So my son's 87 Cherokee 2 Door is always awesome... totally Stock with 235's. 4.0 /AW4/231

Been a longstanding issue that seems to be worsening.

Whenever there is more than one passenger, weight in the cargo area or the suspension gets loaded from hard cornering to the left or bottom of long hill, there is a sound that you can feel under the Console.

It is not subtle and goes with wheels / driveshaft peed... what it FEELS like is the rear yoke of the Transfer case or rear Driveshaft front joint is hitting the floor under the console and it is a sharp and distinctive thump that you can feel strongly.

I replaced both rear joints and the transmission mount (the latter being sorely needed!) and cannot see where anything is making contact underneath. There are no markings on shift linkages, floorboards or yokes. Nothing seems close enough to do it.. any ideas would be appreciated.

Is there a separate Transfer Case support that I might be missing? When I power Brake, it does not seem to move the T/C much either. I know often on the Wagoneers there is a transfer case "stud> with a coupe if rubber bushings that keeps the T/C from torqing out of position.

Any ideas?

 

How worn out are the leaf springs? It could maybe be the shackle hitting the bucket (since you mentioned it usually only happens with extra weight in the vehicle)

 

^^^ My first thought too. Possible sway bar bushings as well.

Time to go look at the rear end

 

Thanks for the ideas.

The Springs seem pretty solid and, though there may be some sag under load, the noise is a rotational noise that mirrors increases/decreases in speed.

You can literally feel something thumping the underside of the floor which and is not like a random "bump" in the suspension/sway bar.

Imagine a ceiling fan badly out of balance hitting the underside of your car and mirroring driveshaft speed.

Of course, this may be happening because the springs are weak, but it doesn't seem like they are sagging as I have seen other XJ's do.

I will measure to make sure that the driver and passenger sides are even, which I have not done yet.

Have a great week

 

Did you find out your problem? I changed the rear diff, transfercase and rear driveshaft, still have the noise of a driveshaft hitting the floor. Grrrr

 

Hey Man, I am SO SORRY I did not return here to post up with the issue was. This is one of those ran everything down, finally took it to a Jeep dealer buddy... no one could figure it out.

Then I noticed a bare, shiny spot on my passenger side E Brake cable. Honestly I do not remember what was missing from it or exactly what it was hitting, but I just know that I happened to notice it when Off-Roading in Ouray and once I zip tied it up NO PROBLEMS!

It seems like it was hitting on the rear end input yoke, but only when there was a heavy load or passengers in the car (or off-roading with a lot of off-camber stuff.) I got back to a Salvage Yard in Denver, got some sort of wire clip, I believe (no charge other than the $1 to get in) and have never had another problem since.

Hope this helps someone as it drove me nuts for over a year!