front end clunking

[mark76]

I just started to hear a clunking sound from the front end at low speeds, over bumps and worse when turning. It may be there at high speeds, but you could hear it? I just bought the car and no upgrades were done, help.

 

[Mark_Gibson]

Mark,

There are several possibilities. You need to provide a bit more info for us to try and help. What kind of Triumph? Does the steering wheel vibrate or shimmy in your hands at all either low or high speed? How is the tire wear on the front ? Even or uneven? There are several problems, from worn suspension bushings to a loose steering rack to a broken support on the frame for a lower A arm bracket. If you can provide more details, we can perhaps narrow it down,

Mark
1970 TR-6

 

[AltaKnight]

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/iagree.gif Don't ignore that clunk, it might be significant and a safety issue.
Assuming this is a TR6, I would first check the sway bar connections to the frame are not broken or loose.
Then jack each front wheel off the ground and check the wheel bearings by grasping the tire top & bottom and see if there's any looseness, shouldn't be any.
Take the wheels off and check the bolt security on the lower A arms inboard where they attach to the frame and outboard to the trunnions (brass thingy)
Check the upper ball joint bolting also.
Check the shock absorber connections particularly the top one which is just a single nut with a jam nut above, if the rubber donuts are in bad shape this will definitely clunk over bumps.
I got my TR6 last year and replaced the upper ball joints, trunnions, shocks, tierod ends and lower outboard bushings just for peace of mind.

 

[alwaysride]

Don't ignore this. I had a TR250 with a clunk on the left front and the suspension broke due to a bad trunion.

 

[jsneddon]

clunk clunk clunk... everything from the stub axle on including the caliper fell off on the drivers side.

Good news: I was only going 5mph at the time

Bad news: The girl I was trying to impress was with me during high school lunch and my MOM had to drive her back to school...

Good news: She WASN'T impressed and I ended up with a keeper years later.

 

[JoeC]

Mark,

I recently had a "front end clunk" also. It turned out that the front spoiler was loose. After tightening it, all is well. It turned out to be a simple thing despite my certainty of something major.

Joe

 

[sparkydave]

Just had to take care of clunking on my front end too, and it turned out my lever shock was shot. Had to take the front spring out and disconnect the shock arm to find that out, but otherwise, look for loose wheel bearings and other loose items.

 

[mark76]

Thanks for the reponse, I have a 76 TR6. The tire wear is even and no shimmy with the steering wheel.

Thanks,
Mark

 

[mark76]

Wow, I hope I do not have to take out the lever shock, but thanks, I will check it out.

 

[Alan_Myers]

Hi Mark,

Does your car have a sway bar? If so, check the end links, where they attach to the suspension on either side. Sometimes one will break and suddenly start clunking.

Well, you don't have lever shocks on the front of your car, but still need to look at the tube shocks inside the springs and see if there is any sign of looseness or leaking. Sometimes shocks just go bad and start making a lot of noise. That might be identified if you just put weight on one front fender at a time, bouncing the suspension a bit while watching and listening. Try it with the steering straight ahead and turned to the sides, too, since it sounds like the problem is greater while turning.

Next you might want to jack up the front end (carefully and securely, of course) and grab each front tire on the sides, shake it from side to side and see if there is play and/or noise. Then repeat the process grabbing the tires on the top and bottom, feeling for movement and listening for noise.

With the front end lifted, the suspension droops to its fullest extent and sits on the bottom rubber bump stop. Sometimes this hides wear or problems that only occur when the suspension is at a more "normal" position, when all four wheels are on the ground. If the car is still lifted and, say, on jack stands, you can carefully use a jack under one tire at a time and lift the suspension a bit off the bottom of its range, then do the shake test again.

If you start narrowing down the possible problem area, you can have someone else shake the wheel while you shine a flashlight on each suspension joint and watch for sloppy movement.

If these suggestions don't get you closer to solving the problem and you are uncertain about your ability to identify and solve the problem, I'd suggest taking the car (carefully) to a shop to be looked at. This could be an important safety issue!

Cheers!

Alan