Pesky annoying clunk sounds like coming from right front somewhere (2 Viewers)

[sunrk]

80 has done this for quite some time, but now I'm getting annoyed by it....

I have a clunk occuring on the right side when going over bumps and lumps on the road. I went for a bit of off-road a few day ago and any rock or corrugation in the dirt tracks made it occur a lot and I'm not a fan of metal parts interacting in ways they're not supposed to.

I've just spent half an hour probing around with a prybar and can't work it out. I first thought radius arm bushes (esp the right rear one) but it hardly flexes and they aren't torn/degraded.

Something is definitely moving and sounds like it's hitting something fixed on the chassis rail. The sound seems to come into the body from right under my feet which is why I was thinking radius arm bushes.

Exhaust seems solid with no mount issues that I can find. Springs don't look out of place. Swaybar mounts are solid. The shock mounts top and bottom are fine and have no damaged/worn bushes.

I can live with it, but it makes me wonder if something is broken and I just can't track it down. It's not steering box or front panhard mount as I had that all plated up last year.
Before I go to a mechanic and ask them to figure out out can anyone suggest more things to look at?

I'm going to drop the right radius arm down after lunch just for s***s and giggles to visually inspect the rear bush out of the chassis mount.

I looked at the 2nd and 3rd body mounts and they're not broken (but all the body mounts are originals). I already know the two front-mount body mounts are bad.

It's possibly a spring since I run 3 inch lift with aftermarket 4 inch arms to maintain a 4.5 degree positive caster, but I climbed up on the right front corner of the bullbar and jumped up and down like a monkey for half a minute and nothing clunked. So it has to be related to 'suddeness' of the terrain change.

I also lifted the front up under the diff housing and 'dropped' it about 3 inches back to the ground, and no clunk.

 

[NorCalFJ100]

I'd check and baseline ALL your bushings. Check your sway bar linkage. Check the sway bar mount on the axle side. Check and torque all the suspension bolts too.

 

[sunrk]

Thanks. A person in another site suggested that because I have a slightly unusual setup the spring might be slightly deflecting and hitting the bumpstop mount. I unloaded the right front spring enough to wiggle it and it's seated properly.

I'll have a much more detailed inspection again when I have more time.

 

[Woofythewolf]

80 has done this for quite some time, but now I'm getting annoyed by it....

I have a clunk occuring on the right side when going over bumps and lumps on the road. I went for a bit of off-road a few day ago and any rock or corrugation in the dirt tracks made it occur a lot and I'm not a fan of metal parts interacting in ways they're not supposed to.

I've just spent half an hour probing around with a prybar and can't work it out. I first thought radius arm bushes (esp the right rear one) but it hardly flexes and they aren't torn/degraded.

Something is definitely moving and sounds like it's hitting something fixed on the chassis rail. The sound seems to come into the body from right under my feet which is why I was thinking radius arm bushes.

Exhaust seems solid with no mount issues that I can find. Springs don't look out of place. Swaybar mounts are solid. The shock mounts top and bottom are fine and have no damaged/worn bushes.

I can live with it, but it makes me wonder if something is broken and I just can't track it down. It's not steering box or front panhard mount as I had that all plated up last year.
Before I go to a mechanic and ask them to figure out out can anyone suggest more things to look at?

I'm going to drop the right radius arm down after lunch just for s***s and giggles to visually inspect the rear bush out of the chassis mount.

I looked at the 2nd and 3rd body mounts and they're not broken (but all the body mounts are originals). I already know the two front-mount body mounts are bad.

It's possibly a spring since I run 3 inch lift with aftermarket 4 inch arms to maintain a 4.5 degree positive caster, but I climbed up on the right front corner of the bullbar and jumped up and down like a monkey for half a minute and nothing clunked. So it has to be related to 'suddeness' of the terrain change.

I also lifted the front up under the diff housing and 'dropped' it about 3 inches back to the ground, and no clunk.

I had a "right under my feet" very worrying clunk develop while I was offroading in the desert, to the point I pulled off to try and fix it. This was maybe 1000 miles after new bushings in the entire front end on a stock height vehicle.

The solution: tighten the body mount at the back of the front wheelwell/under your feet by 1/16" of an inch, or 1-2mm. That's all it was. (for me at least)

Best of luck.

 

[robnicko]

make sure shock washers are seated correctly in the body mounting holes and also the steering stabiliser mounts

 

[Surfdc]

Sounds like spring slap (do you have slinky or long travel springs?)
Or the coils is rubbing on the front of the metal lip of the front bump stop. Look for paint rubbing off spring onto this lip. I had this same sound when hitting bumps when I had 3” springs and 4” radius arms. Take a grinder to that lip. Will take 1 minute. Post your results.
More in this thread.

80 series front bumpstop hitting front coil spring only on one side

I have a 1991 HDJ81 (RHD) and earlier this year I upgraded my suspension from stock to an OME (Old Man Emu) setup using new OME 850 springs in the front (and new OME shocks as well). The caster was obviously affected by this upgrade so I installed a set of bolt-on caster plates. The caster...

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[doc_random]

My mystery clunk later self-identified when the radiator started leaking. It had come loose at the bottom on passenger side.

 

[rhc404]

Check the radius arm bolts. I had a clunking noise a few weeks ago and it was a radius arm bolt that didn't appear loose but it was a little bit when I checked the torque. Tightening it to 130 ft lb made the clunk go away. When one of those bolts is loose it allows the bushing to spin at the mount after enough resistance built up, creating the clunk.

 

[sunrk]

Gasp I couldn't get 130 ft lb with mine, but that's certainly worth sussing out. I copper grease all fasteners except where specified not to, so I tend to do radius arm bolts up to 90 ft lb as that's giving about 110 ish ft lb due to the anti-sieze. But very good explanation.

 

[artech]

I had a similar noise and it turned out the axle mount for the swaybar had rusted through and broken off the axle. That was the end of my front swaybar, and I'm still driving it everyday on the rear only. Honestly, with the front bar being 25 years old and badly rusted when it came off, I don't notice any difference in handling.