Popping Front Suspension after Long Travel Install - Solved

Here's a video of a knock / pop sound I'm hearing when turning right (easier to get the pop / knock turning right, but occasionally it will happen at other times including turning left and going straight). I left the camera on all four LCA bolts to see what was happening on each one and this video came out the best. I will try to get better video of other places, but for the meantime this is me driving in an oval parking lot at low speeds.

The kit has all brand new upper and lower uniballs and fabbed LCA's and UCA's.

So far I have:

Greased uniballs with Tri-Flow

Torqued UCA and LCA bolts, tie rod ends, and pretty much everything else to spec.

Greased the LCA and UCA bushings at all of the zerks (a lot).

The only thing I can think of at this point is that the LCA bushings came assembled with out grease and we did not pull the metal sleeves out to grease them before installing. I don't know if the grease I'm putting in through the zerks would reach in between the sleeves and the bushings or if there could be binding in that location. Anyone that can answer that question could possibly save me a lot of work since I think the next step might have to be pull the LCA's to inspect the bushings

We had pulled the sleeves out of the UCA bushings because we used them to measure for shock tower double shear gussets. I'm pretty sure they were greased when being put back in (I paid someone to do it - I was just watching w/ little to no prior experience so I'm not sure).

The pop happens about half way to 1/3 of the way through the turn and pops back with a duller or snappier pop depending on which direction the wheel is going in. You're looking at the passenger side front LCA bushing. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thank you.

 

Maybe steering rack bushings? Love to see some pics of custom upper/lowers
Good luck!!

 

Sounds a lot like mine when I got new wheels and tires on. @GHOST SHIP mentioned torquing the alignment cams bolts. Bam! Did the job. Brought it back to the place where I had the alignment done so they could tweak them. No more pop.
Hope it's as easy for you too.
Good luck.

 

Thank you. I'm up to 120ft*lbs on those and spec was 100ft*lbs. I'm not sure that tightening them any more will do any good. I'm glad to hear it worked for you and it seems like it could be them. That's why I think I may have to pull them out and inspect the bushings. Thanks again!

 

Thank you. Here you go. I don't know if it would be the bushings since there was no noise like this right before I put on the kit. I'll look into it though.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/anthony-y-el-burrito-blanco.372728/page-5#post-14091360

 

You may want to pull the cam bolts and check for rust also. You'd be surprised how bad they rust even in SoCal. Sometimes early rusting inside the bushing sleeve will cause the notorious clunk as the two metals will now have some grit between them. I pulled mine when I welded my alignment tabs and greased them inside and out as a preventative measure.

Edit: looking at your video of what looks like the LCA bushing, this might not be the source of the clunk. Try taking a video with a wider shot so you you see what, if anything, is moving.

 

Looking at the video I really don't think its your LCA's. I'm not seeing any movement in the bushings or the LCA's themselves during the knock. I'd almost say either something in your coilovers, or your steering rack. Are you going lock to lock in the video?

See if you can get a video of the full suspension and do the same thing, just to see if there's any vibration in any one part during the rotations.


Another thought, how are your wheel bearings? That kinda sounds like mine. Grab the top of your tire and push and pull on it pretty hard, enough to start shaking the truck. If the bearing are going bad the way one of mine was, when the truck is going back and forth a bit you'll hear a knock/clunk coming from the wheel hub.

 

I've found a lot of info on LCA's with bad bushings and videos that recreate the same sounds under the same conditions, and I've had no such problems before installing the kit. In fact before the guy went agro on my truck at a nearby Firestone nothing was knocking in the turning radius as far as I can remember. I'll check the wheel bearings. This is the perfect time for long weekend lol.

That said I will try to get a wider angle this weekend with more time and better weather to be doing it in. I'm guessing I'm going to have to tear the front end apart if the next set of videos doesn't come up with anything conclusive - bummer because I spent a good deal of money on this kit and then to have it installed right as per forum suggestions with gussets all around by a member with a good rep, but I guess that goes with the mods territory. I just want another truck to dd while I mess with this one or I might buy a 4x4 and swap over parts and sell this one.

 

@jjsul Does it sound like this?
(go to OP)

 

I finally got around to taking off the kit today since I'm keeping my first gen and selling this truck. Found the culprit - a stretched, mushroomed, all around beat up alignment bolt. Here it is after I filed the threads down so it would fit back through alignment washer. The threads were significantly larger in the transition to the small diameter to the larger diameter and even after I filed them down, they gave me more trouble having to be punched out with a brass punch.








I don't know if it was from driving 80 miles home with a farm alignment from the guy that installed my kit or the cave troll tech at a Firestone that was throwing a fit (yelling obscenities in front of customers, mad dogging me, etc. ) when he couldn't get my truck in spec. The steering extensions were too long for my truck due to it's light weight paired with the coilovers that gave it enough lift to affect the tie rod angle. Instead of calmly figure this out I'm thinking this guy might have pushed the poor cams to their limit, causing this damage. One thing is for sure, I'm glad to know it wasn't a part of the kit - gonna be selling it for some first gen funds

 

Those threads wouldn't have caused that

 

They were fubared enough that I could pull it in and out of the washer three eighths of an inch - he must have killed that bolt and then it could go forward and backward up until the point where the threads were too big to make it through the washer. I could feel the truck give a little each time I rolled into a parking block on that side too - there was definite play in that side somewhere. When unscrewing it before I filed down the threads it would go forward until it hit the mushroomed threads. Then it would pop back about an eighth of an inch, but I could pull it another quarter to three eighths back once it did that. Much bogusness

The rear bolt was beat against the side of the slot enough to bury the threads in to the cam tab gusset and I had to pry the rear front washer out with a pry bar / chisel, but they weren't stripped. Either way it was definitely a red flag

At least it's all behind me now - I'm going to clearance the top and bottom of the two rear slots ever so slightly so the bolt in the rear can pass through w/o interference - the driver's side didn't have the rear bolt getting stuck in the slots like the passenger side. Man that was a PITA - spent all last night on it - well all this early morning lol.

Did you ever get new spindles from your folks place or somewhere else? I'm going to try to swap mine with the buyer of my kit along with the modified steering stop part. How's your build coming along?

 

Yeah I got the spindle from my parents house! Build is coming along good. Just bought some king coilovers and built the rear...sliders next

 

I like your builds. This one seems like it's going to be a great do everything kind of truck - but retain more of the stock look than your others. Very nice.

 

I've got a similar issue with fox mid travel on stock LCA.

Local shop had looked can't find anything thinks it's the shock mount in the LCA moving

Although there's misalignment spacers the eyelet is smaller than the opening and it shifts slightly. We're thinking a bushing will help

 

This is where the shop I deal with thinks it's coming from. Can't see it in this pic but there's wear on the lower mount looks like it is rubbing can't find anything else where it would be from.


This started after lift was already installed and then coils were adjusted for more lift.

Started noticing it after alignment and it's mostly when the truck shifts, turning etc.

 

I had that issue the way that @Joe23 described it. Turned out to be a stripped cam bolt.

 

did it screw with your alignment pulling that bolt to check it?
just thinking would be worth checking for me.

I posted a thread about it here https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/clunk-in-front-end-with-fox-2-5-extended.555906/#post-18126693

 

You could mark your cam tabs.