I had a ball joint produce a single knock while going over a speed
bump... just one knock followed by some nasty wheel-on-UCA grinding --
the ball had popped out of the socket. I would have loved to hear some
warning knocks first. (A mechanic trying to do an alignment a few
weeks earlier said the boot was bad, but there wasn't any play.)
I'd say at least figure out what it is before your 800mi trip.
Don in CT
89 Dakota Convertible 318 NV3500 4x4
74 Dart Sport 340
On 5/23/07, Mike Burgess <mike_burgess@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> -------------------
> >
> > Date: Wed, 23 May 2007 02:27:11 +0000 (UTC)
> > From: jldenning@earthlink.net
> > Subject: DML: torsion bar knock? ;was ball joints
> >
> > 1999 4x4 5.2l. It has 60k miles and new stiff shocks.
> >
> > Here's my sympton: I get a solid knock out of the right front
> > suspension.
> > First it was hard to reproduce -- unless a speed bump was handy. But it
> > would
> > occur if you rocked the truck by lifting haaaard under the fender. Then
> > it all
> > but went away, even on the speed bump.
> >
> > My usual mechanic said I've a dangerously loose lower right front ball
> > joint.
> > Took it to a local Fireston instead ... Their diagnosis of the hard to
> > reproduce noise was inner tie rod ends, which I (already) replaced 1.5
> > years
> > ago. So I had the ball joint replced but didn't (re)change the tie rod
> > ends.
> >
> > Now, the exact noise is very easy to reproduce by rocking at front
> > fender.
> > Seems like it's occuring on the upswing. I've hunted around while my
> > wife
> > rocke and it seems to be in the torsion bar. I mean I can feel the
> > knock when
> > I grab the bar, but I couldn't see anything amiss. Thoughts?
> >
> > Planning to drive it 800 miles to mom & dad's Thursday. Still at
> > Firestone.
> >
> > Thanks for your help.
> >
> > Jef
>
> I had something like this develop a few hundred after new tires and
> alignment. Turned out the alignment bolts were never tightened, and the
> whole thing was " clunking around, loose " Mostly happened in parking
> lots, turning, and changing forward/reverse/forward.
>
>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 01 2007 - 09:06:10 EDT