Hey All,

I have a horrible creaking sound coming from directly below my front seat and can be felt from the floorboards. I cannot reproduce the sound when the truck is stationary and compressing the suspension (although, I do not get much compression on the 1-ton front) but is pretty constant when driving the truck.

I took my truck to my tire shop to have them inspect the suspension. They adivised that the inner and outer tie rods are good as well as the ball joints and u-joints. They can hear the awful creaking noise and feel its vibrations. They disocvered that the source of the creaking was not the suspension or steering system, but that the frame is vibrating when the steeing wheel is being turned from lock to lock. They furhter determined that it seems to be the transmission crossmember to frame attachment that is the source of the creaking sound.

I got under the truck with the technician and I too can feel the frame rails (both sides) vibrate then the steering wheel is being turned while the truck is stationary. I hear the tranny crossmember to frame intersection creak loudly. The technician was not readily wanting to retorque or loosen and then retorque the transmission xmember nuts. I told him I would research and he said that if that is what is suggested to bring it back and he would see what he can do.

So I have two questions. 1. What is the source of the frame vibration? 2. What can I do stop or minimalize the vibration and the loud annoying creaking?

I am the 'new' second owner of this 1995 F350 CrewCab 4x4 with 127,000 miles. It does have a new 4" Lift with 35" tires on 16x10 wheels. The noise existed with the stock suspension, wheels and tires but to a much lesser degree. The transmission was replaced 2 years ago but only 5k miles ago. I do not know if the tranny xmember would have been R&R's during the tranny replacement.

Thank you in advance for your help!

Rob

 

So, Rob, you got all the stuff on huh? How do you like it?

There are SO MANY possible points of this creaking sound. I have seen crossmembers do it many times. Also the transmission mount itself can get gravel or small rocks in between it and the crossmember and cause a creaking sound.

TTBs were half-notorious for getting a creaking sound when the rivets that hold the radius arms to the frame would loosen....that's a fun find. I know that you have neither coil springs or TTB, so that's just useless fluff I was throwing out there.

Cody

 

Yes, I ended up buying a Tuff Country Kit. It gave about a 4.5" front lift and 3.25" in the rear. The truck looks great ! It does ride a little rough but thats another story. I believe the front shock are for something other than my truck or lift, as there is only about 3" of travel before the rod bottoms out

Back to the issue. Should I try retorquing the xmember to frame rail bolts? What is the correct torque amount? I do not want to over or under tighten the bolts.

Is this a common problem area?

 

since the transmisison was only taken out 5k miles ago, i bet whoever did it just did not tighten the bolt slike they should have, and htey have just loosened up from regular driving