Drivers side has an excessive amount of play, when I step on the brakes the wheel shifts backwards slightly, If I press the brakes rapidly on and off it goes "CLACK" as it moves, its kind of funny actually. It makes the same sound going over bumps or any rough surface, more so when the brakes are applied.

I fixed the noisy/loose shock, not sure what to look at now, Most likely ball joints I guess. I've jacked it up with and without load on the suspension and can't find anything loose but I know its there, steering feels tight and good.

So.. how much of a pain in the ass is it to do the ball joints on these, I just finished rebuilding the rear 3rd member, no more bearing/gear noise.

 

Have you searched for a ball joint write-up by chance?

 

Its probably in plain view isn't it haha,

I searched but only came up with BJ spacer threads.

 

Where did you jack it from? If you jacked it at the LCA, you are putting tension on the BJ's. You'll need to jack it up by the front cross member or the frame. If you still can't locate the noise from the BJ's, check your eccentric bolts in the LCA's to see if they are loose. If so, tighten them up then take it in for an alignment.

If none of that works, check all your tie rods and idler arm for play.

My bet is the eccentric bolts.

 

My money's on the idler arm...

But by all means fear rebuilding it with 2 plastic bushings and some grease... Instead, buy something at a parts place for like $70 and has 555 written on it...

But if you want to do it right, rebuild the damn thing...

IF it's the idler arm at least...

 

Im thinking ball joint, maybe both on the drivers side. Makes a nice creak sound when I steer full lock.

 

Creaking sound at full lock... on an IFS is the steering stoppers... Are you sure that's not it?

 

Two different issues. Play = ball joints, most likely, as you describe it. Squawking at full lock is dry steering stops/steering stops without the short-lived nylon caps.

Dab-O-grease on them in the latter case.

 

theres more noise than just the creak..

 

The lower is easier than the upper, mainly because you can use a puller on the lower. The upper I wasn't able to fit the puller in place and had to resort to a pickle fork and I hate pounding pickle forks. With either one you'll probably want to completely loosen the t-bar adjustment to take all the spring loading off. But first support the front end on jack stands to take the weight off the suspension. Most of those BJ spacer threads have more tips on getting them free.

 

wonder if you couldn't just put something between the bump stops?

 

That might work too, I don't have the upper bump stops anymore and its been so long since I had them I forgot where they were located.

 

I have the exact same creak at full lock and It's NOT the steering stops. (Just put 4 new covers on and it still creaks at full lock)

 

But the creak occurs whilst holding the steering at the stop, and a bump is encountered?

 

Also, make yourself a IFS spindle lubricator (I hear you can do it with a needle fitting on your grease gun too) and lube the spindles.

I still gotta do mine..

 

Alright, the BJ's are fine.

Its the LCA bushings on the drivers side at the rear of the arm. Im going to try tightening it down first but I almost guarantee it has to come apart. yay.

 

when i did my upper bjs, i jacked up the a arm, stuck a socket between the bumpstop and upper a arm and lowered the a arm then used the pickel fork