Front end clunk

[dirtautoguy]

I thought I was doing so well not needing to do any work on my truck and then this noise showed up….

when go over bumps or sometimes even just uneven terrain I will get a pop noise that to the best of my ability to describe it sounds like it has a loose shock mount the bumpier the road the more it pops/clunks.

the truck is a 96 rcsb with a 350 4wd

in fairly recent times it has gotten all news tierods, idler arm, idler bracket, pitman arm, all new ball joints, brake hoses, 2 front shocks, control arm bushings, brake calipers, steering gear box, oil cooler lines.

i think that’s all? The sound was not there after all that work so I do not believe faulty work is to blame?

I’ll try to go through everything I have checked in order.

jacked the truck up and checked all directions on the tire up, down,left, right, in out. Etc no loosness


thought maybe my sway bar links were loose so I shook them and tried to get a clunk out of them with no luck. Although I did find one was slightly tighter than the other. I equaled them out but if anything maybe made it worse maybe….

jacked it up again looked around checked rods and ball joints again and found nothing.

hunting season opened and that means a lot of dirt bumpy roads and I feel like it has gotten worse sometimes if I put my foot over the front cab mount I can feel the pop almost like maybe it’s my cab mount. But looking at the cab mounts it’s snug and appears intact

tonight I decided to take a little frustration out on it and took a rubber mallet to all the parts I could but all I found was a loose bolt in my grille guard but it certainly was not the source of the noise I also beat on the calipers a little bit


so I set my phone up and recorded the suspension as I bounced the front end as hard as I could and I could replicate the noise but I don’t see anything obvious in the video.


I checked the bolts on the shock mount and compared each side the only difference I found was that the driver side looked like it may have had some dirt build up like from a oil leak but I’m not sure if it’s from the shock or if it’s from my oil cooler lines I replaced about 3 weeks ago.

im stumped. I don’t think it’s anything serious that’s going to cause a wreck but it is driving me crazy. Has anyone had a similar issue?

my 3 suspects are the cab mount, shock, or the sway bar.

 

[df2x4]

I had a similar issue once that ended up being a failing front shock. I could bounce up and down on the front bumper and replicate the noise. I know you say they're new but that would be high on my list of possible causes.

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

When was the last time you replaced the front hubs? They make a noise like you describe when they're going bad. My 99 Burb is 2wd but we have a 2006 Yukon XL Denali that's awd, and the front end parts are identical to the 400 K series. Biggest difference is the T case doesn't have a neutral position, and the torque split is 70/30 constant.
We were driving it a few years ago and had major clunks in the front wheels; it was the hubs.

 

[dirtautoguy]

The hubs have been replaced with timken bearings. I did the ball joints, control arm bushings, shocks and hubs at the same time. I also think I forgot to mention the sway bar links are also less than a year old.

I drove around on some back roads tonight and payed more attention to it. If I swerve left and right it doesn’t make any noise but only when the ground is unlevel it will sometimes pop and it will pop a lot over bumps. However I did notice that it seems to pop most of the time on the rebound of the suspension not the compression.

And last I don’t think it’s the sway bar links because I would think that if it were the sway bar it wouldn’t matter if the bumps were on the left or right it would affect the noise. Far as I can tell it’s only the driver side.

when I did the hubs and all that stuff I hadn’t planned on replacing the shocks untill I got into it and the old shocks were shot. I was already over budget so I didnt high dollar ones but I did get the middle grade ones and I have hated them ever since…… I went from kyb shocks that were awesome when they were new to mid grade napa ones that have sucked from day 1. they have maybe 10000 miles on them? Iv just been living with them until I have a excuse/opportunity to get better ones

 

[GMCTruck]

I had a similar problem on the right side front end of my K1500. The bolt holes in the shocks had a bit of play with the stock 18 mm bolts. I replaced those factory bolts with 3/4" bolts which were just a little bigger but still fit through the shocks and the bracket mounting holes. Problem went away after that.

 

[east302]

I had a similar problem on the right side front end of my K1500. The bolt holes in the shocks had a bit of play with the stock 18 mm bolts. I replaced those factory bolts with 3/4" bolts which were just a little bigger but still fit through the shocks and the bracket mounting holes. Problem went away after that.

Same thing here (but with KYB shocks). The upper end of the shock bounced on the bolt. It was a pretty obvious sound on rough pavement.

 

[dirtautoguy]

Sounds like my next step should be to pull the shock out and see what I can see. When I had it jacked up I didn’t feel any looseness but I suppose it could of had enough pressure on it still to keep it tight.

 

[east302]

On mine, I could see the movement at the top bolt while having someone pushing the bumper up and down.

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

When I had a shop do the shocks on my Burb last year, they broke the first one they installed on the passenger side front. I think they broke it, tightening it up, because they were VERY careful putting the second one on....

 

[dirtautoguy]

I found the source of the clunking, it was indeed the shock. I was hoping the shock was totally dead but it still has plenty of life in it.

but the clunk was coming from the bolts. The bolts were tight but the sleeve around the bolt was not just like East302 had. I also noticed both bushings are cracked pretty good and the top one is a good bit softer than the bottom.

I pulled the driver shock ans bounced the truck and the sound was gone however the passenger side is starting to make the same noise the driver side started as.

today after work I’ll take the shock into napa and see what we can come up with. I’m not against a bigger bolt or new bushings but especially since I hate these shocks it might be better just to get the kybs like I had before.