clunk from ****

[advocate]

I can not figure out this clunk for the life of me. I have AL SFB's - recently re-torqued to 120 ft lbs.

When I start out and let the clutch out a bit too fast it clunks once, sometimes two times, then nothing. I also sometimes get the same thing when I'm driving slow and turn left. once out of first gear I don't get the clunk at all and shifting is fine. Now sometimes I also get a surging problem, happens at any rpm, and gear, but very intermittant - could they be related? This clunk i can feel under my feet too, my girlfriend has felt it under her feet too.

I was thinking either strut mounts or the tranny mount... front and rear engine mounts seem fine as the engine does not move at all it seems...

any other ideas?

 

[Shoaz]

Lower control arms and strut tension rods, broken spring, etc.

120 ft-lbs sounds kinda high.

 

[Bizzy]

check the front sway links. I had no noises on my SHO front end, then I installed my AL SFB's. Boom I had a clunking similar to what you are describing. turns our that one of my front sway links started to pop in and out on its ball and socket. It would happen the most when I would accelerate.

Wierd part is that a week before I had given a tug on the links and they were really tight. I think the added forces that the front end sees when one has added AL SFB's kinda bring to light other components that might be near to failure or worn out. Remember when you add AL SFB's the whole frontend moves alot less, and there is fewer places to absorb movement, so old or weak components may show up as bad sooner cause they are being pushed harder than they were before.

 

[PAracer]

This sounds like a front strut rod mount coming apart. If you take the car to ford, they will want you to have the entire subframe replacesd. The sane thing to do is just reweld the cup back in place.

This is from experience. I had this same problem a couple weeks ago. A little TIG weld and good as new.

 

[MeShoHorny]

It could be both of the above. I put my money on loose or broken end-link. Have a look see at them.
Make sure the nuts on the end-links are tight, both on the swaybar and the strut housing.

 

[torinogt]

Check the sway bar end links as stated before. I had a nasty clunk also that was solved when I changed them with Moog replacements. They were about 30 dollars a side and easy to change.

 

[SHODWN]

DOes it pull wildly under acceration? but feels normal with steady driving?

 

[gdsqdcr]

Recently I had a smiliar problem. It ended up being my hub nut was loose on the drivers wheel. No idea how it came loose, but it was.

Clunk is now gone.

Anthony

 

[shojuan]

gdsqdcr:
Recently I had a smiliar problem. It ended up being my hub nut was loose on the drivers wheel. No idea how it came loose, but it was.

Clunk is now gone.

Anthony

You might need a new wheel bearing. If that's the case then replace the hub too.

 

[advocate]

It doesnt pull too bad under acceleration. I will have my shop look into all of these. I will be going in soon to do my spark plug wells as I was lucky enough to find a tone of oil in them last night....

<small>[ January 01, 2004, 11:52 AM: Message edited by: advocate ]</small>

 

[gdsqdcr]

Bearing and hub replaced 6000 miles ago. Nick said that because I hadnt gone too long on the noise, I didnt need to replace the hub and bearing again.

Anthony

 

[SHODWN]

If the nut was loose, you put uneven wear on the bearing. Its 20.00 to get a new one. I would do that for sure!!! Oh and its unsafe!

 

[Electricat]

I was having a similiar noise with my '95, I found it was a badly worn sway bar end link. It made the same noise under hard braking.

 

[Puckpimp71]

I had that problem and I went down the list...
-Subframe Connectors (clunks still)
-Reinforced Motor Mount (still there)
-Poly Strut Rod and Sway bar bushings (tight handling, but still clunking)
-'96 Subframe bushings (more response to wheels, but clunk persists)
-Moog front endlinks (great for steering response, but didn't do a thing to stop the clunk)
-SHOShop catless Y-pipe (turns out I had a bad exhaust hanger that caused the clunk when I hit bumps or dropped the clutch at anything over 2500 rpms)
So now my car handles tightly, but it was the Y-pipe that got rid of that damn noise.

 

[advocate]

I hate to dig up an old post. But I wanted some conclusion on this for others who may come across this in the future. Search feature is useless without answers!

I finally got my parts in for my plug seals and other various parts. the car went to the shop yesterday night. And they should start it today. I have gave them a list of all the parts to check for the suspension.

I will update this post once it is fixed - and the cause. Hopefully it will be fixed!

 

[advocate]

Car is almost done at the shop.

the culprit for the clunk was the front sway bar end links.

thanks all for the help!