This seems very familiar. With the noise from your engine, its hard for me to
be 100 percent sure what that pop is... but is sounds very much like an
unidentified noise from Christine. Similar situation... Parked or just coming
to a stop with the wheel cranked to the right, I would get a metallic thunk.
Prior to this noise, I had replaced the steering box, all tierods, ball joints,
and power steering pump. I started tearing down the front suspension. I got
the right side upper and lower A-arms off, and thats when I discovered just how
bad the frame really was, so the wind got knocked out of my sails and I never
did anything else. I hand tightened everything back up, and then parked it out
in the detached garage.
Now, the only other thing it could be in my opinion was warn control arm
bushings. The bushings on CHristine are all dryrotted and cracked pretty bad,
but just from a visual inspection I couldn't tell if it was the source of the
clunk. Heres the problem... getting replacement parts for these Gen I and II
rigs is not easy. Dealers no longer have the upper and lower arms available.
Most parts houses can get upper arm bushings for the 4x4 Daks 87-96, but the
lowers, the arms that support the weight of the truck - are non-existent. I had
planned to see if I could locate a control arm from a salvage yard to try and
press out the lower bushing, and match it up with a bushing at work, but I
never got that far. Why bother when you have a rotted frame and control arm
brackets.
My klunk was not as repeatable as yours seems to be. But it was consistent.
Yours is doing it every turn, lock to lock. Mine was not as frequent... more
so hard passenger turns.
If you figure out what this one is, let me know - I still suspect A-arm
bushings.
-- terribletomIn article <4E792837.3090205@moparhowto.com>, mailinglists@moparhowto.com ("M.B.") writes: > > > > Vehicle: 1995 Dodge Dakota 4x4, 318, 141k. > > Almost since I bought this truck, there's been a "clunk" from the > steering while at parking lot speeds or while sitting still. I've > replaced all 4 tie rods, the tie rod adjusters, idler arm and pitman arm > trying to fix it. The steering shaft seems tight and rust-free. The > noise sounds like it's coming from lower in the truck. I suspect it's > the steering box. I want to get it fixed prior to winter setting in but > don't want to drop the money on a new box and power steering pump (to be > safe) if it's not going to fix the issue. > > Video of the truck running with me turning the wheel back and forth to > make the "clunk" noise: > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UkS5kBefjQ > > The steering is pretty tight but on crowned roads there's quite a bit of > steering correction to the left to go straight. It's like there's a > "dead zone" between the wheel being centered up and a quarter turn to > the left. The truck was re-aligned at a shop after the steering > components were replaced ~18 months ago. > > Any input on this one? > > Thanks! > > M.B. >
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Oct 01 2011 - 11:35:32 EDT