popping in front of track bar mount

ive had a popping noise since i got my truck a while back. sitting still it will pop at almost full lock in either direction, and when im turning while driving the say go over a bump it pops. i replaced the broken aluminum steerin box spacer with a 3/16 home made spacer and added a steering box brace, neither of those fixed it. long story short just infront of the track bar mount i can see that the metal has been welded/ground semi flush. i plan on taking the bumper off and having somebody turn the wheel as i look down the rail to see what going on.

in order to fix it my idea is to get some upper frame stiffiners, drill out the unibody on one side, put some 1/2" dom tubing inside,weld it to the stiffiner so i can "bolt/sandwhich" the metal inside together then weld the stiffiners on.

other than that it kind of crossed my mind to grind down the old weld and run a hot bead thru it in hopes of penatrating the 3 (i think) layers of metal. im just curiouse what others have done, and opnion if my idea will be a propper fix.

Before you get too far make sure you know where it's coming from. Use some sort of metal rod to touch different components as someone else moves the wheel. You'll be able to feel the vibrations.

Also check your track bar mount on the wheel well along with the steering box bolts that are also in the wheel well.

cody4359 said:

i plan on taking the bumper off and having somebody turn the wheel as i look down the rail to see what going on.

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ive already determined that its popping in the track bar area, used a screw driver with my ear against it, and i can feal it with just my hand. steering box bolts are torqued down and i just pulled the box the other night and inspected for cracks and found none.

The trac bar is just flexing and moving. Mine use to do it as well. Actually everyone of my mounts have done it. All you need to do us run a little bead on the front of the mount to eliminate flex. And that should solve the problem.

check your axle side TB mount, those things are really thin and love to egg out.

its funny how when somebodys asks for an opnion on a project they get opnions on everything else but what they asked for. it Not the track bar mount flexing. old mount was welded on, its not the axle side mount either. i just swapped swapped axles/steering. so as i stated in the 1st post its the unibody and i know where its coming from. guess thats what i get for asking a question lol

Without seeing, hearing, and feeling the symptoms, it is impossible to recommend a specific repair procedure.

If you feel you have properly diagnosed the cause of the noise and the weld you see is potentially a previous repair attempt, plating the frame rails and sleeving the bolt holes is a suitable repair. Whether it is also a successful repair is another question and only time will tell.

Check out the JKS steering box reinforcement/repair kit. http://store.jksmfg.com/merchant2/m...Store_Code=JKS01&Category_Code=Steering_Brake

i looked at the jks unit but it doesnt look like it goes back to where the PO welded. thats why i was thinking of sleeving/using full stiffiners to cover where i could feal the popping coming from and to add a little strength.

so you have a problem, found the answer to it, and then decided to post a thread.

can I ask why?