Front end clunk after strut/spring R&R

[Inf]

I replaced my old strut inserts (some brand made in Venezuela) and springs (original springs) with Tokico HP strut inserts and their matching red progressive springs.

Anyway, I took my car out for a test drive, and now I hear an occasional soft clunk/pop in the front end someplace. I hear it (and feel it through the car) mainly when I'm making a turn (especially right hand turns).

What could the causes be?

-Could I have damaged a ball joint disconnecting it? That sucker was hard to get off in each case, and required a lot of brute force to make it pop free from the steering knuckle on the strut. Also, both sides had no dust boots, as shown in the FSM.

-Maybe my sway bar end links aren't tight enough? I tightened them down as much as I could with hand tools, and there doesn't appear to be any gap between the bar ends and bushings, nor the a-arm and their bushings... Exactly how tight should these suckers be (rubber bushings)?

Any insight would be very much appreciated!

Edited June 16, 2009 by Inf

[Inf]

Any ideas?

[Nissanman]

You might want to verify that the gland nut in the strut tubes actually bears down tightly on the top of the strut insert and is not bottomed out on the internal thread.

Unless the inserts are positively clamped, they can rock side to side and vertically as the steering/suspension moves.

If the inserts are loose, adding a spacer/washer underneath them or on top for that matter, will allow the gland nut to do its' job.

If you can wobble the shock shaft, the inserts are loose:rolleyes:

[Inf]

Thanks for the reply, I'll double check on that. I couldn't attach my torque wrench to that massive gland nut, so I basically judged it by the seat of my pants (or palm of my hand) with my pipe wrench. Unless the internal thread is shorter than the external thread on the Tokico gland nuts, I don't THINK I could have bottomed out, but one can never be too sure suppose.

Another thing that occurred to me is that I may not have torqued my steering tie rod castle nuts back on at a high enough torque. I was just now reading online that they should be set to 50 ft-lb, and I'm pretty sure I didn't get anywhere near that level doing it by hand with small open ended wrenches.

[jmortensen]

The gland nuts should be TIGHT with one or two threads visible. If no threads are visible then it is likely that the nut hit the strut housing before it tightened on the strut insert. As Nissanman suggested, a large washer under the strut should fix the problem if that is it.

They can also back off if you don't tighten them down enough, so I'd try tightening it through the spring first and see if it is loose. I don't know the torque spec on the gland nut, but I always to RFT on those.

[Inf]

Just came up from the garage and I think I found my problem...

Apparently I failed to sufficiently torque the 2 bolts on each side that go up under the a-arm into the bottom of the strut housing :tapemouth

I took the drivers side wheel off, leaned in to take a look and there was a gap between the strut and the a-arm, and both bolts were loose and about halfway towards working their way out completely.

Suffice it to say I was speechless, and sat down to let it sink in how bad that could have turned out. A very strong lesson learned. I retorqued these bolts to 75ft lbs (FSM says 72.3). I'll definitely be getting out to check on these guys every time I stop for the next few tanks of gas at least. The passenger side wasn't nearly as loose, but I retorqued it for good measure.

Doing work on a schedule makes it so easy to make a stupid mistake like that. I'm looking forward to having a real garage this fall, where I don't need to finish each project all up within one day.

Thanks for the input guys.