Right turn clunk help, please, for my sanity....

B

BetterontheMtn

Member
Help. Please.
97 Limited 4WD
Within the last few years the following has been replaced:
Both CV axles
Passenger Inner Tie rod
Tundra Brake upgrade (the smaller of the two tundra calipers)
Rotors (twice, long story..)
Lower Ball Joints
Sway Bar end links
Shocks all around
Rear springs


Replaced a little further back in time
Steering Rack mount bushings
Sway bar mount bushings

Now...the fun stuff.
When turning to the right, past center, and anything more than a few degrees there is an audible clunk. It can be felt in the steering wheel.
It will clunk once while turning right, then nothing as the wheel returns to center. It does not need to go past center to repeat the sound.

Had the truck in the air at my work the other day, pry bar on all sorts of stuff but no movement. LBJ's look good. The truck drives like its on rails. No handling concerns to speak of.

This noise has given me gray hairs.

I've seen the threads about the Rack tensioning bushing (but haven't seen it described as a one way sound)

I also will say that it doesn't seem to happen at the same spot when turning the wheel. For example, sometimes just a little steering right input and clunk, others a tighter turn before the clunk.

I've attached a map of my commute and highlighted the turns that typically illicit a clunk. Heading north (up) is an elevation drop of about 1400 feet total in the stretch shown. So the truck is front heavy and sometimes under breaking when it clunks

The reverse is also true and when heading back up the mountain it will clunk with no brakes and neutral to rear heavy.


Seriously...I'm losing my mind here.
Help,

Thanks in advance.
 

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I know that the Upper Ball Joints can clunk over speed bumps and things like that but this seems a bit different. If you jack the front end into the air (with support stands) and turn the wheel left and right does it clunk? If yes, there's something gone wrong with the rack and pinion. If not, it could be something else like CV axles.
 
Call me crazy but are your body mount bolts loose/bushings bad? I had something very similar and it turned out to be loose bolts connecting the mount to the frame.

I would also look at your steering stops perhaps? Mine were really popping for awhile, greased them up and no noise since.
 
You said you had the truck in the air and used the pry bar, but I would manually test tie rods by grabbing 9 o’clock and 3 o’clock on the wheel for both sides of the vehicle just to make sure they’re not the culprit.

After that, my money is on LCA bushings. I know when I’ve had alignment done at Firestone and they don’t tighten everything up well, my truck has made the clunk sound. It’s likely the bushings are the actual issue if there wasn’t any work done on the vehicle right before it started making noise.
 
Amazing input from all. I'll try to answer all questions here.

In the air, no clunk. I tried and tried and tried.

Sitting still (on concrete with carpet squares under the wheels) no clunk

Sitting still on concrete/asphalt no clunk

Handles like a dream. (Better than my 02 Tundra actually)

I've had the tie rods off the spindles on both sides. Tight on both sides for all 4 joints.


Update: Today at work in the shop on the concrete floor I shook the ever loving hell out of the truck(side to side rocking) and FINALLY duplicated the sound. But time was a factor and we didnt have time to diag further.

I'll re read this tomorrow and make a game plan to address things I haven't yet.

How does one inspect the body mounts? I know the truck was in a passenger right front collision before we purchased.
 
gamefreakgc said:
I know that the Upper Ball Joints can clunk over speed bumps and things like that but this seems a bit different. If you jack the front end into the air (with support stands) and turn the wheel left and right does it clunk? If yes, there's something gone wrong with the rack and pinion. If not, it could be something else like CV axles.
Click to expand...

No clunk in the air and not really affected by speed bumps/potholes
 
Storm01 said:
Call me crazy but are your body mount bolts loose/bushings bad? I had something very similar and it turned out to be loose bolts connecting the mount to the frame.

I would also look at your steering stops perhaps? Mine were really popping for awhile, greased them up and no noise since.
Click to expand...

So, I'll investigate this, but it doesn't happen at full lock, or even close to full lock. Isn't that where the stops come in?
 
Dezert4Runner said:
You said you had the truck in the air and used the pry bar, but I would manually test tie rods by grabbing 9 o’clock and 3 o’clock on the wheel for both sides of the vehicle just to make sure they’re not the culprit.

After that, my money is on LCA bushings. I know when I’ve had alignment done at Firestone and they don’t tighten everything up well, my truck has made the clunk sound. It’s likely the bushings are the actual issue if there wasn’t any work done on the vehicle right before it started making noise.
Click to expand...


I love hate this reply. Will investigate. I've done two sets of LCAs on my tundra (much more corrosion prone somehow?) Its not a job I love.
 
BetterontheMtn said:
Amazing input from all. I'll try to answer all questions here.

In the air, no clunk. I tried and tried and tried.

Sitting still (on concrete with carpet squares under the wheels) no clunk

Sitting still on concrete/asphalt no clunk

Handles like a dream. (Better than my 02 Tundra actually)

I've had the tie rods off the spindles on both sides. Tight on both sides for all 4 joints.


