My whole entire front end is brand new. There is a noticeable clunk in the front end just as i go into reverse and hit the brakes or put it in forward and hit the brakes. Only does it once each way. The only thing I could think of is there is maybe some play where the torsion bar goes in the control arm. I put the reinforcing plates but failed to clamp the control arm tight when I welded it. Your thoughts on where this click could be coming from? BTW everything was torqued and retorqued
Lower control arm slop
- Thread starter RAVano
- Start date
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Professor Fate
Push the button, Max...
The question I have is: Did you torque it up in the air with the suspension dangling, or torque it on the ground with the full weight of the vehicle on the suspension?
I did everything in the air. As I assembled it
Professor Fate
Push the button, Max...
That's probably part of the problem- everything needs to be assembled loose and then torqued while on the ground with the full car weight on the suspension.
Jim Lusk
Well-Known Member
I suspect slop in the LCA pivot is the source of the "Mopar clunk", but I have no real evidence on that.
Bad out of the box idler arm ??
I’ve done some research on this topic and it always leads me to your videos. I’m going to take it apart, clamp the area and weld a small strap across since I already have the plates on them. See if that helps. Thank you.
Seems tight with no play
What kind of strut bars are you using? Stock or aftermarket?
Aftermarket. QA1
I had the same problem with PST bars, both the QA1 and PST bars use heim joints. I fixed my problem by putting a little black grease on the heim joint.
What kind of LCA bushings? If you’ve got poly or Delrin they don’t need to be torqued on the ground.
You can get rid of the slop with just the strap on the end of the LCA. I did a set of LCA’s like that and added the plate before I removed the slop, then got rid of it with a strap
Just be sure that you add the strap in a spot where it doesn’t limit the useful range of travel for the adjusting lever- so more on the backside of the LCA, not on top.
Yes they are Delrin bushings. I did one side last night with the strap just like this. I had to get the car out of the garage for another weekend project so I’ll get to the other side sometime this week.
Yep, so with Delrin bushings you can tighten them whenever. Tightening at ride height is specific to the factory rubber bushings.
I had great luck with the additional strap, I run tubular LCA's on my Duster now but I add plates and straps to factory LCA's if I do them, just to keep the end of the LCA from spreading apart any under load.
autoxcuda
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With Poly/Delrin bushings and adjustable strut rod you need to get the adjustment right on the strut rod length to pull the LCA snug against the K-member. Snug but not too tight to cause binding. From memory this was the process...
It made a lot of sense to me. Same concept I used with factory strut rods and shaving down the rear poly strut bushing that is 1/4-5/16” thicker than a stock one.
- Unwind the T-bar adjusters.
- Disconnect/Remove the shock.
- Back off the Strut rods adjuster nuts inner and outer
- break the LBJ loose from the spindle.
- Push the LCA snug/tight against the K-member at ride height.
- Move the LCA up and down inch or so and make sure there is no binding or increased resistance.
- THEN set your strut rod length to that distance with the inner adjuster nut against the K-member
- Check the LCA movement some more to confirm or make further adjustment.
- Lock the outer strut rod adjuster nut down.
It made a lot of sense to me. Same concept I used with factory strut rods and shaving down the rear poly strut bushing that is 1/4-5/16” thicker than a stock one.
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