guy's (and gals), every time i go to stop, or go over a good bump (rail tracks)or even a good dip in the road where yor car goes up pretty good and then on the down stroke there is a knocking noise coming from the front, mainly driver side.when you stop you can actually feel it on the floor board. broken spring?? needs bushings?? ball joints maybe?? sway bar bushings are new. any advice would be greatful, and thanks
humm.........and while your not moving?????? hummm
inspect.............
shifter linkage down low in the knook of the driver side firewall for broken or missing bushings
torque engine and see if the motor mounts are flopping
inspect the wheel well plastic skirting to see if its in a bind with the perimeter of the fender well (missing attaching screws)
is it aod or stick?
Had a similar mystery sound in my car, turned out to be a sheared off sway bar mount. May also just be a worn out bushing, never heard broken springs make noises like that.
Had a similar problem in my car as well when I first bought it. I would hit the brake to stop, I would hear a knock or clunk and it felt like something washiznitting the underside of the floorboard. The car went in to be state inspected and when I got it back, it was gone. All the mechanic told me they did was go under the car and tighten all the visible bolts. I haven't had this problem since. 50,000 miles and counting.
Off-topic portion:
It all balances out in the end. A furniture delivery person called both my T-birds Cougars a few weeks ago. :D
On-topic stuff:
I have a knock/rattle in the front end of my '86 not-Cougar, too. ;) So far all I've done to test it is replace the outer wheel bearings.. no change whatsoever. I really need to put more effort into it sometime soon.. like replace all the swaybar , etc.. but there's so much to do and so little $ to do it with.
What is the problem with some peoples? :hick: :giggle:
No idea. He was staring right at the large bird emblems on the grilles of both cars.. the C-pillar emblems.. oh yeah, those totally look like cats to me.
I don't know. The Thunderbird and Cougar look sooooo much alike. :dunce:
Sorry for the highjack flipnbird. Anyone else with any input to help him out?
Worn out strut mount bushings will make a loud clunk like that also. :hick:
got up under the car and didn't see any loose bolts,i have new sway bar bushings, and no broken mounts. you can also here it when i am turning into my driveway, took my brother-in-law (works for jims t-birds) for a drive yesterday and as soon as he heard it he said my ball joints were gone, could this be the caulpret??? and if so how hard are they to replace?? i am pretty mechanically inclined. thanks in advance
Ball joint replacement
jack up car in the center of the control arm (spring location)
slide jack stand in towards the outter part of the control arm
jack stand should be in close proximity to the ball joint but not in the way.
lower jack onto jack stand
remove wheel
remove caliper and tie up with wire to keep stress off hose
remove rotor (dust cap, cotter pin, adjustment nut,outter bearing)
the inner bearing and rotor seal will stay put
pull rotor off now
remove tie rod end (cotter pin and castle nut)
back tie rod end nut off till flush with the top threads
hammer downward to dislodge it
finish removing castle nut and lower out tie rod end slid out of the way
*notice the compression still on the big spring
*you are ok as long as the jack stand remains on the outter part of the conrol arm
remove strut bolts and lightly hammer strut out of place and swing out of the way
Pivit spindal assy outwards remove the keeper bolt
you may have to spread out the s with a flat head/hammer
lift up and remove the hub/spindal assy
use a hammer to knock straight down on the ball joint.
hammer on the ball joint stud as well as the control arm sides
eventually it will come out.
install ball joint---
relocate jack to balljoint area
*notice the lip on the ball joint where the seat is
*notice how thick your control arm metal is (hole where ball joint goes)
place balljoint up in hole
jack up your jack under the balljoint to apply some presure
your control arm will move up just slightly (about 3/4'')
inspect and make sure the balljoint is started by hand evenly around the seat
use a hammer to tap around the outter part of the control arm downwards
this will start to seat the balljoint
your control arm will lower as you do this
you may need to jack up on the ball joint a little bit more to get some tension
continue hammering around on the contol arm till you see the ball joint is seated
inspect the underside of the control arm to verify this
install spindal,strut,rotor,caliper,tierod end, ect ect and your done.
you dont need any special tools to do this.
Ball joints are a possibility. Generally with a bad ball joint you'll feel a little harshness when you go over a bump or pothole that's big enough to make the noise happen. My Oldsmobile used to do it. Never got around to fixing it as about a month after it started I blew the crankshaft in that poor car. Wish I'd known more and had more cash back when I was 17. I'd STILL have that car and my other toys as well....
