Johnny1217

I installed the RE1600 track bar, and everything went peachy, and I even replaced all the original mount bolts. Problem now is, I get this violent CLUNK when I turn the wheel, sometimes worse than others. I figured out that the bolt on the lower end is working its way out of the hole on the axle mount. So how the hell do I fix this? The hole is all dinged up, and stretched when I remove the bolt and washer on the lower mount.

Help me! It's my DD and I need to drive!

Ps: I replaced the nut and bolt on the lower mount as well with a grade 8 of the same size, 2 washers, and an aviation nut (so it wouldn't come loose.)

Any help is greatly appreciated!

x91j

re check all bolts they have to be supppper tight

xjoffroad

something is not tight enough. retorque everything again

Johnny1217

I torqued everything down as tight as I could by hand and Hit it with an impact gun, should I get under there with the gun again and hit it all? The lower bolt is definitely the problem, because I replaced the grade 5 bolt with the grade 8 that's in there now and it stopped making the noise for a while but it started again after I had to stop short. (some idiot decided to stop from 40 to 0 in the middle of my lane to turn right into a gas station with absolutely no notice)

xjoffroad

so you have not torqued the bolts to spec? you have just done is buy hand and impact gun?

warthog

Is it an adjustable track bar and did you torque down the jam nut?

Johnny1217

no no the track bar bolts are all to spec, the bolts that are not are the ones that I replaced on the orig. mount.

x91j

u sure u didnt strip something out when you hit it with the impact

wildspear

Try re-tapping that problem hole. It may have been messed up.

Johnny1217

the problem with that hole is that the track bar's hole is smaller than the orig. mount on the truck. So now the bolt moves back and forth in the mount stretching the hole.

(^ This all regards the axle mount end of the track bar)

Thanks a ton to everyone who replied, I really needed the help on this one.

Johnny1217

OKAY new development, so I just got back from tightening everything up and now it sounds as if the clunk is coming from the upper mount, the lower mount's bolt is incredibly tight so now all I can think of is the upper mount, problem here is that I'm afraid to tighten this too much and wear out the upper mount. Should I just hit a junkyard today and get a new mount?

Johnny1217

FIXED. Upper mount was the culprit, it was just the timing, i fix the lower mount and then the upper loosened and I was so fixated on the lower I didn't even think about it.

Thanks to everyone who helped me find this out!

Johnny1217

Nevermind, the upper mount is the culprit now. The bolt in the lower mount is so tight that it actually fixed it (Hooray aviation nuts!) but now the upper mount is the culprit! Can i just get this mount out of my local JY? Is there any difference b/w the -97 and 97+ track bar upper mount?