1999 F-150 5.4 192,000

Last weekend I drove into the mountains. Hit a lot of pot holes and used the 4x4 in some deep snow. Now there is a clunking sound coming from the front drivers side that I can feel in the floor boards when I drive over the smallest bump. Visual inspection didn't reveal anything and it still does it in 4 wheel drive. I know next to nothing about suspensions but I can turn a wrench.

 

I would jack it up enough to get tire off ground, make sure to put jack stand under it, and and turn tire by hand to see if you feel a bad bearing and see if you can wiggle it back and forth or side to side, to check bearing and ball joints. Check CV axle that connects hub to Diff.

 

Did you carefully check the stabilizer bar (sway bar) end link on that side? A failed bushing on the end link shaft will make a lot of noise over a bump as the end link gets pounded up and down on the control arm. Can feel through the floorboards with no problem.

 

Jacked it up. Moved the tire back , forth and up an down. No play in it. Caliper wasn't loose. Tire rod seems fine. Sway bar has all the rubber pieces on both sides of th top and bottom. Didn't look like there was a gap or any play in it. The shocks have at least 80,000 but they might actually be the originals. Need new shocks anyways so I think I'll start there.

 

You need to relieve the torsion bar pressure on the ball joints to check them
properly.When the truck is jacked up,put another jack under the lower control arm and jack it up a bit then do your checks.

 

The rubber mounts around the shocks dry rot pretty quick if you take it off road a lot. This happened to me after 40k on a set of shocks. The shocks were fine but the rubber mounts needed changed and everything was fine.