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Nasty clunking


navygz19
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Hey all. I've been noticing more and more a horrible clunking coming from the front (drivers side) when I turn the wheel, pretty much to full lock in forward/reverse. It seemed to start happening recently after Tropical Storm Ernesto flooded a lot of streets and I was in a lot of water that day. Bushings? Struts?. The struts are on the list for replacement, as are the tires.

When I'm driving off road I can also feel that clunking in the steering wheel...don't really know enough about suspension to make a diagnosis.

Help? Thanks a lot! :aok:

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My guess is ball joints. In my pathy it happened mostly when the wheel was turned to the left, or when going straight down the highway and hitting a bump. It's pretty easy to check the ball joints.

 

Lift up the driver's side front wheel (you can leave the tire on, but it is easier when it's off), grab the rotor/hub assembly and see if you can wobble it top to bottom (in relation to the truck. You should be wobbling it as if you were trying to pull the top/ bottom of the tire out away from the truck. I can't think to describe it better than that right now :D). If there is play then the ball joint is worn. If it is worn get both sides done at once, since they tend to go around the same time.

 

That's my guess, see what others have to say.

 

Adam

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cv joint...would be described as a nasty clunking noise. have a look se at your boots/joint and rst of the half shaft to see its condition

Did that, they look alright to me, no tears or anything.

My Pathy's only got 65K on it...isn't that a little soon for ball joints to be going? I hardly ever wheel it either because there's no place to go. Those are expensive aren't they...geez...holiday's are coming up, yikes :o

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My guess is ball joints. In my pathy it happened mostly when the wheel was turned to the left, or when going straight down the highway and hitting a bump. It's pretty easy to check the ball joints.

 

Lift up the driver's side front wheel (you can leave the tire on, but it is easier when it's off), grab the rotor/hub assembly and see if you can wobble it top to bottom (in relation to the truck. You should be wobbling it as if you were trying to pull the top/ bottom of the tire out away from the truck. I can't think to describe it better than that right now :D). If there is play then the ball joint is worn. If it is worn get both sides done at once, since they tend to go around the same time.

 

That's my guess, see what others have to say.

 

Adam

I'll give this a shot and post what I find. Thanks!

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Ok I tried that yesterday, no such luck with finding it loose. However, I removed my AC skid yesterday (which is a PITA to do by yourself) and threw on some anti-seize compund on the 4 bolts (which are not galvanized so they're rusting pretty bad) I put the skid back on again and didn't quite tourque down the bolts as much and today, I haven't duplicated the clunking. Maybe the skid was binding on the subframe? I mean, I first started to notice it after that torrential rainstorm, which subsequently submerged the skid for an entire day. :confused: :confused:

We'll see...

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