Front-end thunk or clunk when turning

My '98 5-speed 4.0 XJ Sport has a habit of making a fairly loud clunk (sounds like from the front end) the first time I turn in either direction after coming to a stop, say, at a stop sign. Happens backward and forward, left and right; also often when going up or down curb ramps while turning.

My first guess was a bad u-joint, but my mechanic (who is good) says the front end is solid. I spent some money on trailing-arm bushings etc. just in case, but it didn't affect the clunk.

The only similar thing I could find in the forums was a problem with a sticky slip yoke, but that was a clunk on starting or stopping. Mine relates mainly to low-speed turns. It's almost as if part of the unibody was flexing, but that doesn't sound likely, I guess.

I've run out of ideas, and so has my mechanic. I'd be grateful for suggestions from the experts out there.

All the best,

I had a very similar problem and after not finding any apparent cause, I found that "really tightening" the trackbar bolt eliminated the problem. I used a short breaker bar. Note that the trackbar had been torqued to specs, but apparently there was sufficient play to cause the thunk. Hope this does it for you.

Thanks. I'll try it.

Track bar bracket above the left front tire. Make sure all of the bolts that hold that to the front sub frane are tight. You have to put a gorilla grip on these bolts when you tighten them. Then make sure the bolts at bolt ends of the track bar are tight also. Mine did the same thing, I could see the track mount bracket move a little bit when the wheel was turned.

My 90 is doing the same thing too, especially when turning left. The trackbars are the "control arms" that link from the subframe to the front axle right?

Thanks

No.. the track bar is the bar that goes from frame, right inside the left tire, to the front axle on the right side. Mine was doing the same thing. Tightened the bracket and it stopped.
Keith

OK, I'll definitely look into that soon when im under it doing exhaust. What size of wrench is it? Does it reqiure a 5/8" breakerbar? Thanks A lot

Ecarcl

I had the same problem with my wife's '91 and the solution was as described by seanR above. But, in that case, my mechanic recommended (and did) weld the bracket to the frame. He felt it would just loosen again, potentially damage the "frame" (yea, I know it's unibody . . .) and that, if we ever needed to remove the bracket, we could grind-off the welds and start over. Don

I think the bolts on the bracket are 19mm, 21mm mabey. I used a 1/2 breaker bar with a pipe on it. To do it that way you have to jack up the front and remove the tire in order to get the clearance to do that. There are three on the side and two more on the bottom in between the track bar bolt and the sub frame.

mine did the same thing. i found out it was the drivers side LCA. the rear bushing had come loose and wallowed out the hole. so when i put in the lift kit with new LCA's now it rides even better than before.