My Front end clunk found, Finally.

I've had a intermittent front end clunk for a while now, mostly going over speed bumps aggressively. Only have 28K miles on the clock so I feel all rubber should still be good.
I did put a lift / spacer block on top of the strut assembly a while back.

Anyways, long story short, it was my lower shock/strut bolt was to tight.
I backed it off a bit and no more clunk.

I hope this can help someone else out..

This was a tough one to find for me.

Dan

 

How would that being too tight cause a clunk in the front end?

 

Beat me to it

 

How did you find it to be that?

 

I was able to pin the clink down to the strut by holding my hand on it while it was jacked up and I could clearly feel the clunk, clunk, clunk just before the tires came off the ground..
I pulled the strut and removed the spring and cleaned / greased every contact point.
Double checked the action of just the bare shock and it was still like new.
Reinstalled everything and the f###ing clunk was still there.

The final thing to do was to back off on the lower large shock nut and the clunk was finally gone. I used a impact to install it in the past.

I don't know why, but for some reason when the lower bolt/nut was over torqued is caused a bind in the joint.

I just wonder if this could be what others are fighting with after a lift.

 

Interesting but I would keep an eye on that nut to make sure that it doesn't back off too much on you. I would go get a tq. wrench to be sure and maybe some loctite.

 

And I believe it's torqued to 34

 

Thank you,
You're 100% correct.
I already locked it down and need to put a tq on it, i'm guessing i'm around 30 or so right now.
No more 80-100 from my impact gun.

 

Unless I am mistaken, that bolt should be tight enough that the serrated spacer bites into the two steel ears and never slips.

All motion should be from flexure of the rubber.

This is a constant characteristic of the "silent block" or torsilastic bushing type suspension. The metal is not supposed to slip against metal when things move. There are no greased pivots like my '47 Plymouth. It's just flexing rubber.

Those shocks must be tightened with the weight on the front end, NOT up on the jack.

That's probably why you developed a clunk.

Too much pressure on the rubber caused the sleeve to slip against the ears, ruining the bite of the serrations.

Thereafter it will slip & clunk whenever you approach full suspension pressure/travel.

 

Great info here, thanks.
BTW, I did tighten it up while still in the air which now makes sense to me.
Thank you...

 

Good thing it was a simple fix and you didnt have to replace anything!

 

Agree. Torque most suspension fasteners when truck is on it's own weight. Same goes for UCA bolts, LCA bolts, shock bolts, Leaf springs etc. Only exception I can think of is when poly bushings are used.