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Control arm question

ekp0527

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Greenville, NC
I have a 98 cherokee with no lift on it currently. I have been hearing a clunk noise coming from the front end when i press the gas when I am backing up out of my driveway which is a steep upward hill to the street. It also clunks when I am going over bumps at lower speeds (35 or under). I do not think it is the trac bar because I have checked it for tightness and I also know for a fact that it has nothing to do with the swaybar because I have listened for the noise when it is disconnected and I can still hear it. It does a lot of clunking when I am offroad in 4wd as well. I think it may be the upper control arms but I can't pin it down.

I have a set of upper and lower control arms that i got from a friend of mine's '03 wrangler and was wondering if i should try swapping the uppers in and see if it makes any difference. Should this be a direct swap?

Also i just noticed today when i crawled under the jeep the the driver side upper control has a strange looking bend in it. Someone help me, this clunking it driving me crazy!
 
one easy check = if the clunking stops under slight brake pressure it could very well be lca/uca. if so first thing i would do is check on the control arm bolt's torque....

if it is a control arm it could be lower or upper. i've had lowers do this myself.

i dont know if the wrangler arms are a direct fit. i think they should be if the wrangler had the same D30 front axle as ur xj - measure 'em n see i guess.
 
Iv had a clunk noise coming from the front end while going on speed bumps and other bumps on a road, I was always under the thing trying to figure out what it was for weeks. Come to find out my passenger side shock was extremely loose on the top mount. Also one other noise i had which seemed to be at the front was my exgaust pipe hiting the cross-member. Check those also.
 
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