CLUNK after Eibach Level and Alignment

[ErickTAR21]

Little back story. I got the eibach kit (front shocks&springs and rear shocks&springs) and installed it myself (never again). I drove it for maybe 500 miles before I got it aligned, no issues up to this point. Drove great and straight so I put it off for a couple weeks.

The truck was toe-d in pretty good from the level according to the alignment shop (Firestone on Ft. Gordon). The first alignment shop said they could not get the tie rods loose for the alignment and wanted to charge me 150 (the alignment was free since i got the firestone lifetime alignment). I thought this was just a way for them to get money so i went to another shop and they made no mention of the tie rods being seized. After the alignment I get a clunk, from what appears to be the front left of the truck (driver side wheel) in the following conditions;

Going straight and breaking hard enough for the front end to dip and CLUNK.
Slow, hard left turn.
Fast, slight left turn.
Slow, slight left turn over a bump (2 inch lip on driveway)

As far as I have tested, it is a single clunk that doesnt "unclunk" in order to re-clunk.

I tried to have my wife drive in and out of the driveway over and over so see if i could feel where the vibration/clunk was coming from while I was on my creeper. Very unsafe, I do not recommend. But i couldnt feel anything distinct coming from either the driveshaft, steering rod or wheel bearing.

Of note, when rotating the driver side wheel/tire it sounds like a slight grinding sound coming from the wheel bearing. Which i will replace....soon-ish


My question is, what could the issue be? Could the alignment shop have done something to cause this? or is the wheel bearing the culprit? Or is it something else?

 

[shadowhawk]

first thing...some of us have black background, so blue text on black is impossible to see. Second, did you tighten everything down tight?

 

[ErickTAR21]

first thing...some of us have black background, so blue text on black is impossible to see. Second, did you tighten everything down tight?

I checked all related nuts/bolts with the level after I did it, and I checked behind the shop after the alignment. Since thats when the noise decided to show up.

Also the ball joints look good.

 

[Dylan Campbell]

Subscribing to this. I am chasing a similar clunk after removing a couple inches of lift from the front of my truck and having it aligned. I believe I have mine narrowed down to the sway bar links.

 

[ErickTAR21]

Subscribing to this. I am chasing a similar clunk after removing a couple inches of lift from the front of my truck and having it aligned. I believe I have mine narrowed down to the sway bar links.

I also thought it might have been the sway bar links by the looks of their "angle" so i removed both the front sway bar end links and it didnt do anything but make my truck LEAN in turns lol.

Did you give that a try?

 

[shadowhawk]

most of the time people fix the clunk by tightening the nut on top of the strut. That's hard to get sufficiently tight.

 

[ErickTAR21]

most of the time people fix the clunk by tightening the nut on top of the strut. That's hard to get sufficiently tight.

1. That sucks, I have to take off the strut assembly to do that.
2. The clunk came after the alignment, not after the install. So I kinda ruled out the strut assembly (coilover?), was that a wrong assumption?

 

[shadowhawk]

then you should recheck all the bolts/nuts on the upper control arms, sway bar links, and even the 3 nuts on top of the shock assembly.

 

[Dylan Campbell]

I also thought it might have been the sway bar links by the looks of their "angle" so i removed both the front sway bar end links and it didnt do anything but make my truck LEAN in turns lol.

Did you give that a try?

I did, and my clunk disappeared with the sway links removed so at this point I am quite sure that is the cause. I have the RC links that are 'universal' for their 4" and 6" kits which means they are far too long for my 4" lift. Hoping a shorter set does the trick.

 

[ErickTAR21]

WELL, I just hand/ratchet checked most of those, except the driver side top center strut bolt, I eyeballed/fingered that AND the it is 1 1/2 - 2 threads "less threaded" than the passenger side strut. FUuuuuuuuck, I guess i know what I'm doing sometime this week.

Question, does tightening that bolt compress the spring? Or in other words, in tightening that spring am I "fighting" the spring.