my bet would be radius arm bushings

 

not to hijack,but why are the radius arm bushings so hard to change? my truck is making the same noise over bumps and rough roads,will be looking into it in the spring time.

 

atleast on my ruck, they are riveted in, no bolts and you have to take the rivets out to change the bushing and replace em with bolts. air chisels seem to work good

 

Its the radius arm. When I looked under it the first time, I noticed the bushing back there was not centered. Looked to be falling out. The more I read about it, didnt know it was called a radius arm, the more it lead to being the bushing.

Rattles over small bumps, dirt roads and snow covered streets. Doesnt look like a hard job. Ive done a frame off resto on a GM a body and did the front axle u-joints on my 79 4x4 (rusty pile of ****) so this should be a piece of cake.

 

I had a similar problem on my truck several years ago. It turned out to be the lower retainer on the coil spring. I'm referring to the nut and washer shaped peice.

I have also experienced the shock problem. Mine was because the bushing in the lower shock mount was shot. I replaced the shocks and no more of that annoying noise.

 

Radius arm bushings not that bad Air chissel to start... Sawall with good blade works great

 

Its not technically a hard repair just a pain in the butt, for me anyway Ive taken a whole ttb 2wd front end out of a truck in little time but the 4x4 is a little more involved in general.

 

Thanks for mentioning the shock, I hadn't checked that on mine. I looked at it yesterday, and the upper shock mount on the front rotted through, causing the shock to rattle around. Time for a new front coil spring bucket! Oh well, at least now all the spring mounts will be new.

 

It was the radius arm bushing. Took two hours to do, cut the rivets and bolted it back in. What a difference, rides a lot better and no more noise.