Warrior Shackles causing a clunk in rear susp?

[becker69]

I installed the Warrior Shackles about 7 weeks ago, almost immediately I heard a clunk sound from the rear susp. I could hear it when turning and going over bumps or while driving straight and going over bumps. I assumed that the sound was from the cable mechanism that drops my spare tire down in the rear.... because I hadn't put my spare back up there yet. I just put the spare back up, and still a loud "clunk" sound.... like something is binding!! After looking at the part where the shackle bolts to the frame.... (looking at the leaf eyelet) there is what I would call a metal flange (that looks almost like a bushing) that is bent in several spots from the bolt going through the shackle. This I would assume, happened at spots where the rear suspension drooped, and the shackle moved sideways and downward and the weight of the rear and the bolt had flared and bent the 'flange' that I mentioned above.
Is the problem that I didn't tighten the bolts enough?
I hope I explained enough to get the point across... sorry for my lack of technical jargon. Thanks for any help.
I guess I will put it on jackstand tomorrow and take a real close look at it. Has anyone had any similar noises?

 

[Ray Lobato]

Can you take some pictures of what you are talking about? I can't seem to imagine that bushing you are talking about

 

[becker69]

I can't take pictures yet. To make matters worse it is raining here and I can't spend too much time under it (no garage). I am not positive it directly deals with the shackles, but it is a hard knocking noise like something it hitting, and the noise I am referring too directly corresponds to how much the susp is rebounding. I don't know what else it would be.

After doing more searches, others have had a problem with the driveshaft, and/or need to lube the 'slip-yoke'? All the posts I read, they thought it was a suspension prob too. My truck has 6k miles on it... would this make sense, and how do I do these to see if problem persists? Thanks for any insight.

 

[Robert]

I think I know of the bends in your bushing you are talking about. Mine has the same bends (but not the clunk). I can't remember noticing the bends before, but when I swapped my Autozone shackles for my Warrior shackles, that was when I first noticed them. The bends are on both sides and appear to be too uniform to have bent by themselves so I think they are supposed to be there. I haven't looked at another Explorer to see if theirs has the same bends though. Things that have caused a clunk in mine have been:

1) driveshaft slip yoke
2) worn torsion bar adjuster pads
3) bad rear wheel bearings
4) destroyed shock bushings

That last Arizona run took out both front shock bushings on my Eddelbrock (one bushing was brand new). I went down to Pep Boys and bought some Energy Suspension sway bar bushings that were of a similar size. After a little modification I got them to work. I'll see how they hold up the next time I go off-road. The rubber ones that Eddelbrock was supplying didn't hold up more than one trip.

BTW - send the rain up north

 

[CADDYBILL]

Not sure if this helps, but when I put my add a leafs and AutoZone shackles in I also had a binding, rubbing problem. Wound up being one of the leafs hitting the fuel tank skid plate on the drivers side. I straightened it out and put U bolts on the leafs. AutoZone had them for less than $20.

 

[becker69]

Robert; I agree as to the uniformity of the 'bends' and I will look into the other things you listed. One of my rear shocks is covered at the top with some nasty hardened fluid... but I think that something in the bed (the drain is right above my shocks ) must've leaked on it. I just took it off of the jackstands and I am still no-where! I am hoping maybe it is just more of an annoyance vrs actually breaking more.
CaddyBill; I will also look for other culprits like yours, thank you.
Has anyone else looked at there warriors and seen that they look as if they were installed and over-tightened...mine look like they bow slightly, but I think this is actually incidental to my clunking noise problem. I am almost sure I did not over tighten them.

 

[Robert]

Did you use a torque wrench when you put them on? I know my Warriors came with a recommended torque. I used my torque wrench to the recommended rating and it felt pretty light to me. I think it was something like 10 ft/lbs (not positive though). The instruction sheet did say that the nuts were locking nuts so there isn't a concern with them backing off. At the light setting I torqued mine to, they are not bowed.

 

[becker69]

Robert; ouch... now I feel stupid. My instructions did not come with a recommended torque setting... I am positive of that (because I looked several times for it specifically)... it was a 1 page photocopy of instructions and they didn't really help me in any way at the time of install.
I was told by another person who had torqued theres, to do it to 35-40 lbs.. and no I didn't use a torque wrench, I torqued them as close as I could to how tight the factory set ones were. (I am an idiot, ok?) I guess I figured it would take significant force on my part, while laying on my back to bend 3/8" of plate steel!
I don't think that this is the source of the noise.... because the noise is more present on the pax side, and the slight 'bow' in the shackles is not pinching anything (ie.. the leaf). I don't know what else to do by myself.

 

[Robert]

Just checked my instructions. It says torqueing them to 25-35 ft/lbs for shackles with sleeves is more than sufficient. For shackles without sleeves it just says to tighten them up, being careful not to bend the shackles. I went with 30 ft/lbs and found it didn't bend my shackles and seemed to do fine when off-roading.