Front End Still Popping!

[FATCAT]

The front end of my truck is still "popping" or crunching whenever I go over any dips or bumps in the road ... mainly on the passenger side. I have just receiently installed the Luke's Link and a new steering stabilizer and this helped a little, especially with the steering wander.



I have also noticed that with the engine running and parked, if I turn the wheel to the right and left I will get a "pop" sound and slight feel as I get to the max extent of the steering wheel travel.



I have over 122,000 miles on the truck now and am wondering if this problem could be (1) the ball joints (2) stabilizer links (3) pitman arm (4) ????????



I run about 65 lbs in Load range "E" tires on the fronts and am thinking of cutting this back to 60 or 55 lbs.



Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have been fighting this problem for about 5 months now and it is driving me crazy!

 

[SlyBones]

1. Check front drive line ujoints

2. Check lower shock mounting bolts.

 

[FATCAT]

Slybones, I gotta a stupid quesiton for ya, how do you check the front driveline u-joints to see if they are bad?

 

[jodog]

I am with sly check those shock bolts . My lower ones were apple cored.





also jack your front end up so the tire is 1/2 in the air. Use spud bar under tire to check bearings+ball joints.

 

[SlyBones]

Well I wish I knew how to answer that. Mine were checked by brake guru Sam Peterson when he did my brakes. The pass side u-joint was really bad. 3 of the 4 caps were dry and had NO needle bearings left. The joint was in there just hammering itself.



You can see these if you look under the front end. So I would guess that you can grap hold of them and see if they are tight, have any rust, etc.



JoDog is correct is checking all the steering components. From the post I have read the ujoints and shock bolts are the 2 likely items people seem to come across, once they have checked the steering components, cant find anything, then post here.

 

[FATCAT]

What size bolts

I do have Rancho 9000s on the truck and do know about the problem with the bottom bolt being a little sloppy in the gromet.



What size and thread count is the bottom shock bolts? I would like to replace these and maybe find some better spacers for the gromet.



I have tried to torque these bolts as much as possible by hand (no air tools or jack). I'll have to bother my neighbor who has a garage and tools.

 

[jodog]

If thier apple cored tightness or bushing won't help. I used some long shank bolts out of the bolt bin. Had to weld some stops on the new nuts.



Did you put the shocks on yourself. If you had them installed the guy probly didn't care. Its not hard to check ,stick a flat blade screwdriver[big]between the eyelet an axle an pry if the shock goes up an slowly comes down. YOU FOUND IT.



But if your getting the noise standing still turning the wheel check those bearing+ball joints!!!!

 

[wyosteve]

To check the u-joints, have the truck off and transmission in gear or in park. Grab hold of the driveshaft with one or both hands and try to twist/turn it. If the joints are bad or worn, the shaft will turn a little before the joints twitch. If everything is tight when you try to twist it, the joints are ok.

 

[BCFAST]

Had it - Fixed it!

FATCAT, your problem is your steering shaft! Under the hood, the steering shaft is SUPPOSED to be telescopic, sliding in and out as the suspension rides down the road. DC's idea was to put the open end of the telescope facing up, so water can get in and rust the two pieces solid!! Once rusted together, all the bumps are transfered straight into the firewall and it sounds like the whole dang front end is gonna fall off the truck!! Take it off both ends, put is on the bench and used penetrating aerosol grease. This should solve your troubles. Been there-done that!

 

[bighammer]

Wouldn't hurt to check your ball joints. Mine made some pretty stange sounds when turning braking or hitting bumps and dips.