my '05 liberty has a rattle underneath it in the rear axle area. when i fold the seats down, it REALLY gets loud. is there any common places this happens? i do not think its in the exhaust pipes, as it happens way to much. and what seems odd to me is it does not get louder with the size of the pot hole or bump. i did check the jack/ lug wrench, as that's the only thing in the interior of the vehicle. i guess at this point, the first thing i am going to check is the shock ends, to make sure all 4 of the dampener ends are ok, and that the fasteners are tight.
Tri-Link - Common undercarriage rattles?
- Thread starter XWrench3
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Ya check shock mounts, are shock bushings still in good shape? Maybe they are not tight?
Do you have a rear sway bar ? Check that for being tight as well.
Do you have a rear sway bar ? Check that for being tight as well.
yep, shock mounts were what i was expecting, but they all seemed ok. and yes, it does have a rear sway bar, and they are ok too. what is the big "boomerang" thing that holds the rear axle in place? the connections on that look pretty crusty. oh, and the lower rear control arms are new. they still have the Mopar sticker on them! so that's cool. how big of a job ir removing the boomerang link?
It called a Tri-link. Generally you will get a clunk going on if ball joint is bad, or bushings are shot.
I've never had to replace mine, there are some online how 2 vids, but Tom has done a few.
See this thread LOL. https://www.jeepkj.com/threads/tri-link-install.46732/
If you stand on the rear bumper & bounce it up & down, do you hear anything going clunk etc?
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I've never had to replace mine, there are some online how 2 vids, but Tom has done a few.
See this thread LOL. https://www.jeepkj.com/threads/tri-link-install.46732/
If you stand on the rear bumper & bounce it up & down, do you hear anything going clunk etc?
Doing10to20
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It is not hard to change the tri-link out, if you have a jack, jack stands, and tools. Impact wrench will help if you live in the rust belt.
It only really has 3 bolts holding it in place. From LibertyTC's picture, there are bolts going through the #2 bushings, then the #5 pinch bolt holding it to the axle. After you remove the pinch bolt, you can tap a metal chisel or a flat head screw driver in the gap to open it up to make it easier to remove.
It only really has 3 bolts holding it in place. From LibertyTC's picture, there are bolts going through the #2 bushings, then the #5 pinch bolt holding it to the axle. After you remove the pinch bolt, you can tap a metal chisel or a flat head screw driver in the gap to open it up to make it easier to remove.
To replace a Tri Link
remove the sway bar and JEEP balls, toss them, then remove the 3 bolts holding the tri link to the rear diff
remove the front 2 foreward bolts and remove the whole thing
That way you can easily get to the pinch bolt, and knock everything apart easily
Heard of way too many that tried to not remove that bracket and beat their brains out
ALSO be very careful if you try and spread that one part apart like mentioned above, have received many calls looking for a new bracket after breaking theirs
At 300 a pop they get expensive, reason I never do that
remove the sway bar and JEEP balls, toss them, then remove the 3 bolts holding the tri link to the rear diff
remove the front 2 foreward bolts and remove the whole thing
That way you can easily get to the pinch bolt, and knock everything apart easily
Heard of way too many that tried to not remove that bracket and beat their brains out
ALSO be very careful if you try and spread that one part apart like mentioned above, have received many calls looking for a new bracket after breaking theirs
At 300 a pop they get expensive, reason I never do that
The only rattle I've had from the rear of mine was the flipper glass latch. Sprayed some WD40 in it and it shut up right away.
JEEP balls??? do you mean the 2 huge roller looking things on the gearcase by the driveshaft?
Yes on the rear diff
Few weeks back I counted up, I have 23 Jeep balls and 31 rear sway bars
someday will need to load all that up and get rid of it
Big Al
Let's get Cracken
Heard that the park brake shoes delaminate from the backing plate, that may rattle if they came un done.
Was going to check my park brake shoes a few weeks ago when I installed my snow tires, but ran out of time.
I have rotors and calipers on the rear for rear brakes and I know some models don't.
Was going to check my park brake shoes a few weeks ago when I installed my snow tires, but ran out of time.
I have rotors and calipers on the rear for rear brakes and I know some models don't.
Tom is correct, care must be taken not to break the pinch bolt bracket.
so the "Jeep balls" are there to reduce driveshaft vibrations, right? i think that was what they said about a similar item on a Cadillac my dad used to have.
and about the sway bars, i am not a serious off roader, but i have looked thru a few off roader type magazines. serious guys remove sway bars in order to let each wheel move much easier for things like rock crawling and going over large obstacles, right? i think for my driving, i will keep the sway bars. if i want to go serious off road i have an atv quad bike that has true 4 wheel independent suspension, a locked rear axle, with a locker on the front axle for true 4 (or all) wheel drive. its not fast, but it will go more places than i want to go.
and about the sway bars, i am not a serious off roader, but i have looked thru a few off roader type magazines. serious guys remove sway bars in order to let each wheel move much easier for things like rock crawling and going over large obstacles, right? i think for my driving, i will keep the sway bars. if i want to go serious off road i have an atv quad bike that has true 4 wheel independent suspension, a locked rear axle, with a locker on the front axle for true 4 (or all) wheel drive. its not fast, but it will go more places than i want to go.
02s have drum brakes in the rear, from there on they are disc in the rear
REAL SWAY BAR attaches to the suspension/rear diff and also body
Ours does not, will not hurt a thing
99% of the lifts I have done the sway bar was attached and could not even tell it
worthless hunk of metal
