YJ front end clunk

[JackstandJohnny]

just replaced unit bearings on jeep, the axle seal on the passenger side, and swapped in bigger ujoint axles.  the pass. side i stuck with the two piece shaft, and on the drivers i swapped in a bigger TJ axleshaft, with the ABS tonering on it.   now i went for a rip, and its clunking bad. but not while moving, under load, or anything, it only clunks when the suspension moves (like the bump at the end of the driveway) or i can replicate the sound by rocking the jeep back and forth.  

any ideas before i rip the front end apart again?


unit bearings are new, ball joints feel tight, u joint in the axle is tight; there is no play in it.  

the only thing i can think of is somehow maybe the tone ring his hitting something, or possibly the u joint is bad? it feels tight and there is no movement in it that i can feel. can it still be the culprit?

any ideas?

[esi]

What did you torque your wheel nuts to? I've had to torque mine to 105ft/lbs to keep them from loosening

[JackstandJohnny]

lugs on both the wheel spacer and the wheel are 'johnny' tight, which measures to about 100ft lbs.  theres no play at all in there.  looks tight, feels tight........ and makes horrible clunk/banging noise. 

i'm gonna be ripping it apart after work again tonight

[frenchy]

Have someone else listen closely while you're swaying it back and forth to find out exactly where noise is coming from before tearing it apart.
Could be just a finger tight bolt on something else up there.

[Bnine]

have someone bounce on the bumper while you look around. It sounds suspension related from your description.

[JackstandJohnny]

have someone bounce on the bumper while you look around. It sounds suspension related from your description.

when i get home i'll do all of the above. 

just irks me sitting behind a desk all day when i'd obviously rather be tinkering.

[Sean778]

I know the feeling buddy. The internet really doesn't help either.

[Knox]

my work gave us all hacky sacs today...  I really don't know what they were thinking, productivity went wayy down

[Immortal]

YJ front end clunk ..... I ROCK!!!!

[JackstandJohnny]

Bills right;  it was suspension related......... lets just leave it at that............

[Immortal]

oh no you don't.... you NEED to elaborate, for all the inquiring minds that want to know.

[Sean778]

Yeah buddy, I wanna know why Trev won.

[JackstandJohnny]

sean, put a better pic of your heep up 

turns out the sound (we think) is/was in the leafs. rubbing or something along those lines.  jacked jeep up, soaked leafs in WD40, and its gone................ sooo weird.....

this was after i swapped out the front axleshaft

thanks trev.....................................

[Immortal]

you're welcome good sir.

Trevor 2
Johnny 0

[w squared]

sean, put a better pic of your heep up 

turns out the sound (we think) is/was in the leafs. rubbing or something along those lines.  jacked jeep up, soaked leafs in WD40, and its gone................ sooo weird.....

this was after i swapped out the front axleshaft

thanks trev.....................................

That WD 40 wil evaporate pretty quick. The way I see it, you've only got two choices if you want to keep that clunk under control long term:

#1. Convert your YJ to coilovers.

#2. Remove all the WD-40 and apply belt dressing instead.