Anyway to "test" cv axle and/or ball joint

[Tucson4runner]

Well I guess ill try 4wd today and see what happens.

 

[Tucson4runner]

Alright put it in 4wd and did a little off roading yesterday. Went over some pretty big bumps and no popping it clanking. Hopefully it was just a weird sound and nothing is needing to be replaced. Thanks for all the help guys.

 

[THEREALTOR1]

Hey Tucson, do you see anything like this on yours(see the grease in the pic? i'm Not sure what part that is, some sort of control arm, maybe the lbj itself, i have no idea?

Don't want to hijack your thread, but i get a similar sort of clunk, rubbing action when I back up and turn the wheel hard left, and stop and turn hard right and start going forward. This is my drivers side, (where the noise is coming from) and you can see in the pic that grease doesn't show up like that on the passenger side. Is this my drivers lower ball joing going bad? I was under there about a week ago when I first started trying to diagnose it, and I wiped the grease off at that time. This pic is from yesterday, you can see its back again.

I've been trying to dig through all the lbj threads to self-diagnose, but haven't had much time as I would like, so i've got to ask for help, and figured maybe it would help out Tucson (or anyone else for that matter). Like Tucson indicated above, I couldn't really feel alot of play in the wheel while jacked up either, so right now I just have the noises and the grease to go off of.

 

[Tucson4runner]

Tried looking under there today didn't see and grease in that spot. I'll jack it up after work and check again

 

[THEREALTOR1]

Tried looking under there today didn't see and grease in that spot. I'll jack it up after work and check again

Hmm, its so weird. I'm still perplexed (unfortunately I just don't know enough about the subject and can't find the time to really study it), but I have to assume that its got to be coming from the ball joint as there's no other place that I can think of for that grease to come from, and it keeps re-appearing. I went ahead and ordered a new lbj yesterday from napa and plan on picking it up today, so i'm going to just go ahead and swap it out regardless (i figure its to important of a piece to leave alone, even if its fine, my life is worth at least $78).

 

[Tucson4runner]

**Update** it started back up on Friday this time with a vengeance. It is constantly making the poppin noise through turns and even while driving straight. It's been raining lately and my truck is muddy as Hell so I hadnt noticed this until today.

see where the upper control arm attaches to the..... Other thing. Sorry I didn't do any research before writing this so I dont know what it is. But the seal up there is shredded. Could that be responsible for the popping sound I hear? And what exactly is that so I don't sound like a fool when I hit the parts store. Thanks again guys. My runner would have 30 pounds of duct tape on it if you guys weren't here helping me.

 

[nevada]

thats the upper balljoint.
and if its got play, it could be making a popping sound.

 

[Tucson4runner]

thats the upper balljoint.
and if its got play, it could be making a popping sound.

12.99 at autozone! Hopefully I can get it on this weekend

 

[THEREALTOR1]

12.99 at autozone! Hopefully I can get it on this weekend

You're in the same boat as me Tucson and after replacing the lbj, I see that the upper is clearly going bad (although not quite as bad as yours yet). I just paid $50 for Napa Premium, worst part is though my mechanic wants to charge me about $240 for labor to replace it out. I'm thinking if I can get the truck in the garage I can just remove the uca while i'm switching in my new OME coils and just take him in the uca to press the old ubj out and press the new one in. Hopefully save me some money?

I'm not sure how else to do it without having a press laying around?

 

[t4r4life]

hey bud just saw this thread, did you try to grab you tie rods and see if there is play? or have it running and turn the wheels to see where the noise is from? also way to test ball joint is to stick a pry bar in betweeen the spindle aka the "other thing" and pry it and see if it has any up and down action. but if you havent replaced them in a while you should do them anyway.

 

[Tucson4runner]

Haven't tried any of that! Buddy of mine is having a wrench day tomorrow gonna take it there and see what they think. Ball joint is already trashed so I'm gonna replace it and hope that solves the problem. If not ill be back here with more questions

 

[hrt4me]

did you ever find a successful resolution?

 

[Tucson4runner]

Alright, ill admit it. I'm a procrastinator. Ive had the chance to replace this ball joint like 5 times and I haven't yet. My CEL came on about 2 weeks before my truck needed to take emissions. I've been dealing with all that so I have not fixed the problem yet and it still pops and grinds in corners.

 

[ethandaniels]

**Update** it started back up on Friday this time with a vengeance. It is constantly making the poppin noise through turns and even while driving straight. It's been raining lately and my truck is muddy as Hell so I hadnt noticed this until today.

see where the upper control arm attaches to the..... Other thing. Sorry I didn't do any research before writing this so I dont know what it is. But the seal up there is shredded. Could that be responsible for the popping sound I hear? And what exactly is that so I don't sound like a fool when I hit the parts store. Thanks again guys. My runner would have 30 pounds of duct tape on it if you guys weren't here helping me.

Hey! Do you have a copy of the image you attached here? Looks like the link died.

Trying to diagnose a popping noise on my 2nd gen. Only happens on slow turns

 

[Tucson4runner]

Sorry bud, don't have that photo anymore and my suspension has changed a lot since then. It was just a shot of the upper ball joint bushing, I can take a picture of where that is when I get home, it just won't look like the stock setup.

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