Lower A-arm bushings causing clunking noise?

[Explorer Junky]

I have a 97 Ex AWD 5.0 with 195,000 on it. I have a cunking and or banging sound from the front end, mostly the passenger side. I have new front end basically, new CV axles, new ball joints all round. The only thing that I have not done is the sway bar bushings and the lower A-arm bushings. cold it be both? How hard is it to replace lower A-arm bushings? I just did rear axle bearings and seals, so I am capable of doing a lot. Give me a rating of 1-10. 10 of course being the hardest!

 

[gmanpaint]

You can tell if the LCA/UCA bushings are bad by just a look at them. If they seem to be all there, not cracked or chunks missing out of them, they are most likely not the reason for the clunking.

Check out your front differential bolts. There are 3 of them. One (rear) has a vertical bushing mount. These can go bad and have a tendency to go bad and since they are out of sight, they go unchecked.

Check the hubs. Make sure they are tight.

Check the spindle nuts on the cv axles. Make sure they are tight.

If the control arm bushings need replaced, the entire front end suspension(including Torsion bars) needs to be torn down. I rate it a 5 for the amount to do for just a bushing replacement. Plan on a whole weekend to do this.

 

[Explorer Junky]

You can tell if the LCA/UCA bushings are bad by just a look at them. If they seem to be all there, not cracked or chunks missing out of them, they are most likely not the reason for the clunking.

Check out your front differential bolts. There are 3 of them. One (rear) has a vertical bushing mount. These can go bad and have a tendency to go bad and since they are out of sight, they go unchecked.

Check the hubs. Make sure they are tight.

Check the spindle nuts on the cv axles. Make sure they are tight.

If the control arm bushings need replaced, the entire front end suspension(including Torsion bars) needs to be torn down. I rate it a 5 for the amount to do for just a bushing replacement. Plan on a whole weekend to do this.

I did notice a crack in one on the passenger side while crawling under there. The uppers are new cause I just replaced the whole upper arm! Of course I am guessing I would need to get ANOTHER alignment after doing lower bushing? CV axle were torqued to 250 ft/lbs. These differentila bolts you are talking about are the ones that are literally hold the dif on??

 

[gmanpaint]

If it is just a minor crack on the bushing lip, I doubt that would cause a clank audible enough to hear inside the cabin. I would believe it is alright till it is chunked out.

Yes I am referring to the 3 bolts that actually hold the diff on the rig. 2 are horizontal, and the rear is vertical with a good size rubber bushing in it. look under the drivers side door area for it. It is an arm coming out the back of the diff axle tube. I have seen these break off.

This what I am referring to.

 

[Explorer Junky]

Ok I will check all that crap later! thanks for the tips!

 

[Badspell68]

I had the same problem for quite some time and after replacing nearly everything my mechanic finally figured out that it was this thing:

There are two of them on a 97 5.0 and they are used to prevent engine movement. It was a nightmare to get the old ones off. They were totally over compressed and useless. There job is to prevent engine movement and mine were shot so when I would accelerate from a stand still or reverse, the engine would shift position and create a banging sound. Can't imagine it was any good for all the components connected to the engine...glad it was discovered!