blowing out if you dont keep em full of grease

 

Thanks for the info guys. I HAVE checked it, and i noticed some play on the axle end and I tightened it but the problem was still there. Could the clunk come from the frame end of it? Either way, I have a new one on order, I hope that will fix it. I noticed a bit of axle rotation mostly in the upper control arm bushings on the axle end too, even with the new bushings, is that acceptable? Even if they are moving they are super tight so there shouldn't be any noise in their movement.

 

you only hear it when you hit the brakes?
my cheap pads make a clunk noise when backing up... it could be that?
no sounds when going forward but in reverse they clunk..

Mark

 

retighten your control arms.... i had the same problem. keep all 4 wheels on the ground when tightening all suspension components

 

That could be bad as well. you should really check the caliper bracket to knuckle bolts. The last one i heard say that same thing was a 97 ranger in the fleet I look after, he didn't say anything untill it got bad then he sheared off the bottom bolt and when it started it was a simple clunk when he started to reverse, and a simple fix turned into a nightmare. I hope that is not your problem!!!!