Clunk in suspension

Well, not too long ago I put on new shocks and I started to notice a clunk in my suspension. It seems to come from the driver side when I turn right slowly (like in a parking lot) and sometimes when I am driving straight and I hit a bump I will hear it. If anyone could shed some light I would appreciate it. I have check and my shocks are tightened. And I have the the new steering shaft to correct the recall. I am at a loss on what could be causing this problem, and my ride seems to be awfuly bouncy lately.

Please Help
Randy

Have you tried greesing the yoke?

I had a clunk for a long time and greese it recently and it took away the clunk.

Haven't tied that. Where exactly is the yoke? Thanks for the information.

Randy

Quote:

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Originally posted by RChevy.48@Jul 22 2003, 05:57 AM
Haven't tied that. Where exactly is the yoke? Thanks for the information.

Randy

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Its where the driveshaft enteres the tranny. You have to remove the driveshaft (only 4 bolts) and then just greese the hell outa it. Make sure to get enough into the splines.

Whops.... :thumb:

Should I use a grease gun or apply the grease with my hands.

You can do it either way im sure. It seemed easier to use the greese gun because it was less messy, and second I could get it in deeper.

My question is how do you know when enuf greese is enuf? Till it ozzes out? I dunno I just filled it as much as I felt was right.

Well, I thought the grease gun would be less messy too. I will give it a shot, and see if this fixes my problem. Thanks for the info.

Randy.

Screw all that grease bullshit. I had the same problem. It got worse and worse. It is your A-ARMS!! Tighten ALL of your A-ARMS! You might have to have it done unless you have a bigass breaker bar or something. I work at the chevy dealer and had one of my suspension buddys do it for me. It got so bad that when i would brake you could see the right front wheel shift frontward and then backward. It was worse on the right front. I would be standing still at a light then turn the stearing wheel and the damn thing sounded like it broke off but it was just shifting when the wheel was turned. Hope this helps.

Well, the noise is definetely in the front. Right now it happens mainly when I turn and real slow speeds (like in a parking lot), or when I go over speed bumps or hit pot holes. So your pretty sure this is the problem. Does the truck need to be on a lift or could I just jack up the front end and put it on jack stands. I think I could come across a pretty big breaker bar. And, Thanks for the help. I think I will still grease the yoke, since when I stop the truck get out I hear a cluck from the back of the trans.

Thanks,

Randy

Did this happen after you did the install? I would double check all the work done and make for certain the parts are tight, on camaros if you install shocks and dont bottom the top nut down you get a clunk, also my bracket broke on my sway bar once, take a look at that,

my a arms are also shot, i get a clunk when i back up and turn, so that may be your problem, good luck, i just figured i'd throw out some ideas,


allen

Also if it is your A arm bushing bolts the car has to be sitting on the tire before you tighten it. In other words the supension has to be in the normal sitting position not with the springs unloaded.

I thought that at first I may not have tightended the shocks all the way or they had come a bit loose, so I tightened them with a neumatic drill. I may double check the lower bolts though. I am not sure if it happened right after the install or not, but I will go ahead and check everything. Thanks for the input.

Randy

Ok, today I took the truck to a reputable service place and had them check out the front end suspension and steering to diagnose where my noise is coming from. They looked at it for about 45 min and drove it. They could hear the noise as I described, but could not find where it was coming from. They told me everything looked tight under the truck. I asked about the control arm bolts to see if they could just tighten them for me, and they told me that they shouldn't need tightening since they were torqued from the factory.

I took a look at the control arms myself to see if I could tighten them, but I don't see how I could get anything in there while the truck is sitting on the ground. Could anyone shed some light, I don't want to take it someplace that will charge me an arm and a leg to tighten some bolts.

thanks, and sorry for the long post
Randy

Quote:

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Originally posted by RChevy.48@Aug 18 2003, 07:11 PM
Ok, today I took the truck to a reputable service place and had them check out the front end suspension and steering to diagnose where my noise is coming from. They looked at it for about 45 min and drove it. They could hear the noise as I described, but could not find where it was coming from. They told me everything looked tight under the truck. I asked about the control arm bolts to see if they could just tighten them for me, and they told me that they shouldn't need tightening since they were torqued from the factory.

I took a look at the control arms myself to see if I could tighten them, but I don't see how I could get anything in there while the truck is sitting on the ground. Could anyone shed some light, I don't want to take it someplace that will charge me an arm and a leg to tighten some bolts.

thanks, and sorry for the long post
Randy

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GMCWANTSLS1 is correct! I had mine tightened while the truck was sitting on its tires. I also asked one of those repair places and they were chickenshit (well thats what my suspension tech buddy said) . It will feel like they are already tight but they will still turn. It will be very hard and almost impossible with a regular ratchet, you will need some kind of leverage to do this(long breaker bar). Trust me, its the a-arms. The same thing began to happen to me about 5-7 months after lowering my truck! Hope this helps, good luck! :thumb:

Would this cause the suspension to feel somewhat loose. Thanks for the info.

The bolts being loose could cause your problem. Try loosening them off some then retightening them to factory specs. It does take a breaker bar or torque wrench to get enought leverage to tighten them all the way. If you loosen the bolts that mount the control arm to the frame be careful not to loose the allignment shims that fit between the frame and the control arm bar.

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Originally posted by RChevy.48@Aug 20 2003, 07:52 PM
Would this cause the suspension to feel somewhat loose. Thanks for the info.

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Yes ,when my was clunking it felt very loose ,especially when going through a dip it would make noise and feel loose when the front end would come out of the dip.

Well, I don't know if I will have access to the right tools to do the job myself. I was thinking about taking it to NTB or some other reliable alignment shop. Do you think these guys will rip me off to tighten the bolts.

just make sure you go in there and sound like you know what you're talking about, tell them what you want and don't let them tell you what's wrong, then you should be ok,


good luck,

allen

I hate to keep this thread going, but I went into NTB today and told them what I wanted them to do. They said that they would have to do a diagnostics before they could do the work. Plus, they told me that if they loosend the bolts then tightened them back to specs, they would have to realign it. So, I decided to go to the dealership and the guy told me that I should try and tighten the body mounts first. Well, I tightened them and will see what happens in the morning. I wish I could tighten the control arms myself, but I don't seem to have the right tools to do the job.

thanks for the help.
Randy

no problem, keep this thread going until you get it fixed,

let us know so we can come up with something else, i hope that fixes your problem though,


good luck,

allen

hey just a thought but what you could do is put your truck up on jack stands and and take your tire off. then use your floor jack and a block of wood under your brake rotor to raise your suspension up to where you want it. if it works it would give ya alot more room to piss around under and around everything. just a thought...good luck