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Front end mystery clunk


PathyGig12
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48 minutes ago, PathyGig12 said:

The sway bushings don’t require taking off the end link. You just have to undo the brackets that support the middle of the bar and slip on the new bushings. 10 minute job

 

You’re right about the bearings, I think you’re hear them while turning. Maybe the strut mounts are more likely
 

 

Great! Guess I got a little project coming up this week. 
 

Will post back if it resolved the clunking or not.  
 

thanks 

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20 hours ago, PathyGig12 said:

The sway bushings don’t require taking off the end link. You just have to undo the brackets that support the middle of the bar and slip on the new bushings. 10 minute job

 

You’re right about the bearings, I think you’re hear them while turning. Maybe the strut mounts are more likely
 

 

Should I being soaking the bolts prior? Or do they come off relatively easy? 
 

Did you encounter any seized bolts? 

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1 hour ago, AR97Pathfinder said:

Should I being soaking the bolts prior? Or do they come off relatively easy? 
 

Did you encounter any seized bolts? 

For the sway brackets I think they came off pretty easy. They are 14mm I believe. 
 

But of course it’s always better to spray them down anyway just to be safe. Yours could be significantly more seized up than mine were 

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22 hours ago, PathyGig12 said:

For the sway brackets I think they came off pretty easy. They are 14mm I believe. 
 

But of course it’s always better to spray them down anyway just to be safe. Yours could be significantly more seized up than mine were 

So they were fairly easy to replace. Didn’t encounter any issues. Took about 45 minutes. The old ones were very bad. 
 

The clunking seems a lot better. However ever so often I still get a faint clunk when driving. 
 

more often going into driveways or parking lot entrances 

Edited by AR97Pathfinder
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So one thing I forgot to check which I went back to today was the front differential mount bushing. They were shot. 

I took a screwdriver to the busing, prying against the frame and I was easily able to move it back and forth. 

Had my dad check back the suspension and cv and he doesn’t think the noise is coming from any of those items. Thinking it’s the diff bushings. 

Now would this be able to clunk?
 

 

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2 hours ago, AR97Pathfinder said:
So one thing I forgot to check which I went back to today was the front differential mount bushing. They were shot. 

I took a screwdriver to the busing, prying against the frame and I was easily able to move it back and forth. 

Had my dad check back the suspension and cv and he doesn’t think the noise is coming from any of those items. Thinking it’s the diff bushings. 

Now would this be able to clunk?
 

 

Earlier in this thread we were talking about those exact bushings. Mine are shot as well but now that I fixed the ball joint I can see that the clunk is not coming from those. That’s not to say that yours couldn’t be from it, but I have my doubts. They would have to be more shot than mine, and mine are pretty bad.
 

Did you end up tightening the center nut on the struts yet? I still think your clunk could be strut mount related 

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1 hour ago, PathyGig12 said:

Earlier in this thread we were talking about those exact bushings. Mine are shot as well but now that I fixed the ball joint I can see that the clunk is not coming from those. That’s not to say that yours couldn’t be from it, but I have my doubts. They would have to be more shot than mine, and mine are pretty bad.
 

Did you end up tightening the center nut on the struts yet? I still think your clunk could be strut mount related 

Yeah I tried tightening. Wasn’t able to get it to go anymore. I’ll see if I can get my breaker bar or torque gun to get it a bit tighter. But when I used my 1/2in drive ratchet I wasn’t able to get it tighter. 
 

Funny, my dad also thinks it could be strut Mount related. But I asked him the same question wouldn’t it make noise more often or when turning. 
 

Mine does it almost always when going into driveways (like shopping centers with a sloped up entrance)  and not when turning the wheel. But when the lock is already made and the passenger wheel is already up on the driveways but then when the driver side makes it up you get the clunk. 
 

Then again randomly when driving over bumps down the road but at a much lower occurrence. 
 

Who knows at this point lol. 
 

But aside from that issue I’ve discovered one more. Some tranny fluid sweating from the middle of transfer case out of the two lower bolts. Guess I’ll start a new thread on that. But how do you post pics on here. I’d like to get a pic of it up. 
 

thanks man 

Edited by AR97Pathfinder
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2 hours ago, AR97Pathfinder said:

Yeah I tried tightening. Wasn’t able to get it to go anymore. I’ll see if I can get my breaker bar or torque gun to get it a bit tighter. But when I used my 1/2in drive ratchet I wasn’t able to get it tighter. 
 

Funny, my dad also thinks it could be strut Mount related. But I asked him the same question wouldn’t it make noise more often or when turning. 
 

Mine does it almost always when going into driveways (like shopping centers with a sloped up entrance)  and not when turning the wheel. But when the lock is already made and the passenger wheel is already up on the driveways but then when the driver side makes it up you get the clunk. 
 

Then again randomly when driving over bumps down the road but at a much lower occurrence. 
 

Who knows at this point lol. 
 

But aside from that issue I’ve discovered one more. Some tranny fluid sweating from the middle of transfer case out of the two lower bolts. Guess I’ll start a new thread on that. But how do you post pics on here. I’d like to get a pic of it up. 
 

thanks man 

Best way to upload pics is through Imgur. Just make an account and upload straight from your phone, then you can copy the link and paste it into your NPORA post.

 

As far as the strut mounts, I think the bearing would make noise while turning like you said, but the mount itself may not be so turning-dependent. 
 

The nut on top should have a torque spec of about 100 ft/lbs, so the best bet is to use a torque wrench on it. It’ll be roughly equivalent to the spec for the wheel lugs, so I’m not surprised you couldn’t get any movement with the ratchet. One thing you could do to test it is to try bouncing the corner of the truck while watching the top of the strut in the engine bay for looseness

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3 hours ago, PathyGig12 said:

Best way to upload pics is through Imgur. Just make an account and upload straight from your phone, then you can copy the link and paste it into your NPORA post.

 

As far as the strut mounts, I think the bearing would make noise while turning like you said, but the mount itself may not be so turning-dependent. 
 

The nut on top should have a torque spec of about 100 ft/lbs, so the best bet is to use a torque wrench on it. It’ll be roughly equivalent to the spec for the wheel lugs, so I’m not surprised you couldn’t get any movement with the ratchet. One thing you could do to test it is to try bouncing the corner of the truck while watching the top of the strut in the engine bay for looseness

Got the pic up on that thread, thanks for the help with that.

 

I'm not sure if your pathy year has a higher torque spec but I tightened mine down to about 40 lbs. Did that with both struts. The service manual for my year (1997) recommended 39 ft lbs. 

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1 hour ago, AR97Pathfinder said:

Got the pic up on that thread, thanks for the help with that.

 

I'm not sure if your pathy year has a higher torque spec but I tightened mine down to about 40 lbs. Did that with both struts. The service manual for my year (1997) recommended 39 ft lbs. 

hmmmm, that’s sounds like you’re talking about the 3 mounting nuts, because I know those are a significantly lower spec. I’ve always heard the main strut top nut was 100ft/lbs but I could be wrong?

 

Edit: Wow I feel like a dumbass. I was confusing the top nut with the bolts that mount the strut to the spindle! The top nut is supposed to be around 50. 
 

Anybody know if too tight could be bad for it? Ha

Edited by PathyGig12
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