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weird clunk and coolant leak

9

97xjproject

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Oklahoma
I have a 97 xj with a 4.0. I went wheeling this weekend and got stuck in some deep mud on the passenger side. i did not try to fight my way out. As soon as I got stuck I had one of my friends winch me out. Now when I back up and hit the brakes i get a cluncking noise but when i do same thing going forward no noise. I checked the trac bar and its tight all the other bolts seem tight I'm wondering if one of my ball joints decided to fail. Also I now have a coolant leak on the drivers side i recently replaced the thermostat and I'm not sure if i got a good seal but I have a line of coolan going down the oil pan and about a 3in diameter spot right under the manifold o2 sensor. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated
 
check all of the suspension, not just the trac bar, i've got a clunk in the front end on mine, i know something is loose under there, even though everything seems tight (on my rig), something could very well have been jostled loose on your rig at some point during the winching or the stuck....maybe even before that

and don't be afraid to manhandle it a bit, sometimes it takes a fair bit of force to find the loose component (if that happens to be the case)
 
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I had a rattle when hitting bumps before that, Im planning on rebuilding the front end next month and putting adjustable ball joints on but not sure if its worth 250 to do that
 
I had that once

Ended up I lost a caliper bolt on the trail. Reverse would kick it back against the wheel
 
in that case i would suggest checking the shocks as well....they tend to get a bit clunky over the bumps when they're old/blown, as far as front end stuff goes, i wouldn't recommend going cheap, sometimes it's just better to bite the bullet and go all out, especially when it comes to the front end, better safe than upside down in the ditch, right?

as far as actual technical advice i can't really give any though, i'm one of those "i think i know more than i really do" types lol
 
the caliper bolt makes perfect sense i didnt think about that as soon as my wife gets home I will check that out. My passenger side the brake caliper was nothing but a muddy mess
 
definitely makes nothing but sense, especially with the clunk being under braking

and like i said earlier, check everything, don't be afraid to over think a bit either, sometimes it helps....in small doses

and speaking of over thinking, maybe check inside your rear drum to see if that's full of mud as well
 
checked caliper bolts they are tight, when i turn the wheel to the right the noise goes away but when turned the left noise is still there. I feel the vibration into the seat so leads me to believe definintley from the drivers side. Im worried that maybe i messed something up in the pumpkin. Im thinking it might also be a u-joint but im at a loss for what it could be. As for the leak I think its from my oil pan rather than a coolant leak. I just changed the oil and i run amsoil so thats why i was thinking coolant because it wasnt black. i know my valve cover is leaking as well. Has 131k with no major problems so im happy
 
as far as oil leaks go, i've read that almost every oil leak (especially the valve cover) on the 4.0 can mask itself as a rear main or oil pan leak, so start from the top and work your way down, as far as diagnosing that vibration, i've said all i can say, i really don't know as much as i like to think i do, so perhaps it may be better to try some local jeep gurus if you know of any, maybe you can get them to help for the price of a 6 case
 
I appreciate the help I'm not upset. im going to put it over my shops oil pit tomorrow and watch the front axle while someone else hits the brakes just to see what happens its my dailoy driver so i cant afford catasrophic failures which means i should not have played with my friends though going out with over 20 trucks and playing was a blast
 
i know my trac bar is all tight because I go through and tighten it every once in a while Im about to pull the factory garbage off and put a locknut and lock washer on it with some blue lock tite just so i can make sure it doesnt come loose again
 
Check the sway bar bushings/bolts and lower shock mount bushings...I had a similar issue on my 88.

Braking in reverse puts a different load on the suspension compared to braking in drive, and new shock mount bushings fixed mine, crazy as it seems. New sway bar bushings fixed the squeak I could hear once the clunk was gone

Also, make sure you didn't pull an ebrake cable when you were winched out. I had one get snagged/pulled hard enough to partially engage the brakes on that side, and once I got it free, I had to wire tie the line up out of harms way.
 
shocks and sway bar bushings are new, I have one sway bar link bent so im wondering if my spring is loose because of the spacer and possibly making contact with that swaybar link
 
I have this little tab thing on the right side of my axle tube that clunks when i turn, not sure what it is but it doesn't look to be hurting anything
 
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