Question for owners with 4 1/2 Skyjacker lift

[02diesel]

I have had this lift on my 02 for about 2-3 months now. It rides very nice and no rattles or any noises up until now. Here is my question. I park my truck on a fairly steep driveway at night. Sunday I backed the truck out into the street, stopped and shifted into drive and drove approx 3 blocks before having to apply the breaks to stop the truck. When I did apply the breaks I heard a bang or pop coming from under the front of the truck.



I have been able to duplicate the noise by driving in reverse and applying the breaks fairly hard and putting the truck into drive, driving around 30 feet and breaking. It sounds like it is coming from the front passenger side and with the window open it is a fairly loud noise. Kind of like someone hitting something with a hammer.



Two things came to mind. Could it be related to something coming loose with the suspension or could it be something to do with a caliper moving up and down with the with the reverse and forward movement.



Any ideas you all can proved will definably help and put my mind at ease. I am hoping it is not something too serious. Sorry this post is so long. I just wanted to give as much information as possible.



Thanks

Frank

 

[WTBurke]

?

Frank, I have a set up like you do and I have over 30k miles lifted and no such noise like that! How does it do at highway speeds? Is every thing OK coming off the freeway ramps?

You might check the glide pins on the caliper passenger side. It would have to bind pretty bad to make a "hammer" sound as you have indicated and the "slam" of the pads to disk should jerk your steering wheel to the right if that was happening.



Sorry



William

 

[02diesel]

Hi William, Tank you for the reply. That is the odd thing about it. No problems at highway speeds, slowing on offramps or anywhere else. Just backing down driveway in reverse then stoping for the first time whild driving foreward. I am starting to think it may be something on the caliper that is shifting??



Frank

 

[dlange]

Mine does the EXACT same thing on the drivers side. Has been like this for a 6 months. Help is appreciated.



-Dave

 

[KevinO]

Go back and tighten every bolt on the front suspension mine did that and some bolts worked loose after i drove it for awhile. Also are you using the cheap bumpstopst that came with the kit? I did for about the first 50 miles till they fell out and the truck was able to hit the metal bump stop bracket from the factory. I bought some metal ones for a chevy and cut the top bracket and welded them over the old bumpstop bracket holder.

 

[MMiller]

I agree with Kevin go a tighten everything on the front and the rear too! I don't have that lift, or even a second gen, but all my first gens have lift kits on them. They all need retightened periodically until the hardware stays tight.



Not saying there is no brake problem, but I would start checking everything that was loosened, or installed with the lift kit.



Michael

 

[Shovelhead]

One of our members at DTR had the same trouble.

Here is a link to his findings.



[http://www.dieseltruckresource.com/yabbse/index.php?board=13;action=display;threadid=24196

 

[FFL8N]

I had a problem with the drop down bracket for the pitman arm. It is very hard to get it tight. I was told that it needs to be welded or it will come lose no matter how tight you get it. I did away with the whole thing when I bought the new track bar. I had the bracket come lose a few times before I did away with it. The DT is a much better system.

 

[02diesel]

hey Guys, I think we may have found the problem. I took the truck back to where the lift was installed and they found the right upper control bolt extreemly loose (hand tight). They retorqued all the bolts. Two day with no knock so far. Hopefull this was it. I will definately keep a close eye on them in the future. Thanks for all you guys help!!!



Frank