Weird shit

[Alta Boy]

Never had this happen before and I don't know if it's because of the bags but ... For the last couple of days I noticed a clunk from the front end when I turned the wheels on my truck. Got me thinking I probably have a bad ball joint or something. Stopped at school one day to pick up my kids and when I pulled in and applied the brakes this clunking sound happened again without turning the wheel. Put it in reverse, backed up a little and hit the brakes again. Clunk happened again. Now I'm thinking it could be a bad brake caliper or a ball joint.

Drove home from the school and the truck handled great. Nothing out of the usual. No shake, shimmy or pull to one side at all. Get home and I leave the truck running. Get one of my kids to turn the steering wheel back and forth while I crawl under the truck to scope out this noise. He turns the wheel left to right and I see the top A-arm fucking jump sideways at the rear. WTF?? Are one of my upper A-arm bushings gone? Popped the hood, took a look and the rearmost A-arm cross shaft bolt had come loose! The front cross shaft bolt was still tight but when the steering wheel was turned it would pivot on that bolt and the rear bolt was sliding back and forth in the slot of the frame. I didn't touch the A-arm bolts when I installed the bags. It just amazes me that something like this would happen.

Anybody have any problems similar to this nature when they bagged their Dakota? I'm still running the stock A-arms BTW.

[brightwhiteR/T]

sounds like your control arm bushings are shot. that is typically what they do when they are worn. Sometimes they just go bad. I imagine having the airbags made them wear a bit faster, but they just go out really.

[djwolf37]

I have had a couple of problems like this that caused a noise similar to what you described. Here is what i have dealt with
1. bad ball joint
2. upper control arm bolts (the two going through the cross shaft, not the nuts ant the end of the cross shaft) wouldn't stay tight. so the upper arm kept sliding back and forth
3. loose castle nut causing the spindle to pop in and out of the ball joint
4. loose castle nut for tire rod causing same as #3
5. loose/missing mounting bolts for ball joint

[nycdak]

Same thing happened to mine. Bags just sped up the process.

[Flamed 360]

yup, shot upper control arm bushing, been through 2 sets of these in 4 years. bags just speed up the process as stated above. very easy fix.

[DRAGN94]

never once happened to me maybe the older gen arms had better bushing.

i've heard of the happening before...so it doesnt surprise me. just replace the bushing and go about your day

[XxLoFnKtAxX]

mine do that too on driver side, better look into it.

[Alta Boy]

Originally Posted by djwolf37

2. upper control arm bolts (the two going through the cross shaft, not the nuts ant the end of the cross shaft) wouldn't stay tight. so the upper arm kept sliding back and forth

That's exactly what happened to mine Jay but it was only one bolt that came loose. Trying to wrap my head around the stress factors of the front suspension that would make one of the cross shaft mounting bolts come loose. The control arm bushings themselves are all good.

No matter. Going to the DakotaUSA meet in Ohio here in a week so by the time I get back home it'll be time to store Sully for winter anyway. Damn Canadian winters suck! Had plans on getting a set of the Cando control arms so what the hell. Park the truck, tear it down and throw on new upper and lower arms. Time to upgrade.

[djwolf37]

Originally Posted by Alta Boy

That's exactly what happened to mine Jay but it was only one bolt that came loose. Trying to wrap my head around the stress factors of the front suspension that would make one of the cross shaft mounting bolts come loose. The control arm bushings themselves are all good.

No matter. Going to the DakotaUSA meet in Ohio here in a week so by the time I get back home it'll be time to store Sully for winter anyway. Damn Canadian winters suck! Had plans on getting a set of the Cando control arms so what the hell. Park the truck, tear it down and throw on new upper and lower arms. Time to upgrade.

Yeah i have been hearing more and more problems of this happening to people. A lot of them just have stock suspension. The cando arms will help prevent this due to there cross shafts. Hopefully when you tighten it back up it will stay tight. I had to use a 1/2" drive socket/ ratchet with a 2ft pipe just to get enough leverage to keep it tight. For some reason a lot of people have the problem of not being able to get them high enough to keep the arm from sliding back and forth.

Glad i could help you find out what it was, hope ya get it fixed.

[showoff]

get some poly bushings. their 50 bucks , i ordered mine. the top rear bushing on the passenger side always goes out first some reason.