- Joined
- Oct 17, 2011
- Messages
- 755
- Reaction score
- 12
- Points
- 18
- Location
- New Joisey
- Vehicle Year
- 1987
- Make / Model
- Ford
- Engine Size
- 2.9L
- Transmission
- Manual
This one has me puzzled.
Friday night while driving I was going down a slight hill and while breaking took a hard left turn. I heard a clunk from the right hand side of the vehicle., seemed unusual but dismissed it as something on the road. Then less than 10 minutes later while breaking fairly hard and turning left another quite loud clunk from the right hand side. Okay there was definitely nothing on the road or pothole to have caused that.
Initial thought was radius arm bushing or maybe a ball joint.
I took a good look Sunday. Lifted it up, ball joints are tight, wheel bearing seems good, wheel not loose and I can't get any movement at the radius arm bushing and to my surprise they actually look in pretty good shape.
For the heck of it I checked the drivers side. I found some play in that wheel. The play turned out to be related to the bearing not being seated. The lock hardware was in there properly so it didn't move, just seemed like it never had been seated all the way.
I also found that the slide pins on the caliper had jammed up and that was causing serious pressure by one pad when brakes were released. Fixing that solved my braking pull mystery.
I do not think these issues on the driver side wheel were related to the clunk on the passenger side.
I have not been able to reproduce the problem while driving. The only thing that seems off to me is when I look at the drivers side the front wheel seems well centered in the wheel well. When I look at the passenger side the wheel seems to be back in the wheel well, maybe a half inch off of center such that the gap in the rear is an inch smaller than the gap towards the front. But far I know it could have been that way before.
Anyone have any thoughts? I am fairly confident in my checking the ball joints. Checking the radius arm bushings I am not so confident so if anyone has any tricks for that is appreciated.
As far as where the wheel sits, seems to me that is pretty much controlled by the radius arm. Or is there something else that could affect that?
Could the point where the radius arm connects to the frame have shifted back? Grasping at straws here. Nothing looks like it moved. Could there be something loose on the frame that could have shifted?
Oh ad just as an aside, what is the best stuff to put on the brake caliper slide pins. These were new pins from when I replaced the caliper. They had whatever the original goo was that seems have just turned into glue.
Friday night while driving I was going down a slight hill and while breaking took a hard left turn. I heard a clunk from the right hand side of the vehicle., seemed unusual but dismissed it as something on the road. Then less than 10 minutes later while breaking fairly hard and turning left another quite loud clunk from the right hand side. Okay there was definitely nothing on the road or pothole to have caused that.
Initial thought was radius arm bushing or maybe a ball joint.
I took a good look Sunday. Lifted it up, ball joints are tight, wheel bearing seems good, wheel not loose and I can't get any movement at the radius arm bushing and to my surprise they actually look in pretty good shape.
For the heck of it I checked the drivers side. I found some play in that wheel. The play turned out to be related to the bearing not being seated. The lock hardware was in there properly so it didn't move, just seemed like it never had been seated all the way.
I also found that the slide pins on the caliper had jammed up and that was causing serious pressure by one pad when brakes were released. Fixing that solved my braking pull mystery.
I do not think these issues on the driver side wheel were related to the clunk on the passenger side.
I have not been able to reproduce the problem while driving. The only thing that seems off to me is when I look at the drivers side the front wheel seems well centered in the wheel well. When I look at the passenger side the wheel seems to be back in the wheel well, maybe a half inch off of center such that the gap in the rear is an inch smaller than the gap towards the front. But far I know it could have been that way before.
Anyone have any thoughts? I am fairly confident in my checking the ball joints. Checking the radius arm bushings I am not so confident so if anyone has any tricks for that is appreciated.
As far as where the wheel sits, seems to me that is pretty much controlled by the radius arm. Or is there something else that could affect that?
Could the point where the radius arm connects to the frame have shifted back? Grasping at straws here. Nothing looks like it moved. Could there be something loose on the frame that could have shifted?
Oh ad just as an aside, what is the best stuff to put on the brake caliper slide pins. These were new pins from when I replaced the caliper. They had whatever the original goo was that seems have just turned into glue.