Clunks when stopping

[nU7OuxIx]

I have about 35k miles on my JLUR and it's mostly factory. About a year ago I noticed a clunk when stopping. It happened once and kind of went away, but it's getting worst as time goes on. I thought it may had been the ball joints but the tire is pretty solid. As it's happening more now, I decided to set a camera up to try to figure out what's going on. I only hear it when I'm stopping, and it doesn't happen all the time.

In the video between 7 and 9 seconds, you will hear 3 clunks, one louder than the next. To my surprise, it seems like the third and loudest clunk is when the jeep is about stopped and not moving.

Any help in diagnosing is appreciated. I'm more than happy to take more videos if somebody gives me a hint on where to place the camera.

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[58Willys]

Something is definitely loose. Get underneath with a big wrench and start moving things (brake caliper mountings, tie rod, track bar, sway bar, axle, etc..; listen for the clunk.

 

[nU7OuxIx]

Something is definitely loose. Get underneath with a big wrench and start moving things (brake caliper mountings, tie rod, track bar, sway bar, axle, etc..; listen for the clunk.

I grabbed a few things and couldn't find a jiggle or clunk by hand....which I wonder if it only happens under load. Even took my tires off and checked the caliper bolts and jiggled stuff around.

I guess I could move the camera around a bunch of times to try to figure it out. Just hoping that somebody may have heard something like this before.

 

[nU7OuxIx]

Update. Checked LCA, sway bar, track bar, shocks, and tie rod and drag link again and nothing was loose. But rotating the tie rod and drag link makes a noise very similar to that. From what I hear, the drag link and tie rod are supposed to be rotated a bit.

I *think* it may be related to the drag link/tie rod. I have a hard time believing they would rotate like that but maybe they do and that's what the noise is from.

 

[58Willys]

Tie rod/drag link do rotate, but your tie rod seemed to be a bit floppy in the video; but hard to tell if it was not normal with the camera angle.

 

[nU7OuxIx]

I think it was the camera mount point. I used some hose clamps on the sway bar to hold the camera down. I didn't expect that sway bar to move as much as it did!

Either way, I still have more investigating to do. In the cabin I thought it was coming from the drivers side. I had the camera mounted on the driver side sway bar but yet the stereo sound made it sound more towards the passenger side.

I just don't want a part falling off. I have a bunch of trips planned soon and would rather get this thing fixed, if it truly is an issue.

 

[Lofty]

I have about 35k miles on my JLUR and it's mostly factory. About a year ago I noticed a clunk when stopping. It happened once and kind of went away, but it's getting worst as time goes on. I thought it may had been the ball joints but the tire is pretty solid. As it's happening more now, I decided to set a camera up to try to figure out what's going on. I only hear it when I'm stopping, and it doesn't happen all the time.

In the video between 7 and 9 seconds, you will hear 3 clunks, one louder than the next. To my surprise, it seems like the third and loudest clunk is when the jeep is about stopped and not moving.

Any help in diagnosing is appreciated. I'm more than happy to take more videos if somebody gives me a hint on where to place the camera.

Try tightening your ball joints one castleation.

 

[nU7OuxIx]

Try tightening your ball joints one castleation.

Thank you, I will check out the passenger side. I did this on the driver side when I got it and it was close to the torque but I moved it up one castle slot. I'll check out the passenger side this weekend and hopefully this is it.

 

[nU7OuxIx]

Well, after a lot of investigation and poking, I'm pretty sure that the cause of this was a bad drag link end. After getting under it and rotating the steering wheel, I could see it popping out at the pitman arm and feel a clicking when it was doing it. There was also a pretty decent degree of rotation on that drag link when moving it around.

I ended up keeping the drag link but just replacing the end link at the pitman arm. Overall, it was an easy job. I think the hardest part was trying to get the steering wheel straight again. After replacing this part, I have been unable to replicate the noise.

 

[58Willys]

Nice ! Glad you found the culprit.

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