Subtle clunk when steering.

[Harold0819]

Noticed this yesterday. My JTR has the Rock Krawler 3.0" Pro-X 'no limits" Stage 1 lift, Synergy Trac bar/sector shaft brace, HD draglink and HD tierod with 37" Nitto tires.
During normal driving, everything is fine. Jeep runs and drives great. At low speeds when wheel is turned approx. half way or more to one side and then back I hear a subtle clunk. Feel nothing in the wheel, floor, etc. Jeep rides, drives, function without issues when it happens.
I checked it over tonight, re-torqued all bolts up front and no change. Was thinking maybe balljoints, but Jeep only has 2300 miles on it...LOL
Sound familiar to anyone?

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[Alabama Mud Machine]

My dad had something like this happen after having a place install a leveling kit on his 2008 Ram 2500... No steering wheel feel or any steering issues, but a subtle "clunk" when hitting bumps and turning. After I did some recon with the front end (while it was sitting still in park), and had someone bounce up and down on the front winch bumper (while I was watching the suspension), and found that one of the bolts was loose on his track-bar (axle side).

Not sure if this is your issue, but be sure to recheck all your nuts and bolts to ensure they're still tight. Sometimes after installing a lift (or anything to do with steering and suspension), if things aren't torqued properly (and loctite wasn't used), nuts will back-off and cause things like that.

 

[Harold0819]

My dad had something like this happen after having a place install a leveling kit on his 2008 Ram 2500... No steering wheel feel or any steering issues, but a subtle "clunk" when hitting bumps and turning. After I did some recon with the front end, and had someone bounce up and down on the front winch bumper (while I was watching the suspension), and found that one of the bolts was loose on his track-bar (axle side).

Not sure if this is your issue, but be sure to recheck all your nuts and bolts to ensure they're still tight. Sometimes after installing a lift (or anything to do with steering and suspension), if things aren't torqued properly (and loctite wasn't used), nuts will back-off and cause things like that.

Thanks for suggestion. Going to retorque my ball joints tomorrow. I retorqued all my front end bolts, control arms, tracbar, swaybar links, all steering linkage, etc tonight and no change

 

[Alabama Mud Machine]

Ball joints are a weird creature. I've messed with balljoints and kingpins plenty times before when I was rebuilding Dana 60's for my offroad trucks. Sometimes they'll trick you into thinking they're 100% seated, but they aren't, and will still have a bit of play. I would definitely check and re-torque those again. Give everything a triple-check while under there, as well. Every nut and bolt, every spring, everything attached from steering to frame, etc...

Sorry if I'm not super-helpful, just hard to diagnose over the internet. Haha

 

[Harold0819]

Ball joints are a weird creature. I've messed with balljoints and kingpins plenty times before when I was rebuilding Dana 60's for my offroad trucks. Sometimes they'll trick you into thinking they're 100% seated, but they aren't, and will still have a bit of play. I would definitely check and re-torque those again. Give everything a triple-check while under there, as well. Every nut and bolt, every spring, everything attached from steering to frame, etc...

Sorry if I'm not super-helpful, just hard to diagnose over the internet. Haha

Agreed, thank you for the suggestions. I will continue to check it over. I read in a few threads that many people have experience ball joints right out of the factory that were not torques enough. That was what I figured I'd check. I can't imagine them to be worn out but improper torque could definitely be possible. Especially since this started right after I installed my new tires and wheels which would put a lot more stress on the suspension. Funny thing is I feel absolutely nothing in the wheel, or in the rest of the truck for that matter.

 

[Alabama Mud Machine]

Make sure you have a high-quality torque wrench that is accurate, and good impact sockets that don't have any "give" when torquing to high specs. I've had my MAC torque wrench for years, and it's always been spot-on. I'd recommend dropping the coin on good name tools like that, if you plan on doing more of your own wrenching work in the future. Snap-On, MAC, Matco, Blackhawk are all good tools. Even the cheaper brand of Snap-On called Blue-Point are good stuff.

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