When driving over large bumps or irregular terrain I hear a clunk from the passenger side front end. Sometimes this will go away for about a week. I replaced the shocks, but I haven't seen much improvement. This has been going on for over a year. Any Ideas? Please help.

 

What year and how many miles? If the ball joints and tie rod ends have yet to be replaced, now would be the time to give them a good inspection. A clunk over bumps is usually a lower ball joint going out.

 

Theres is two possiblitys i have come across, one being the balljoint like what was mentiond....have you replaced your brake pads latley?... the bolts on the caliper work loose after you have loosend them sometimes, i have had this happen twice now and they say your are supposed to put new bolts in when you replace your pads.... the caliper gets loose and it bounces up and down making a pretty loud clunk... worth a look.

 

My 97 F150 had the same noise. I would suggest looking at the sway bar end links. I had one break on me and it drove me nuts all the noise it made.

 

Take another look at the lower shock mounting bolts. I replaced with SAE size that is just a snugg push/tap fit in both the lower arm and the shock ferrule. This is an age old problem on Fords.

 

I myself would check the sway bar end links, my 97 was doing the same thing and that's all it was. Good luck

 

Happened this afternoon while replacing a passenger side front shock. I tried to drill out the remains, but had to stop due to darkness & fatigue. I did put the other nut on the remaining stud & secured the top end, took it for a test, and noticed a definite "clunk" from the front passenger side when I hit certain bumps, the sound wasn't there before.
Now I would like advice on how to drill out the broken stud. The part that went through the lower control arm drilled out easily, but the material of the head of the broken stud is extremely hard & resists drilling. I tried getting a wrench on it from above, gave it a good twist, but no go.

 

What exactly am I looking for when I check th sway bar ends?thx

 

if they're not connected to the truck like the way they are connected more towards the center of the sway bar.

my truck makes the clunk too, but my ball joints are wearing out. Its almost time to get them pressed out and put some serviceable ball joints in

 

Mine did it and it was the Sway bar endlink, it can look fine when the truck is just sitting there but can in fact be broken in half. They connect the sway bar ends to the front end. They will look like a big molded piece of plastic and are hard to tell if they are broken if they seat together correctly. If they are bad get the NAPA replacements they cost about half what the dealer wants and are far superior. the old ones are a PITA to get off if they are snapped because the plastic will be stuck to the rusty bolt and they won't come apart.

 

FYI - I replaced the entire sway bar on my single cab f150 4x4 with a 33mm unit from an expidition. I then installed eurathane bushings inner and bought eurathane end link kit from autozone. came complete with bolts, washers and bushings for about 10 bucks. huge inprovement in handling - corners flat. much less tire wear and about 1mpg gain.