I need some help from you guys before I go nuts ! I had a bad balljoint that was very loose. I kept hearing a loud clunking on bumpy roads, so I had the balljoints replaced. That had to be it sure, the ball joints had plenty of play, and tightening that up should certainly fix the noise. NOPE, picked it up and within 1/4 mile I heard it again. I checked the transmission mounts and found a few lose bolts that were moving, ahh thats gotta be it! NOPE ! I then searched the forum and found posts about the sway bar and link bushings. So I disconnected the sway bar and the noise is still there. At this point what is it ?? Can it be the axle where it goes thrue the wheel bearing ? Can it have worn since the ball joints were so bad ? I need to fix this fast before I go insane ! I can feel the clunk, it resonates down the whole frame. The truck is a 2001 4x4 7.3.

 

I have the same problem with mine..... and it too is driving me crazy. I thought i had a bad engine mount but after inspecting them, i cant find anything wrong with either one. After doing some research here i think it might be the manual hubs. As for how to troubleshoot a hub, i am not sure. I was thinking of switching the right to the left and see if the rattle moves to the other side.

I'd like to see what some of the others have to say about this....

 

My truck has been shaking for the last 6 months, and it drives me crazy. At the point, I just blame on it MI roads, if its not, one day driving up north, im sure the bad part well break, leaving me stranded in 0* weather, during a snowstorm in the middle of no where, with no cell phone service. I carry everything possible to fix my truck now. BTW my replacement list:ball joints, sway bar end links, sway bar bushings, tie road ends, drag link, every steering part, both wheel bearings, all the brakes, new u-joints. Nothing has helped, and i got an alignment to. The next step is shocks.

 

I went throught the same as you, and one day was under my truck and noticed my drivers side front leaf spring eye bushings had moved and the leaf would bang on the hanger when I would hit any kind of bump. 2 weeks ago I replaced all the spring bushings with poly ones from Daystar and its a nice and quiet ride.(Until I hit the go pedal)

John311t: Have you tried having your tires rebalanced, driveshafts.
I'm not sure about this but my boss just bought a '71 F600 Bucket truck and it shook like hell around 45 mph and it also had a week spring on the front right. We put new heavier duty springs on it and the shake went away.

 

Tires have been rebalanced 2 times since the problems started, lol. I have actually learned to deal with my shaking problem, until i can get 3K for wheels and tires, i blame it on the tires haha.

 

OK, I pulled the front wheel off, removed the locking hu and placed a crowbar beteween the outer hub and axle. It moves, thats gotta be it. Anyone disagree ?? I assume there should no play between the axle and axle shaft..?? Please reply before the ambulance and straight jacket show up to take me away !

 

oops what I meant to say was: "I assume there should be no play between the axle shaft and the wheel bearing." I am relieved I found something, will post when it's replaced and quiet ! (I hope). I expected to find a small amount of movement, but man is it sloppy!

 

do you have an update to this yet...???

did you replace the bearings??? or hubs??

if i understand your post correctly, then i seem to have the same problem as you. I can wiggle the axle shaft up and down if i remove the locking hubs. (anyone know if that is normal??) if not, would the needle bearings be the culprits??

thks

 

MIne has little to no play with the hub off but I have recently replaced the seals on the axle. how do the seals look? The axle should move with the locking hub off but not that much. The seals should absorb the noise behind the hub and bearing. Mine rattles like crazy and it turned out to be the bushings on the sway bar. Very tough to diagnose though. Put your hubs back on and use some BIG zip ties and tie your axle up to the top where the ball joint is and see if the rattle is still there with a brief drive.

I had to completely take my sway bar off to find it there

 

I will definately need to replace the seals on the axle. I can move the axle quite a bit up and down with the hubs removed. (especially on the left side)

Good idea on the zip tie deal..... i will try that tonight and see if the rattle does away.

 

well in my case the clunking nois was from my passenger side balljoints, it was bad, so when i hit the brakes or made certain turns it drove me crazy, well no clunk anymore,
it has to be it, i think

good luck

 

the seals are made to move like that if you can move the axle up and down look more at the inner bearing (needle bearing) i replaced all my seals and one hub now to find out that i have a inner axle bearing going bad. fyi autozone, napa, car quest, ford, advance auto, none of them cary just the bearing they only have a hub assy. thats like $250.00 but www.quad4x4.com will have just the bearing its like $14.00 for one. good luck i replaced mind and no more clunk

 

Ford does carry the small bearing, but you need to have the part number, since no one at fords knows that they actually sell it. The part number is C6TZ-3123A. About 14$ per each at the dealer.