Alright, well i have a 2000 Cherokee Limited, i recently bought it, it has a 4.5" Rubicon Express Lift, Currie Heavy Duty Tie Rods/Steering, Rubicon Extendable track bar, and Quick way bar discos in the front end.

Well the reason i am giving the info on the front end is due to a loud knock/bump/pop sound that is coming from the front end. The noise occurs when turning to the left while accelerating or moving around 10-20mph and so on. It also occurs if i take the steering wheel and turn left to right in a sharp pattern continously.... well have been trying to get at this problem for a week now.... the noise and overall knock of it is felt in the floor board on the driver side, and i have checked both wheel bearing, and all universal joints, nothing is loose in the front end that i have been able to check.... but i am really needing help, this is my DD and need it fixed in a hurry...

Thanks yall,

 

Sway bar/sway bar links - grab the bar and shake it. make sure theres no play. grab links and make sure theyre nice and tight.

check the ball joints too.. theyll make a poppin noise

 

Oh yeah, i ment to put today that i just replaced the swaybar bushings in the front end also, because i figured that it may be the problem, and i took the whole sway bar out to eliminate the problem but i still occured, so that tells me that the sway bar isnt whats making the sound. Could the ball joints be the problem, because it only happens ever once in a while when turning, it just seems to me that it would happen all the time if it was a ball joint... But i will check that for sure! Is there any tips on how to check them to see if they have gone bad? and any other suggestions???

 

To check your ball joints your going to want to jack it up on stands and get a big pry bar or other long instrument at least 4 ft long. Put it under the tire and pry up and down then side to side it will help to have a buddy do this while you look at the actual ball joint for any movement. if there is any then it's bad. (when you jack up your jeep put it under the lower control arm to unload the springs).

 

The first thing I would do is make sure all of the steering sector bolts are there and tight. Then I would check the unibody around the mounting holes for cracks or signs or stressed metal.

 

i had that same issue on my truck awhile back, turned out to be the draglink bushing was shot, replaced the link and the issue cleared right up.

 

I had the same problem and it was coming from my track bar where it mounts to the frame. I tightened it up and it stopped.

 

Well now I was pulling into a parking lot this morning and heard the pop again. Now everytime I turn the wheel fast left and right it will make two loud pops/bumps. I sounds to me like its coming from the steering box almost. This problem is so annoying. I hope that it is something simpler than a steering box. Any suggestions on how to check if the steering box is making the sound....and if so how to fix it/tighten it up?

Thanks y'all.....

 

My 93 XJ with a 3.5 RE lift does this exact thing. My track bar is whats making the pop on mine. The RE track bar has a real *****y heim joint and they are hard to see unless you un-bolt it. The ball that rotates inside the end link has play in it.

 

Make shure your sway bar quick disconect pins are not hitting the steering linkage. mine were, and i have the same lift kit.

 

Don't know if you have the same problem I had but in my previous '98 XJ it did the same thing but I did not have a lift kit and it only did it when I had my wheel fully turned and drove slowly. Never solved the problem because the Jeep was wrecked before it could be fixedI'm guessing it was either the joint but I'm not sure

In my current XJ I have a knocking noise coming from the passenger side front end. I realized that it stops when I apply my brake, so I put 1 and 1 together and realized my caliper/rotor was loose. If you can find out if it stops doing it when you brake than you probably have the same problem as I do, just tighten your rotor/caliper. Hope this helped

 

Well I found out what the problem is, I was underneath the Jeep looking around when I notticed that the trachea bar was a little looser then it was the last time I checked it. So I got out the wrenches and went to tighten the bolt and wat do you know, the bolt was completely broken off in the bushing. So it was wedged in the housing and still functional but was loose as hell. But I just replaced the bolt and it was fixed! No pop sound. Nothing. Simple fix!

 

Glad to hear you got it fixed.

 

I too "Fixed" my knocking problem. Turns out my spindle on the right side is stripped on the bottom bolt. The front threads are stripped but the ones back more are still good, so we just put in a longer bolt for a temporary fix. When I get my brakes replaced I'm having the spindle either re-threaded or replaced.

 

Evanfordsp,

I've got the same symptoms you had - something can be felt through driver's floor when steering clunks.

I'm guessing where you mention "trachea bar" above that this forum or your e-mail client automatically corrected a word it didn't recognize but inserted completely the wrong word. I too have a sheared bolt but I don't know if the component I'm looking at is the same as yours or not. The component could be loosely described as a plate that's situated on the underside of the vehicle kind of below the front doors and runs along the length of the vehicle. It has two fixed nuts in the two corners nearest the front of the car. One has the threads of the bolt sticking out 1/2" but the other has sheared off inside the nut.

Is this describing the same component as you fixed? If so, how did you replace the sheared bolt? Do you have to drop the entire plate? If so, how did you do that?

Thanks a lot.

Jason.