G'day Fellas,

I finally solved my front end 'CLUNK!' .

I had chased this annoyance for some time. I would get a loud 'Clunk'/'Pop' sound from the front end when turning left or right (more so on a left turn). It was never felt or heard on the highway/road only when at slow speed tight turning and especially if going over a bump or down a gutter at the same time.
It was felt underfoot mainly on the left side foot well (our passenger side).
I did all the normal things like change out the Sway Bar Bushings (from Clay). It made no change. Checked Track Bar Bushings .. all ok.
Fitted new Adjusable Track Bar and tensioned up .. no joy .
Even changed my front leaf spring pack from a leveling kit to a set of Old Man Emu from ARB. Still no joy .

I then put my life on the line and got the Missus to drive slowly into a shallow gutter and turn hard to 'Port' (hard left) while I reached under the the truck and grabbed the sway bar. Heared the 'Clunk' but felt very little at the sway bar. Repeated the exercise but this time I reached under the wheel arch and crabbed the track bar bracket where it attaches to the chassis. Heard the load 'Clunk' and felt the solid clunk in that bracket.
I checked the tightness of the blolts at that pint and they were fully tensioned up .
Next I got the Missus to do the same thing and lay close to but safe and trained a spot light on that area. Sure enough that loud 'Clunk'was heard and I noticed the Track Bar bracket move ever so slightly.

I hadn't noticed before that there is a bolt attaching the inner end of the track bar bracket to the front side of the crossmember. It's hard to see uless your get your head right up under there and look over the linkages and track bar.
It's a 15mm Bolt with an 18mm nut. That bolt was not snug tight. It wasn't loose, but was backed off enough to allow a slight movement in that bracket when turning hard.
I tensioned it up as tight as I could feel safe enough to do and the 'Clunk' was immediately cured .
I've extensively tested it on every tight hard left and right turns, down gutters and over humps and no 'Clunk' has returned. I've done a lot of rough dirt/gravel outback roads since and no return of the 'Dreaded Clunk ..Pop' .

So if like me your driven mad by the persistant 'Clunk' and have exhausted the conventional cures, then this may be your source???

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This is that bolt 18mm nut end on the front side of the crossmember.



This the the 15mm bolt head side.

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Cheers,
Reg

 

Good find. You would be surprised how often its something little. We always jump to replacing parts here. I did the same thing you did. Bushings, and inspect everything. Eventually I decided that it was my ball joints and was preparing to do those. Then one day I did some preventative maintenance. I greased the steering components.

Clunk gone.

It comes back once in a while, then I check my maintenance schedule and I am either past or approaching the scheduled regrease.

Its funny how if you just do routine maintenance, how few problems you have haha. I now regrease them every 3000 miles.