FOUND IT! Post lift clunking and knocking.

I'm 5100s on OME springs. Again, drove into work today with zero clunks. About 15 miles on various types of pavement. But last night I tried a gravel road and it sounded like my trunk was coming apart.

 

well I've ordered a few parts to assemble my stock OR bilstein shocks to try. We'll see if its something in the shock assembly.

 

I'm starting to think it could be the actual shock or upper shock mount.

 

I didn'tread through all of the pages, so someone might have mentioned this already.

Always tighten/torque suspension components, when the vehicle's suspenion is at its normal ride height. Otherwise A LOT of popping will soon follow.

Especially with the oem leaf spring bushings. As the bolt sleeves have what best I can describe as "spiked" ends. They will definitely need to be in their normal ride height position before fully tightening.

 

No pictures of the leaf spring bushing, but I updated the OP with the info. Tried to keep it more concise because nobody's reading my super long update posts, haha.

 

I'm there too. I suspect maybe the spring is chattering or the strut head is rattling in the tower. I'm putting that ES spring buffer on this weekend.

 

I will be pulling the LCA tomorrow and tacking the bushing in place tomorrow, if weather permits. I'll let y'all know how that goes.

Weezy: how did the ecgs bushing go? I was reading in another category that you ran into a problem.

 

Just noticed my driver side swaybar endlink has a nice bend in it. I honestly haven't heard a clunk in 2 days of driving on pavement. About to go give it another try on rough gravel.

I did order Moog replacement endlinks. They appear to be the correct size but are different. One came with grease fittings installed. The other did not and I'm having a hell of a time getting one of the fittings installed. Seems like the hole isn't threaded or something.

 

Weird. Same model number on the boxes?

 

ECGS bushing and lower ball joint went well considering it was my first time doing either, and I was going at it solo. The bad vibes I got after install and initial test drive was because I'm and idiot who didn't seat his rim correctly. D'oh!

Moog doesn't seem to like threading their grease fitting holes. The lower ball joint I put in had the same issue and it was a HUGE PITA.

 

Good to hear. So you put your order in for the rear leaf bushing. Once they come in it would be an easy fix.

 

What did you use to press out/in the balljoint? I'm wondering if I need to go that route.

Is there a good way to test the balljoints? I've tried jacking up the front end and trying to see if there is any movement by prying on the tire, shaking it, etc.. Seems solid.

 

Actually got them in last night and had a window of opportunity this afternoon, so I did the driver's side. Helps with the clunking a lot. I think my issue isn't due to 1 factor. My leaves are still shifting, and I know for sure now because they've pushed out the bike inner tubes that I put in between them!

The old bushing has rust spots on the metal sleeves, and it was cake to press out so I'm not surprised the leaf pack was shifting on it.

I used the 23 piece ball joint press set from Advance Auto Parts (loaner tool). They had the right combo of adapters to do our lower ball joints. When I tried the traditional wheel movement test, everything felt solid. It wasn't until I got the piece that bolts to the spindle (2 19mm bolts) and to the lower ball joint (1 castle nut) off that I could feel how easy it was to move the old ball joint. Compared to the new one, it was "flimsy". I just changed mine out because this clunk is driving me bananas. FWIW, I pressed my old ones out and new ones in with hand tools. Didn't need an impact wrench on the press like some people like to do.

 

Okay so I'm happy to say I fixed it. I got new top hats, bushings and washers and put in my OEM shocks in. I added a 3/4" poly preload spacer (goes in place of the isolator = 1" lift) Then a 1/2" top plate spacer to at least give some lift in it. Now it is quiet and smooth again. I'm super stoked that's what it was. It actually rides pretty good seeing as the shocks only had about 4K mi on them when I replaced them with 5100's. I lost about 3/4" of lift. I went from 2.5" to 1.75". It's really only a temp solution as I will get another set of 5100's or maybe shell out some $$$ and get some Icons or Fox coilovers? Loving the quiet cush again. I went over the infamous dip that always caused a clank the last year or so 6 times and it never made a sound just cushhhhhhh! Love it.

 

Good to hear you fixed it!

 

Thanks Bud. It's really satisfying to fix something like this DIY. I was fearing the worst and wasn't too confident that was it.

 

Left and right are different part numbers.

 

Here is what my stock driver's side endlink looks like. A little bent huh? I'm actually convinced the clunk I had was a combination of bent endlink and swaybar hitting coils plus loose cambolts. I drove over a nasty gravel road yesterday with no noise.

 

How did that get bent. That would take a big hit to do that. I like those Moog end links especially since they're greasable. Yea sounds like your good to go. If the LCA cam bolts are not torqued to 100+ you can get noise. That helped but didn't cure mine.

 

Anything wrong with driving around the neighborhood with the rear shocks disconnected from the top mounts?

I got under the truck and shifted it side-to-side by grabbing the spare tire and got it to knock. I think the OME Nitrochargers are too big for the bottom shock mounts. Mine's a 2014 and I thought only the 2015s had this problem, but the clearance is VERY minimal.