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Weird clunk after suspension install


Zero
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Hey guys, I've got a weird clunk in my front end ever since I did my lift and suspension install a few weeks ago and I can't seem to track down where the noise originates from.

I installed AC Springs, new shocks, new ball joints, new drive axles, new swaybar end links. Everything seems to be tight.

 

When I hit a bump or pothole or the suspension has to do its job, there's a clunk that reminds me of the sound a bad ball joint makes. It's on both sides sides of the truck, not just one side, and it's definitely coming from the suspension somewhere. Any ideas where I should be looking for this mystery sound?

 

 

For those of you that installed AC or OME springs, did you have any quirky stuff happen afterward? Was your front suspension insanely stiff or did it make any weird popping or clunking sounds?

 

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I did not replace the mounts for the strut assembly, no. I assume that's the bearing you're referring to.

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Away bar bushings as well. Heck remove the sway bars completely to see if it eliminates it. Check your front control arm bushings.

 

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Away bar bushings as well. Heck remove the sway bars completely to see if it eliminates it. Check your front control arm bushings.

 

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Control arm bushings look fine. Remove the sway bar? Don't I need that?

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Think I can just unhook it, or should I completely remove it? Looks like it would be a pain to remove completely.

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Ok I'll disconnect the sway bar and see if that helps. I'll keep you guys informed

 

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Wouldn't disconnect it...the ends are just going to hit the strut or LCA. You could remove it, but I think you'd be fine just tightening up the links. If you remove it, it's a good time to check out the sway bar bushings...mine also wore thin and caused a little screech and tap at times, but also allowed the bar to shift a little to one side and allow metal-metal contact.

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Hey all, for what it's worth, I recently serviced my struts and after I reassembled them, I noticed a popping sound coming from the left strut.

 

I suspected that I had not tightened the swaybar links enough, but after having a friend listen for the source of the popping while I pushed up and down on the bumper, we found that the source of the popping sound came from the top of the strut. Apparently during reassembly, I had not fully tightened the 17mm nut on the top of the strut, allowing the strut rod to wiggle up and down slightly on the mount.

 

This was hard to diagnose because the strut nut is concealed by a dust boot. Even with the dust boot removed, the nut was not so loose that you could see movement during suspension cycling, but it was just loose enough to cause a slight clunk.

 

Sooo, check the tightness of the strut nuts and crank 'em down if they're loose.

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My plan is to put jackstands under the front crossmember and wiggle the suspension components individually. The clunk is sometimes pretty loud and when I turn to the left I can feel the right wheel shimmy around. Feels totally unsafe

 

 

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Verify that the struts were reassembled properly. The top and bottom spring seats must be properly aligned when the strut is reassembled. There is a V-notch in both the upper and lower spring seats, and they need to both be facing inboard (back side of the strut). Double-check that all bolts are tight.

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XPLORx4 may be onto something. Trying torquing the strut rod nut to spec (43-58 ft-lbs) now that the truck is resting on the spring. I can see that if that's loose (perhaps the spring compressors weren't compressing the spring enough during reinstall?), it would create a small gap that would only be exposed during a bump.

 

Was the strut mount 'keyed' to the strut rod? There's a flat spot on the rod to correspond with the flat spot on the integrated bushing of the strut mount.

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I'm not sure what you mean by keyed. Can you elaborate?

 

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The strut rod has a flat spot. To make it look like a D. Which the strut mount then has a corresponding hole to match it. Which clocks the mounting holes.

Kinda hard to mess up.

 

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Yeah, it does take effort to mess up, no doubt...but, if the bumpstop is on the strut rod already and blocking the view, and maybe not watching the keyed part and quickly getting the nut on...who knows. The threaded part may actually be too short to allow this, too. Just throwing it out there, though since it'd be a bad scenario.

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Snapped a few shots of the strut. Does this look right?

 

Top nut is good and tight, torqued to about 110ftlb.

 

7c08b7d08eaf7a87abdbc93515ac1d30.jpg

5dc652c89ea29fa4570cf27cd41787e8.jpg

 

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Both look wrong. See XPLORx4's note about the V-notch on the upper spring perch. Both look like the perches needs to be rotated about 90 degs. Top nut at 110 ft-lbs is way over-torqued. I provided the spec'd range earlier.

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Both look wrong. See XPLORx4's note about the V-notch on the upper spring perch. Both look like the perches needs to be rotated about 90 degs. Top nut at 110 ft-lbs is way over-torqued. I provided the spec'd range earlier.

I torqued them down thinking they might be loose. I just set my torque wrench high. I will back them down.

 

Much of the noise and loose feeling was a bad wheel bearing. I replaced it and it's much better. Still need to adjust the spring perches though. They're such a pain to get in and out that I'm going to try to spin them while they're still under the truck. Not sure if that will work though.

 

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