Suspension knock

[jeeptorino68]

Ok, so all was well before a ~150mile gravel/offroad camping trip. Now clunking from what seems to sound like the passenger side. When hitting most any kind of bump.
2002 3.7 with ironman lift. The lift was used. And my jeep has 220k on it.

I searched and found sway bar bushings to be most common, so I disconnected the bar and That seemed to stop the noise. So I got all new sway bar bushings. But the noise was back.

Tonight I took apart the passenger front suspension. Didnt find anything odd. The 5l4 upper shock bolts were tight. Ball joints tight, no play. Caliper is on tight and backing plate. Clevis fork bolts were tight. The shock stud nut took maybe an 1/8 to 1/4 turn otherwise all looked good.

Any ideas? Or other places to look.

 

[Aceofspades]

I went through a couple sets of end links until I found out they had to be really tight. Tighter then what I originally torqued to them which I believed was to “spec”

 

[jeeptorino68]

I guess I can,give that a shot. I'll see if I can fit my torque wrench in there

 

[rjkj2005]

Look for rub marks inside the lower control arm mount pockets. If you can see where the rubber bushings have been making Mark's then the lca bushings are bad. If so the lca is moving forward and backwards. This moves the spring into contact with the upper control arm during braking and acceleration causing a clunking sound.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

 

[jeeptorino68]

I will check that too. The lower arms look original. The uppers were reolaced at some point I think. They are stamped TRW

 

[dude1116]

I'm definitely going with end links. Check the bolts. For some reason, my bolts got messed up (stretched out maybe?). It was to the point where I could wiggle the links by hand when the weight of the Jeep was on the ground. Yet I couldn't tighten them. Replaced the bolts (and the links) and no more clunks!

 

[jeeptorino68]

Looks like it is the bushings on the lower control arms. I can see marks in the control arm pockets where they have been shifting forward and back and making contact.

Looks like replacement arms are needed

 

[jeeptorino68]

Still having the noise. I have not replaced anything still yet since my last post. Any way to tell if the front shock top plates are worn out while installed? Control arms are spendy so I want to replace the right parts...

 

[JasonJ]

Still having the noise. I have not replaced anything still yet since my last post. Any way to tell if the front shock top plates are worn out while installed? Control arms are spendy so I want to replace the right parts...

You mean the shock/coilover mounts? Not while installed, to my knowledge. If you disassembled the shock, you could see if the rubber isolators and spring seats were soft, worn, or otherwise degraded.

If the knock is there at low speed, like just backing up and moving forward a few feet in the driveway- the sound occurring when you hit the brake - perhaps someone can do that while you look under it from a safe distance, see if you can notice the LCA or shock moving in an unnatural way.

If it were me, and I still suspected the LCA's, I'd go with this:

https://www.am-autoparts.com/products/front-control-arms/AM-12961405.html?m=876&y=2003

I've ordered a ton of parts from AM auto, and the shipping is free, the parts have always been OE quality. I'm running their front shock top mounts and spring seats now.

Or this one with new lower ball joints:

https://www.am-autoparts.com/products/front-control-arms/AM-3402009445.html?m=876&y=2003