Front End Popping Noise

['94IDITurbo7.3]

Ever since i hit a deer with my truck a few weeks back i am getting a clunking/popping noise coming from the front end. it only happens when turning at low speeds over un-even ground or going straight over un-even ground at low speeds.

Everything except for coil springs and ball joints are new on the front. radius arm bushings, axle pivot bushings, all the tie rods, sway bar link bushings & bar to frame bushings, new shocks. Cab mounts are still solid(probly sagging a touch, but solid none the less). the pass side ball joints are starting to get a touch loose, but they don't seem to be loose enough to cause this much noise(it literally sounds like the front end is going to fall off i can "feel" the popping in the floor of the cab). As per the Ford TSB on this issue, i inspected the rivets that hold the axle pivot drop brackets to the front x-member and they are all good and solid. Lug nuts are tight as well.

I really don't know where to look now. Guy at school said the coil springs could be weak causing the axles to hit the bump stops. i'm not sure about that though as that would probly be more like a dull thud rather than a popping noise. i also noticed that the pass side of the cab is sitting lower than the drivers side. ground to bottom of rocker panel: driver's side - 19"........pass side - 18.5". there is a sticky on this over on powerstrokearmy.com but no solutions to it. it seems to be a VERY common thing with the f-250's, 4x4 or 2wd doesn't matter, so that tells me that it must be something in the way the front ends are hooked up the frame, ie. something with the TTB. but then again other than the axle pivots, the 4x4 and 2wd F-250's don't have anything in common for the front suspension so........


Any help will be greatly appreciated!

 

[GOOSE]

Radiator support mounts? Maybe some hardware needs re torquing? Just a guess. I saw a youtube video where a go pro cam was used to film a TTB front end as it went down the highway. Pretty clever way to find a tough diagnosis.

 

['94IDITurbo7.3]

the rad mounts are not in the best shape............if i replace those then i will need to cut out the rust and weld in new material for the core support lol


i do have a friend that has a go pro cam............

 

[laserjock]

I had that problem on a F150 years ago. I would check and make sure you didn't break the rusty core support. It will thump and bang going around corners and over bumps about like you have described.

 

[Bowtech28]

Did you remove the DEER ?????? Sorry I couldn't resist.

 

[riotwarrior]

I have a funny thunk/bump noise too sometimes....I'm attributing it cab/body mounts shot....It's not too metalic in nature more a dull thunk....reminiscent of this sound trying to determine what it is

 

[X-NRCan_IDI]

my truck has something that sounds like its the same thing once in a while. Dunno what is either... but I can't seem to find anything wrong with it. Hasn't done it for a couple weeks now though. Everything appears to be fine. My boss's '95 PSD 2wd Superduty did the exact same thing, but more often; usually when turning sharp-ish

 

[Dsl_Dog_Treat]

My plow truck developed a nice clunk last Friday that turned out to be a broken front axle bracket.

 

[Kevin 007]

always check the fan shroud. Sometimes they come loose and make noises when the hit that fan at random times. Makes it hard to find out whats up

 

['94IDITurbo7.3]

the deer bounced off. thanks for the ideas guys. i will check out the rad mounts.

 

[icanfixall]

The fan shroud reminds me of a truck I went to help a member work on. He couldn't get it to start. Was a turbo but had no air filter on it... We jumped it but it would not fire. Had to jump the power to the injection upmp too. Still no start. Used ether but still no fire or even sounded like it was trying to fire. I was spraying ether into the cranking intake but... None was being sucted in... WTH is that... No tail pipe smoke... No effort to fire.. No intake suction.. No idea what was wrong.. Oh.. The truck was hit by a red lite driver and the front end was pushed over about 3 inches. That made the fan contact the shroud.. He kept driveing it like that till the fan wore down the shroud.... Talk about a worn out truck... Wooza.. What a piece... I could not get that engine to fire even on wetting the turbo intake with ether.... Sum ting wong fo soure.....

 

[79jasper]

My brothers 93 has a half inch thick solid washer on the passenger side core mount..............

Get out the pry bar and see what moves. You could also try jacking up the core support near the body mounts.

Also check to make sure the fenders are securely attached at the cab end. Had one break the spot welds on the mounts once.

 

[94f450sd]

Tighten the 2 14mm bolts in the tops of the fenders by the hood hinge.there is a fiber shim under those bolts that sometimes disintegrates, replace with same size stack of steel body shims if needed.I had a popping noise like you described that had me replace every bushing, ball joints in the the front end.leaned against the fender and heard it pop.

 

['94IDITurbo7.3]

i will check those fender bolts by the hood hinges but i did pull against the pass & d-side fenders(enough to really get the truck rocking) and had no noise.

 

['94IDITurbo7.3]

i checked the fender bolts and found some to be a little loose.

these were a touch loose on both sides.

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these were also loose on both sides.

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