Things that go bump...

[TimothyLong]

A few months ago, I put a 2" SuperLift leveling kit on my '03 Ram 2500. This amounted to swapping out the OEM coil springs for taller ones (bump stops too). After I did that I heard a thunk in what I believe is the driver's side suspension when turning at low speeds (like when I pull out of my driveway). I looked high and low and could not isolate the problem. I had the mechanic at the place I get my tires check the front end and he confirmed everything was tight and nothing was damaged. Then the bump went away (figured it was something trying to seat), but my front shocks failed. I had Edelbrock IAS Performers and confirmed with Edelbrock that the shocks I had were ONLY designed for OEM height and Edelbrock did not make IAS Performers for Rams with 2" lifts. This was my own stupid fault for not taking the shocks into consideration when I put the leveling kit in. However, I just replaced the failed Edelbrocks with Bilstein 5100's designed for a 2" inch lift. My truck drives a ton better, but now the thunk is back. #@$%! Anybody have any suggestions as to what this might be? Thanks!

 

[SierraRam]

I would look closely at the track bar, if it is a little loose it will clunk on ocassion when turning.

 

[JDKammin]

Another thing to do is make sure the lower shock bolts are tight enough. I was thinking I read a while back that the best thing to do is torque them to the proper setting. I do not know what the setting is, until I can look in my repair manual in the shop.

 

[MA2LA]

I have had issuse with my lower shock bolts loosening up on me and its driving me nuts. An I have cranked the crap out of them aswell.

 

[TimothyLong]

This afternoon I crawled under the truck and re-tightened the both upper and lower bolts on the track bar, the bolt connecting the drag link to the pitman arm, and I carefully loosened and re-tightened the lower shock bolt in the off chance the shock didn't seat right in the shackle. Save for the sway bar linkage and the right side shock, this is everything I had off or loosened when I installed the new coil springs. Unfortunately, I did not have time to road test it save a quick trip in and out of the driveway and it was quiet. I'll find out in the morning when I go work. I will let you all know how it works out. In the mean time, I'm still open to suggestions. Thanks again to all who replied!

 

[CIverson]

Ditto on the track bar. Tracked down the same situation this weekend. Tightened it previously w/ the impact, and had a clunk. Tightened the lower bolt this weekend with a breaker and a 3ft pipe, no more clunk

 

[TimothyLong]

Whatever I did yesterday seems to be working, at least for the moment. Drove it to work and back today with no clunk. Hopefully it will stay that way. If I had to guess, I'd say it was probably the shock. I didn't pre-load it much before I torqued the lower bolt down, though I thought it would be enough to seat it properly. Thanks again to all who replied with suggestions!