on my 87 e350, it started making a bad noise from the front end a few days ago. when turning right, its a grinding noise that seems to be somewhere between a metal-on-metal and a tire-on-metal kind of noise. it only happens while moving forward and making a fairly sharp right turn, such as in an intersection.
being concerned about this, i inspected the front end and found/corrected a few problems. the right tie rod was bad, and replacing it made no change. the right bump-stop broke off, and replacing it made no change. the leaking fuel pump was finally diagnosed and replaced, and of course, no change in the noise.
the right engine mount looked bad (that leaking fuel pump killed everything), and is on order and should be here in a few days. because of this, i looked for issues like the fan rubbing on its shroud, and didn't find any issues there either.
also, the noise started suddenly one night, indicating that something changed suddenly, not a gradual thing i'm finally getting to.

i'm looking everywhere and banging my head on the wall trying to figure this thing out, any ideas from you guys?

 

any ideas? this is my daily work vehicle, and i hate to run with this kind of noise... the more i study it, it seems the noise happens when the RF suspension is extended, its definitely coming from the front end, i have trouble telling from which side, but its definately a disturbing grinding noise, not as bad as steel-on-steel, but equal or greater than tire-on-steel.

anybody??

 

i'm getting a better handle on it now, i found myself parking in an odd twist and the noise happened while the engine was running, truck not moving, indicating the noise has to be coming from fan-to-shroud contact, aparently a symptom of that decomposing engine mount
there doesn't seem to be much space for changing this mount, anybody done it and care to offer any tips?

 

Josh I've never done this on a Ford van but past experience taught me tyipically the engine needs to be raised after the mount has been loosened from the frame and block. The height depends on the lenght of bolts fixed to the mount---it simply needs to clear those then it should slide out, the new one back in. Its posslble loosening the transmission crossmember mounting bolts will make this much easier. As far as a jacking point underneath becareful not to crush anything but a short piece of 2 x 4 and bottle jack would do this easily?

Obviously check the other side to see if it too might benefit from being changed. I'm thinking one the first one is done the second will go like budda!

 

Just seemed to have less clearance than most i've worked on, but sound like any other mount i've changed.
as for the other mount, its not in too bad of shape, but a leaking fuel pump killed every rubber part in the whole area, including the bushings on my new shocks, which were only about 4 months old.
My van had a full engine rebuild only about 30k miles ago by the po, and i'm sure it got new mounts then.
Thanks for the insight

 

Hey Josh for any other rubber parts needing replaced check out Pro Thane urethane bushings etc etc. They might have something specific or generic that'll fit in different locations of your fuel damage. Before installing my Hellwig sway bars (front & rear) I used Pro Thane's Ford I Beam replacement bushings---made a huge difference up front.

They also have shock mounting bushings of the same material---in black or red if you have a color choice!