I have a pretty decent clunking noise coming from the front end of my slick. It only happens when I go around turns. It used to do it on hard or tight turns, so I started taking it easy and now it seems to do it even when I take the turns easy. About halfway through the turn I hear a "clunk".

I jacked it up and checked everything for loose bolts; everything is tight. The driver-front wheel has some slop, when grabbed at the top and bottom and wiggled. Looks like a loose kingpin?? Would a loose kingpin cause this clunking when I go around corners?

Will the kingpin just snap if I keep driving it like this until I get it fixed?

 

Possibly worn out radius arm bushing. Does it do it when you coming to a stop also? This is just a guess tho.

 

Wheel bearing?

 

No, it doesn't do it when coming to a stop. I drove it 40 miles yesterday and it only clunked once...The day before I drove up to Lowe's (1 mile away) and it was clunking at each turn. Weird.

I looked for radius arm bushings but it doesn't look like my truck has them...Which is not a bad thing - I had to replace those on a Ranger once and they are a PITA!

 

Radius rod bushings on 1965 and later Twin-I-Beam equipped trucks only.

If one of the wheels has the "wiggles," the king pins are worn, and if you think radius rod bushing are a PITA to install, you ain't seen nothing yet!

B7C3111A .. King Pin Kit / Fits: 1957/64 F100/250 2WD.

The king pin kit is obsolete, but 9 Ford dealers (none in Ohio) still have stock.

Obsolete Ford parts seller greensalescompany.com has 10 kits available: 800-543-4959 / 513-731-3304 for those of you who live in Zinzinnati.

btw: When was the last time you lubed the king pins? There are ZERK (grease) fittings in the spindles, but on some models, Ford just put rubber plugs there, instead.

Remove those plugs, install ZERK fittings.

A good lube job might just take care of the problem.

When lubing, the grease will ooze out from around the king pins, just what you wanna see. When that happens, you're all set.

 

Jack the axle, you have a either a potential bad wheel bearing or tie rod end failure, draglink failure of loose steering box. During the turning camber change a loose wheel bearing allows the backing plate and drum to hit slightly causing a clunky grinding noise, as soon as you straighten out it will go away, unless it is really loose.

If king bolts clunk it is well beyond service and you would be wobbling all over..

Either way by jacking and service you can determine the issue.

Just follow the noise to the source.

Garbz

 

Thanks for the info guys - Not sure how long ago anything was lubed on this truck - I'm going to go get a grease gun tonight and get after it!