Hello Everybody,
It has been a while since I last posted on the FTE forum. About a month ago I started replacing components on the front end to cure two problems with my 94 F150 4x4. The first problem I had was loose steering and the second was a shimmy in the braking (warped rotors).
For my first issue, I chaged out my drag link, inner tie rod and both outside tie rods a week later. This cured my loose steering. I have not taken my truck to get aligned yet because I have been way to busy. I have not been driving it to far, only about a mile to work and back.
Now the brakes. About a year ago I replaced the pads. A month and a half ago, I changed out the left rotor and had no issues or noises. Three weeks later I changed out my other rotor (at the same time as my outer tie rods).
After I changed out my tie rods and right rotor, I started to get a clunking sound as I applied the brakes to slow down. The sound slows as the vehicle slows. I inspected the brakes on both sides, none of the steering linkage seems loose, and I took off the right rotor and took up the my local NAPA store. Where they put it on a machine to see if I had an issue with it and according to them, it was within tolerance. The guy at NAPA said to get it aligned, but I am about 10 miles from the nearest alignment shop and I do not want to drive it if the issue has to do with my braking system.
I am hoping there are some individules out there who have either experienced this problem or know someone who has and what was the fix for this. Thank you for your time and patience.

 

Hello again,
Well I took my truck in to get it aligned and everything went well. The technician looked my truck over and could not find anything wrong. I did have them look at the issue with the clunking sound when braking. He suggested the reason why it was doing that was because the rotor was new and when it was lathed by the manufacterer, they went from the center out (like a record going backwards). The groves are wide enough to grab the brake pads and move them enough to make the clunking sound. He said as I drive my truck, it should break in the rotor. I hope this is helpful to others that are experiencing this same issue.

 

I had the same "clunking noise" on my 1973 F-250. Turns out it was the jack handle rolling back-n-forth behind the seat when stopping.

 

Check your radius arm, er control arm bushings ( don't know what they are called but they run perpendicular to the axel. A blown bushing will make a clunking sound when braking.

 

Well it has been a couple of weeks and my truck still makes the clunking sound. I spoke with a neighbor and he said it might be a ball joint going. I thought I ruled out the ball joint, but maybe I overlooked something. I am getting frustrated with this, but I am getting proficent with tearing down the hub/rotor to the splindle. I will try to look at it this weekend. I do know for sure it isn't a tire iron rolling around, I did look though....lol. While I am down there, I will be checking everything that move with the steering as well and verify everything is tightened correctly.

 

Check your trailing arm bushings - especially on the passenger side where they are near the catalytic converter. When these bushings wear it allows the entire suspension to move forward and backward when going over bumps or using the brakes. If they are bad enough one should be able to see the front wheel move forward or backward inside the wheel well when applying the brakes. Clunk!

Not a particularly easy fix.

Russ

 

RangerR

this sounds like my issue on my 03 kingcab stx 4.6 liter. So what would be the best thing to do I have been fighting this issue for about 6 months..... now im trying to drive it but have to i just replaced my tires because the inside wore out on both front tires. is there a complete suspension kit available? any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

 

Also check the bushings on either end of the stabilizer bar link. They have been known to go bad and will indeed "clunk" when braking or going over a bump. Usually rocking the truck up and down will produce the noise and you can see the movement in the link when the bushings are on their way out.

Russ