Track bar questions

[clanders]

I just had my truck out on a road trip which involved alot of miles on dirt roads that varied in terrain from good to bad, any way on the way home driving the highways I noticed every bump I hit I felt some sort of knocking noise under the drivers feet. When I stopped for feul I checked the front shock mounts thinking it was a loose stud or something but they were both nice and snug. Well I started to move the truck up and down on the front bumper and I could slightly hear the noise coming from the front drivers side so I got underneath the truck and had a friend start rocking the truck up and down and I put my hand on the track bar and I could feel it making a thunk kind of noise as the suspension traveled up and down, then I noticed a little bite of movement on the ball joint end of the track bar as the truck rocked back and forth. So my question is, is this normal or should I start thinking about replacing my trac bar?

 

[Dieselnerd]

The service manual says you should have someone turn the steering wheel back and forth while observing the drivers side joint of the track bar. If there is any movement, the track bar should be replaced. It sounds like you have already seen movement and my guess is you have a bad track bar. Can be fixed with Lukes Link or new track bar from various sources. Search on "track bar" for more info.

 

[tmacc]

clanders,

Actually, DC specs . 070" (up and down) allowance before they will replace it. Your's sounds like it's past that. I just installed the Luke's Link this weekend and it seems rock solid. Yor tie rod end at the pittman arm is problably bad too. They seem to go out together. I put a Luke's Link on that too. Like Dieselnerd said, get someone to turn the wheel back and forth to check all of your tie rod ends. BTW Dc replaced both at 26k and the truck now has 58k on it. HTH

Tom

 

[clanders]

Thanks for the info guys, I got me a moog track bar #1413 and installed it today made all the difference in the world, suprised it is a much beefier ball joint on the moog. The tie rod ends seem fine for now I'll just have to monitor them and replace when needed with the lukes link.