The F#*@)$^g Mystery clunk - rear hatch?

[stevets]

I've had a "clunk" from the rear of my 2002 since I've had it. It gets worse when there is weight in the rear and I used to be able to make it go away by driving any sort of wedge between the hitch and the bumper.
I'm in the midst of building a Bandit bumper set and so the hitch is gone and parts of the stock bumper have been on and off. When I drove round a few days with just portion of the stock bumper on - between fitments of the build - no clunk and I'm feeling great. I install the new bumper and the god forsaken clunk is back! Any bump in the road and there it is.

I tried messing with the hatch when that was my first suspect years ago. But "the wedge" threw me off and now I am stumped.

Anybody? Anything? Hello???

 

[phattyduck]

The stock rear bumper is attached to the body and the hitch is attached to the frame. Your new bumper is attached to the frame.

What seems to be in common here is the frame (mounted items) to body contact.

The rear body mounts are REALLY soft, so looks for interference points between the body and bumper. You can buy stiffened rear body mounts if that is the issue.

-Charlie

 

[stevets]

Thanks for the reply Charlie. Having installed my new bumper with spare hanging on it, the clunk is gone. I looked around again trying to guess what it might be and got to exactly what you're suggesting.
The nuts look sooo crusty on these but I'll read up on replacing them.