Iron Rock Offroad Steering Hole Clearances

I have a 1995 XJ with the IRO long arm & IRO over knuckle steering. The Jeep was recently acquired and neither was installed by myself. When hitting bumps in the road, potholes, speed bumps, curbs, etc. there is a definite bump/klunk sound that I don't like in the front end. You don't feel it in the steering wheel. The previous owner says that it started when the steering system was installed. Upon close examination, I determined that the bolts were moving in the knuckle even with me kicking the tire. It also appeared that the drag link heim has a little slop in it. I didn't see any other evidence of additional issues. The installation instructions on the kit says to drill the knuckle with a 5/8" drill bit. When I disassembled it, it appear the holes in the knuckles are about 1/32 over size. IRO customer service was contacted and wasn't much help. They couldn't give me tolerances on the hole, nor would express experience with this problem. I feel pretty good I have located the source of the noise. Would you check anything else? Has anyone else had a similar issue with this kit? Any feedback would be appreciated before I replace the knuckles with another unit.

keith_b00ne said:

I determined that the bolts were moving in the knuckle even with me kicking the tire.

Click to expand...

I wanted to clarify this. The bolt moving is connecting the drag link and tie rod to the knuckle on the passenger side. The drivers side bolt appears to be moving too, but doesn't appear to be as bad since it is only connecting the tie rod end.

The problem with heim steering is, If you dont keep the bolts super tight, They will move around and wallow out the holes in the knuckles/Pitman arm..

Sounds like the Original owner had it installed and didnt know to keep tabs on how tight the bolts are..

What's weird about this clunking noise is that I can hear it inside of the cab, but not from the exterior of the vehicle.

Worn control arm bolts. After I installed my IRO long arm kit I had some clunking. Turned out it was the control arm bolts were worn just a smidge.

Replace them and let us Know.