Tacoma rear suspension clunk GONE!

Hey guys I know this has been gone over a lot, however I have read a ton of threads none of which pointed me toward the issue I found. I had the notorious clunk in the rear suspension while flexing. Clunking would happen while going over curbs at low speeds at and angle causing the suspension to flex. I checked, shocks, bed bolts, cab bolt, spare tire, checked u-joints for the driveshaft, torqued every bolt under the truck in the rear end, i even checked the fuel tank to make sure it was not loose and still couldn't find it. I have the new springs after the recall and thought for sure it was not the springs themselves but maybe the bushings.

The noise drove me insane to the point of removing my spare tire, shocks, and leaf springs. I took apart my leaf springs, cleaned them and reassemble ensuring every bolt was torqued to spec perfectly.

My situation that I found was a couple of issues.
1. I had an AAL - this was causing the leafs to slightly shift and rub on the isolation brackets



After finding this I aligned all the leafs and brackets properly before tightening and
re-installing. afterwards the clunk was gone... temporarily...

I heard the clunk and again while going over a slanted curb, I got out of the truck and shook bed side to side and was finally able to pin-point the noise.

2. In the front of the leaf spring the leafs shift back and forth causing a "clunk sound" for the sake of science I placed a clamp on where I thought the noise was coming from. After a test drive the CLUNKING WAS GONE! I know this may not be a permanent fix due to losing some travel and the springs not working entirely as they should but the clunk s gone. Again this is not a permanent fix but I wanted to post this to help you identify it if you have this problem.


Here is the final result.

Happy Hunting!

 

Your wife can't bitch at you if you shove a potato in her mouth, but probably not the path to take for silence.