Update: Today at work in the shop on the concrete floor I shook the ever loving hell out of the truck(side to side rocking) and FINALLY duplicated the sound. But time was a factor and we didnt have time to diag further.

I'll re read this tomorrow and make a game plan to address things I haven't yet.

How does one inspect the body mounts? I know the truck was in a passenger right front collision before we purchased.
Click to expand...

Ok, so you got the clunk with no turning of the wheel. I think that effectively rules out anything tie rod or steering related. I would look then to frame items or body mounts like others suggested. A loose body mount could make sense. The sway bars see serious tension on even the slightest turns (left AND right) so I don't think it is the sway bars.

This might seem really old school but make yourself a list and write down everything suggested here. Then cross off everything that you know 100% that it is NOT. Your list will get smaller and smaller until you find the culprit. We can keep spitting out ideas if you reach the end of your list ha
 
On the LCA bushings topic. I sort of had a similar situation with this.

My bushings were so shot that when I hit the brakes the arms made a very audible groan from shifting due to the bushings being shot. I never had a clunk but I would say that’s it’s entirely possible like others have mentioned.

Another thing to check is where the steering wheel goes into the rack on the rag joint (I think it’s called that lol) or possibly one of the inners has play?

I know it’s a pain to do on this website but if you could upload a video of the noise it would certainly help

Since you can sort of replicate the noise without moving I’d say shake the hell out of the truck again and have someone underneath to help pinpoint exactly where it’s coming from

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Regarding the OP's "clunk" sound, his issue reminded me of a post I saw in one of the Facebook 3rd gen Groups. Here's the link, which also contains quite a few comments which might be helpful.

页面未找到 | Facebook

Here's the quote that caught my eye: "If you hear a slight clunk when rotating steering wheel at stop this can be culprit."

The comments also include a link to one of Tim's videos which addresses how to replace the steering rack guide, if that turns out to be the problem.
 
I recently tracked down a funky creak when turning on my 3rd gen. I did two things at once and so I can't be sure which one.

1. I torqued the lower control arm bolts to 130 ft lbs. Manual says 100 and I feel mine were less than that. Folks on this board said they loosen over time.

2. I tightened the front sway bar brackets. The passenger side was "slightly" loose (I think this was the culprit).

Anyway, it doesn't feel the same as yours but I wanted to toss out there what I did.

I agree, get 2 friends to shake the F out of the truck while you crawl under it and find it. 3 friends to shake it is even better.

Good luck! You will find it I am sure.

Jason
 
THREAD RESURRECTION!

After shaking the hell out of the truck, jiggling everthing underneath I could, Smacking stuff, prying on stuff....I'd had enough.

I bought a set of Chassis ears on Amazon.
Finally got time to mess about with them tonight.

Round 1
6 leads placed along both sides of the truck.
Drivers side: brake hose bracket, transmission crossmember and finally back on a rear body mount.
Passenger side: Brake hose bracket, sway bar to frame mount bracket, upper trailing arm forward mount on frame

Immediately upon hearing the noise the front passenger lead lit up.

Round 2
Front Skid plate,
Front shock tower,
Sway bar mount
Middle body mount.

BINGO.....Sway bar mount and nothing else.

Round 3, One lead on the front of the sway bar mount
One lead on the rear portion of sway bar mount.
One lead zip tied to the sway bar itself between the frame mounts

Again, only the sway bar mount lights up when I head the noise.

So....when I next have time I'll replace both the mount bushings, and cross my
fingers.

btw...chassis ears are so cool.
 
BetterontheMtn said:
THREAD RESURRECTION!

After shaking the hell out of the truck, jiggling everthing underneath I could, Smacking stuff, prying on stuff....I'd had enough.

I bought a set of Chassis ears on Amazon.
Finally got time to mess about with them tonight.

Round 1
6 leads placed along both sides of the truck.
Drivers side: brake hose bracket, transmission crossmember and finally back on a rear body mount.
Passenger side: Brake hose bracket, sway bar to frame mount bracket, upper trailing arm forward mount on frame

Immediately upon hearing the noise the front passenger lead lit up.

Round 2
Front Skid plate,
Front shock tower,
Sway bar mount
Middle body mount.

BINGO.....Sway bar mount and nothing else.

Round 3, One lead on the front of the sway bar mount
One lead on the rear portion of sway bar mount.
One lead zip tied to the sway bar itself between the frame mounts

Again, only the sway bar mount lights up when I head the noise.

So....when I next have time I'll replace both the mount bushings, and cross my
fingers.

btw...chassis ears are so cool.
Click to expand...

I have never heard of those before. I'll have to check that out!
 
When I got the truck back in 2015 I had a clunk similar to yours felt in the steering but it was weird.

It drove me totally ape shit crazy. I replaced pretty much the entire front end chasing this clunk, every ball joints, every bushings, LCA, the entire steering rack and also its bushings you name it.

Finally it was my body mount bushing and its bolt, the one just beside your left feet while driving. Tightening it fixed it to a small extent, but the bolt was also moving into the rusty guide hole, so welded it, rust proofed it, and it's holding right there since then and no more clunking.
 
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