The ball joints are eazy to change. I had a bad ball joint and i never heard any noise like that. I also had some broken springs and they never made a noise. I had a toyota supra that did just as your bird it turned out to be the sway bar end link was missing the bottom bolt that holds it to the arm. The noise was the end link slapping the A arm. Hope this helps
Broken torsion bar link pin--or sway bar link--same difference--easily visually confirmed. These rust into toothpick oblivion and break after 2 years or so. I just found one along the curb (fell off someone's vehicle) while I was walking in the past months. Had the problem on my '86 Buick. Every time I went over a hard surface ---whack---a pong happened. Could possibly be a loose strut mount upper bracket also?
thanks for all the replys, is there any way to visually, manually check the ball joints while up on stands, just to kinda see for sure if this is my problem?? if it is my end link would i be able to feel the klunk through the floor board? my car also wants to pull to the left since this noise has started. i am going to crawl back under and check things out again friday. thanks again
I am having the same exact problem as you, flipnbird. 86 Cougar 5.0. I have recently replaced the struts, sway bar bushings and links, passenger side balljoint (was told driver's side is fine), and motor mounts. Also got an alignment done a few weeks ago. I can easily hear it when I hit a rough patch or when I am slowing down to stop at a light. It sounds like something is loose underneath and is rattling around and hitting the driver's side floor. I had it up on a lift and mechanic told me everything looked ok underneath, but there is definately something going on under there. I think the springs might still be original, but I don't see anything wrong with them visually. Can't figure this one out. :disappoin
well if one of us figures it out, let the other one know !! i am going to crawl back under mine tonight and take another look see.
Will do. Good luck! Let me know how it goes
the stock ball joint has a little button or nipple in the center on the bottom side where the grease fitting is normally located.
i forget how it goes but someone will straighten me out.
here is the deal from what i remember.
if the center is FLUSH with the ball joint,, the ball joint is bad.
if the center is still sticking out,, its good.
this only applies to the sealed units (greaseless)
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yep,, if its flush, then they are bad, just looked it up for you..see pic
my TC makes that noise also but my sway bar bushings are gone..... so theres my noise replacing them tomorrow will let you know if it solves my problem
could it be a bad strut?
just wanted to put in my advice on removing tie rod ends... DO NOT... hammer down on the bolt or the nut.. smack the side of the housing the tie rod will fall right out.. if it doesnt fall witht he first hit.. hit it harder or get a bigger hammer. this method is much better and wont bang up your threads. thanks :D
With my car, it has to be something other than a strut, sway bar link or bushing, and tie rod end because I just replaced the struts and sway bar stuff and also recently had an alignment done. I figure they would have said something if one of the tie rod ends was bad.
replaced the swaybar busings on my TC today and my nocing noise went away, if I were you I would crawl under there and see whats loose.. jack up your front wheels one at a time and grab both sides and move them back and forth if there is any looseness at all replace your tie rod ends. hope you find what it is Graham
good morning guys, just now got another chance to get up under her, checked my ball joints buy the diagram ya'll gave me,and yes the little nipple is flush with the joint, might be sticking out a 1/32 so i'm figuring this is probably my noise so this next weekend will be my first chance to give jcassity's removal plan a shot. thanks again for all the reply's, if there is any more ways to remove them let me know, again thanks
read my message above for a good hint :D
It is possible it could be the ball joint. But from my experence it almost always turns out to be the sway bar end link. I've had this happen on three cars. The endlink is attached to the sway bar and looks to be attached to the a-arm. But look at the underside of the A-arm and check to see if the very bottom nut is still there. On the 3 cars that I had like this you couldn't tell until you got under the A-arm to check that bottom nut. The best way to check your ball joints is to jack up the car and pu it on stands. Then take you floor jack and jack up the A-arm about 1/8"-1/4" then check to see if you have any play in the ball joint by grasping the tire at the top and bottom and trying to move you hands back and forth. You have to supprt the A-arm because if you don't the springs will put pressure on the joint and you won't be able to tell if it good or not. Also I had a ball joint that was more toast than I would admitt to and it never made a sound. I found the ball joint problem when I was installing my bushing kit and put in 2 new ball joints. I also had both front springs that were broken and they never made a sound. I would still stand by my first sugestion and say that its the sway bar end link bottom nut is missing. This causes the sway bar end link bolt to slam down on the A-arm until it gets into the hole that is goes in. hope this helps
thanks for your input stuckman, i checked my endlinks this past weekend for broken link or any movement(was none) but never really checked to see if the bottom nut was still there, i will check that and your ball joint check hopefully tonight( got 2 kids to watch while my wife is at work). got two new tie rod ends sitting in the garage might go ahead and try to get them on also, thanks again for all the help, Joe