Help me figure out what is about to snap. (1 Viewer)

[JJ_SC]

06 LC with AHC lift (shock spacers in front, king springs/spacers rear, spc UCAs, trail tailor sway bar links, 21” center of hub to fender in front. 275/70r18s.)

In tight turning, slow speed situation, it sounds like something is snapping. Freaks me out every time. It’s pretty consistent when the wheel is locked over. Seems to happen mostly turning left. It started happening after installing all the parts listed above. Never happened before the lift. It happens on or off road, center dif on or off. Low or high gear, doesn’t matter. I would love to get feed back to help figure out what’s going on.

Here are a couple of videos to show the conditions and the horrible sound (happens twice):



Thanks for you help!

 

[nissanh]

06 LC with AHC lift (shock spacers in front, king springs/spacers rear, spc UCAs, trail tailor sway bar links, 21” center of hub to fender in front. 275/70r18s.)

In tight turning, slow speed situation, it sounds like something is snapping. Freaks me out every time. It’s pretty consistent when the wheel is locked over. Seems to happen mostly turning left. It started happening after installing all the parts listed above. Never happened before the lift. It happens on or off road, center dif on or off. Low or high gear, doesn’t matter. I would love to get feed back to help figure out what’s going on.

Here are a couple of videos to show the conditions and the horrible sound (happens twice):



Thanks for you help!

Looks like CV joint. If you are planning to keep the truck and want to reduce the clunk when going between R and N, go with OEM CV axles. What wears out is the outer joint and the splies at the wheel/hub. You can buy that unit from the dealer and use your existing inner joint (assuming you have OEM CV's).

Is that is your 3rd gen tacoma? Looks like TRD offroad. I have placed an order for a 6speed manual. Hope you are happy with that truck!

 

[vman07]

mine has been doing that for years. Solution is don't turn so tight...

...I have a 2" lift and spc UCA's as well...

 

[JJ_SC]

[QUOTE="nissanh, post: 13256549, member: 123211"Is that is your 3rd gen tacoma? Looks like TRD offroad. I have placed an order for a 6speed manual. Hope you are happy with that truck!
[/QUOTE]
Yup. That’s my daily driver/work/surf/mt bike hauling truck. I love it. The manual will be nice. The automatic searches for gears a bit and isn’t the greatest. But, I still love it. It does everything I need a truck for and it’s pretty capable off road too. I have the long bed, so it’s limited by the wheel base, but otherwise- locking rear dif and the crawl control stuff is impressive.

But back to the Cruiser...does the CV go bad slowly? Like some notches on the splines will wear? My only experience with CV axels was when a friend snapped one on the trail (not in a Cruiser.) It was all gone. So is this indicative of one that’s about to fail?

 

[JJ_SC]

mine has been doing that for years. Solution is don't turn so tight...

...I have a 2" lift and spc UCA's as well...

I really like this answer. Until I hear more/better, Ima go with this!!

 

[vman07]

I really like this answer. Until I hear more/better, Ima go with this!!

I really doubt CV is your issue. Which is a good thing. Tell tale sign of worn CV is a consistent clicking through all turns. Also if you're loosing, or lost, all your CV grease, that would be pretty obvious and easy to diagnose.

I'm still not sure what the sound is though. I kind of always chalked it up to the adjustable camber or caster being off in the SPC's. Most of my off roading friends with modified suspensions have a similar sound on their rigs. I really wouldn't worry about it.

 

[vipergrhd]

You need this to locate the noise, i have one in my box.

Bottom-line pricing on Steelman 6600 at ToolTopia.com

ChassisEAR® Squeak & Rattle Finding Kit

www.tooltopia.com

Did you get an extended link for the sway bar? Check your rack bushings too.

 

[tomc99]

I have a similar noise on my cruiser - has driven me nuts for a couple of years.

I have a 2 inch lift on the front, with SPC arms and about 3.5 degrees caster.

Took me a while to put 2 and 2 together, but I also had a problem occasionally where, after being full lock right, my steering seemed to be locked.

At times the sound was quite loud and un-nerving, a very metallic sound like the CV had just completely broken in half.

I replaced drive shafts, ball joints, bushes etc, all without fixing the problem.

In the end I found that the steering lock bolt was getting stuck in the little area on the steering knuckle because of my lift and extra caster. With standard lift and caster it appears the steering lock bolt fits nicely into the concave area on the steering knuckle, but with lift and extra caster it hits right on the edge, with the noise being the bolt moving in and out of the area under bush flex.

I have now filed the bolt down so it doesn't jam as much, and the noise has virtually disappeared.

I will likely put a bolt in with a larger head as a final solution.

Hope this helps.

 

[JJ_SC]

@vipergrhd - that rattle tracker is awesome! I could spend hours with that thing, haha. And yes, the sway bar links are extended.

@tomc99 - Yeah, that helps a lot. Seems like the most promising road to head down. I'm gonna go see if I can find anything. Any chance you can post a pic or something to show me the bolt you're talking about?

Thanks for the help guys!

 

[gregnash]

Maybe check your steering rack bushings... that is a metal on metal sound that is something popping over another metal piece. Had a similar sound on my 60 and ended up finding that a front leaf spring leaf had busted and at certain angles it would create torsion and "POP" back and forth on itself.

First easy thing to check is to disconnect the extended links and see if the sound persists. Could be that one of the mounts has cracked and what you are hearing is it moving back and forth at the extremes of turning because it has the most torque/torsion placed on it at that point.

 

[suprarx7nut]

Sounds like it might be the shock spacer clicking up and down in its mount.

 

[vman07]

In the end I found that the steering lock bolt was getting stuck in the little area on the steering knuckle because of my lift and extra caster. With standard lift and caster it appears the steering lock bolt fits nicely into the concave area on the steering knuckle, but with lift and extra caster it hits right on the edge, with the noise being the bolt moving in and out of the area under bush flex.

this is awesome information, thanks for sharing...

 

[tomc99]

@tomc99[/USER] - Yeah, that helps a lot. Seems like the most promising road to head down. I'm gonna go see if I can find anything. Any chance you can post a pic or something to show me the bolt you're talking about?

Thanks for the help guys!

Will do after work today

 

[JJ_SC]

@tomc99, I think I found what you’re talking about and I think you might be right. It seems like the most likely culprit. I can see wear marks in the indentation you referred to. Nothing else seems out of order.

I’m gonna have my kid crawl under there and hold onto something while I slowly turn in a circle. He’s small enough. He could see if catches...

Kidding, of course. I’ll have him drive while I crawl under. What could go wrong??

 

[vipergrhd]

@tomc99, I think I found what you’re talking about and I think you might be right. It seems like the most likely culprit. I can see wear marks in the indentation you referred to. Nothing else seems out of order.

I’m gonna have my kid crawl under there and hold onto something while I slowly turn in a circle. He’s small enough. He could see if catches...

Kidding, of course. I’ll have him drive while I crawl under. What could go wrong??

Make sure you have it all on video. Goodluck? Nah you don't need it.