New Guy here - glad to be on-board...

After searchig for a while for my front end clunk - I FINALLY FOUND IT ! ! ! ! !

Turns out that the bushing at the end of the cross-member where the rear of the torsion bar mounts is loose (see photos). The torsion bar is firm in the cross-member, but there is alot of movement and knocking in the connection where the cross-member attaches to the frame. The cross-member moves up and down when I lift the vehicle from belos. And since the rivets holding the bracket to the frame, I am assuming the bushing is worn.

So, anyone know what is involved in replacing these parts? Can this be done with the torsion bar and cross-member in place?

Any thoughts or help would be appreciated.

 

I have an 07 gmc classic 2 wheel drive and i have a clunk too but i have coil springs. wonder what it is?

 

I would suggest checking...

• Ball Joints - lift one side of the vehicle (like your changing the tire), grab the top and bottom of the tire and push in and out and see if there is any movement in the wheel.
• Wheel Bearings - again lift one side of the vehicle, grab the sides of the tire and push in and out and see if there is any movement in the wheel.
• Steering component joint (tie rods, pitman/idler arms, etc.) - with the wheels on the ground, have a partner move the steering wheel back and forth while you lie underneath and look for movement in joints.

There are also other bushings (control arms, sway bars, etc.) that can be checked for wear/looseness.

Have fun.

 

FYI-Just finished rebuilding most of the front end suspension parts on my 99 GMC Z71 with 284,000 miles. I was chasing some other noises and just ended up replacing a lot of components due to high miles. Found my ball joints has worn really bad just in last year, had checked them last year, also found a lot of play in CV axles, replaced front hubs because I thought they were the cause of noise when turning at speed and had already purchased them, found ball joints when replacing hubs, replaced tie rods ends due to high miles, Anyway to do the upper balljoints/control arms you have to unload torsion bars. When I was reassembling the torsion bars, I found the same crossmember bushing problem on driver's side. You will probably have to unload torsion bars to repair. Once bars are out, remove cross member and drill out the rivets to remove the mounts, the new mounts come with bolts to replace the rivets. To unload the torsion bars, I came up with using a bottle jack and found that I could use a short 3/8" extension on top of jack pad to the dimple on torsion bar loading arm. Just slowly jack up and make sure extension stays straight, jack until you can wiggle the adjustment screw bar and then you can remove adjustment screw are bar. Slowly lower jack to unload torsion bar and remove. Would recommend you take a measurement on the adjustment screws first so you can reinstall to same setting, also make alignment marks on end of torsion bar & crossmember before unloading and again once bars are unloaded. I also marked side of bar before sliding forward to make sure I put back in correct position. The alignment marks are just a precaution so you can double check once you adjust screws to original measurements. My truck used to make a clunking noise when going through dips or crossing railroad tracks, since replacing these mounts the clunking has disappeared. Hope this helps.