front end clunk/steering

[Dave WM]

 

I back out car turn steering wheel left nearly full lock. 1st gear start rolling forward while holding steering wheel I hear a clunk that seems to come from the passenger side front. At the same time as I hear the clunk I feel the steering wheel "give" a tiny amount. No other issues, steering feels tight, no noises with less that full lock or near full lock rotation of steering wheel.

I have checked TC bushings/ball joints on strut/wheel bearings. All in good shape and tight. I get a tiny bit of movement in the passenger side inner tie rod, none on the driver. The rack seems tight (no slop) I have rubber rack mounts (new). the rag joint is in good shape. Strut mounts tight in towers.

I am thinking the pass inner is getting loaded up one way, then when I reverse direction (go forward) there is a load on it that shifts the joint and that is what I am hearing. Any other ideas? I have a spare rack complete with outer tie rods that I can try. I am thinking pulling the entire rack including outers, measure it, and setup the spare, try it and see if still have the noise.

I will check for a grease fitting on the inner before I do anything to see if grease helps.

 

 

 

Edited August 17, 2020 by Dave WM

[siteunseen]

Have you tried unloading that wheel/tire and checking for unusual movement? Could be a bad bearing or race? 

Does the steering wheel shake while driving? Braking?

[Dave WM]

8 minutes ago, siteunseen said:

Have you tried unloading that wheel/tire and checking for unusual movement? Could be a bad bearing or race? 

Does the steering wheel shake while driving? Braking?

wheel bearing feel fine, no other bad habbits at all. no shake ever, tracks perfect, brakes straight. lifted car gave the wheel a 12/6 shake no play the a 9/3 shake, this is where I can just feel a tiny bit of play by grabbing the passenger side inner tie rod, squeeze there while shaking the wheel 9/3 with the steering locked. It seems like the only place that is not up to par, the drive side inner tie rod has zero play. I was wondering if other that may have had worn inner tie rods experience this kind of sound (knock and associated steering bump).

Most of the 9/3 movement was the rack moving inside the rubber mounts, but I could feel the diff in the inner tie rods, passenger side vs driver. Outer tie rods showed no movement from being loose.

Edited August 17, 2020 by Dave WM

[siteunseen]

What about the calipers and pads? Are they tight?

Hot out and bored, please excuse my redundancy.

[Dave WM]

I did not check the brakes. will do that when I go out to see about grease gun. I understand there is a hole that allows for grease under the boot.

[Dave WM]

I practiced greasing the spare rack inner tie rod. pull the boot up after removing the clamp from the inside towards the outside, have to collapse the boot completely to see the small hole on the rack about 1/2" in from the tie rod where is screws onto the rack. there is NO cover to the hole, if it had one it would have to be flush since this part of the rack goes into the assembly, and any protrusion would interfere with a complete stroke. I put in a zerk tested it for accepting grease. I guess its just pumped in until you get some squeeze out by the threaded rod part. I would have thought there would be some kind of plug to retain it, but guess not. Any excess grease will still inside the boot anyway. I am hoping I can get the boot off the rack installed in the car without tearing anything. The boot on the spare is trashed, I think the other side is still ok so I have a donor in case I goof it up. I was checking on OE boots, 100 for a pair, yikes. at  that price I would prob just pop for a whole new china rack.

[Dave WM]

That was easy.

drive up on ramps for some room to work, remove splash pan to gain access to rack, remove the clamp on the inner part of the boot. Used a pick to get under the boot and lift it over the ridge, then walk that around until the boot is free. The boot was in great shape, I was able to collapse it back and hold it there for easy access to the zerk fitting hole. Screw in the zerk gave it a few good shots of EP grease, I have no idea how much as I did not bother to remove the boot and try to see the inner tie rod threaded rod part. Just gave it several good squeezes. replace boot and clamp, done. maybe 30min from start to finish. it was late and I had to jockey around cars to give me a good work space in the garage. I will road test it tomorrow to see if there is any improvement. I did NOT check the caliper bolts, IIRC I have to remove the tires to get access to that and since I had the ramps I could not do that. Will report back tomorrow to see if it resolved the mystery clunk. I did check all the other steering related bolts all were tight, the sway bar end links were snug, but again IIRC its not supposed to be super tight on that. Both sides seemed about the same. I am sticking with the inner tie rod as the prime suspect given the noise and steering bump happen at exactly the same time.

[Zed Head]

Maybe your battery is about to fall out?  You never know.  Assume the unassumable.

[Dave WM]

It sounds a little bit different but still there. The change while subtle is noticeable so I presume I am on the right track, perhaps I just need a new inner tie rod.

[7tooZ]

@Dave WM I had a similar type issue a few years ago. Looked for it for for a long time and that my passenger side tension rod was just loose enough to move only under same type of load. It was the two bolts holding it to the lower control bar. They were tight but not enough to keep it from a slight movement and a sound similar to what you described. Hope this helps. 

[Dave WM]

37 minutes ago, 7tooZ said:

@Dave WM I had a similar type issue a few years ago. Looked for it for for a long time and that my passenger side tension rod was just loose enough to move only under same type of load. It was the two bolts holding it to the lower control bar. They were tight but not enough to keep it from a slight movement and a sound similar to what you described. Hope this helps. 

they were very tight but I will double check the torque specs and see if tight enough. I check all the bolts around the problem area (ball joint,TC both sides). Thanks the tip. What I forgot to check was the steering arm to wheel hub, the big ones think 2 17mm will check those as well.

[Dave WM]

ok moving on, I was able to recreate the sound by jacking up the front, unloading the tires, locking the steering and pushing 9/3 one way very firmly then I would reverse the direction and a I would get a pop, it seems higher up than the tie rods. I don't have any help so its hard to manipulate the wheels while trying to locate the source of the pop. I thought it may have been something to do with a strut, like a spring shifting in a perch or something up there. I am going to try and capture on video later but that will not help me find it, just something to share with the folks so you can hear the noise I am referring to. I suppose I could unbolt the top of the strut and see if that changes the sound...

the odd thing is it does not make the noise if you just go lock to lock, you have to shove hard on 9 or 3 against the lock of the steering or the end of the rack to "set" it then slight pressure the opposite direction causes the pop. It almost looked at times like the wheel was moving and the hub was not when it popped like a really jacked up wheel bearing, enough play to see. But I cant imagine that is the case as it has no play 12/6. Another test for that I could do would be to tighten up the wheel bearing some and see if that matters to the noise. Of course I don't want it overtight, but that could at least eliminate the bearing as the issue. The main problem is poor visibility of the issue while manipulating the wheel.

Edited August 18, 2020 by Dave WM