Mystery Bang

So I was a lettin out my clutch at a stoplight on level ground and I hear a bang and feel a jolt. Jeep did not stall I think something broke like a U joint so I pulled over and get out. Nothing, jeep runs fine, I go home. I check ball joints, springs, u joints, etc. Am I missing something? I am thinking that the mazda miata (w/ already broken fiberglass bumper) behind me ran into me, not the first time a small japanese car has hit my xj causing no damage whatsover to the xj. I can't find paint on the rear bumper (then again it had fiberglass rice POS). I just wanted to know what would cause this other than being hit by ricer? He sped off by the way.

mystery bang....i use to know her

check your trans mount, if not it was probably a miata enema.

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Pork, the one you love.

I'll check the motor and trans mounts. All the rubber pieces on my jeep seem to be failing right now. I think it was the miata. You should have seen the Civic a few years ago, I was trying to teach my sister to drive the stick, it just runs into us and drove off (I think he was DUI). Looked like a paper airplane hit a brick wall. Oh well, the mystery bang pun was intentional BTW.

I've seen this when a rear brake shoe sticks. It is normally associated with a leaky wheel cylinder or bad wheel seal allowing some amount of oil on the shoes. It can also be caused by getting the leading and trailing shoes swapped on the rear, , or mud in the wheel.

If you have been wheeling hard lately, you could have a tooth busted on the pinion or ring gear.

Thanks guys. I checked it all out. No problems but interesting you mention the brakes old man. I replaced the cylinders a while back, they were in bad shape. I got real cheap ones though because I am sick of those rear brakes endless problems and I'll have ZJ discs ASAP. I did clean the linings at that time they came out dry looking (compared w/ my spares). They aren't running too hot. I was worried though, I finished up that job in the dark and thought I had them swapped, but no, they were perfect. I doubt it would have been the pinion, the Jeep doesn't see many rocks. Rocky slopes yes, like a rather steep rock trail slopes with loose gravel, and sand, much soft sand, mud. Where I'm at there isin't boulder crawling avaliable like you see in the rockies or in the east, the kind that exposes the axle to a lot of resistance or weird angles. There are boulders but they aren't accesible like you see jeep trails in other areas with boulders all around the trail. Plus a broken gear tooth would be more obvious right, the jeep running fine.

So my conclusion is that the 17 year old kid with the loud techo music in the beat up Miata doesn't know how to drive stick and tapped me. It felt like something in the Jeep though.

I did notice one thing though. The Discount tires torqued my wheels crappy when I went for rotation, had left one lug loose on the rear, and had the fronts (non stock rims, theyre from older jeep, can be hard to get centered perfect for some reason) a bit cockeyed and so the top was in tighter than the bottom and it wasn't on square. I hope I caught it before too much disc warpage, the jeep rides better with centered wheels.