Symptoms of busted Steering Box Spacer? Rattling front end

So on my '01 XJ I've had the darnedest time tracking down and fixing the low speed front end rattle / popping noise.

So far, I've replaced my front Lower and Upper Control arms. Swaybar bushings and end links w/ Energy Suspension parts, greased the front and rear drive shaft slip splines, tightened down my trackbar mounts (both frame and axle sides). The axle side seemed somewhat loose but I torqued it down to 70 lbs. Not sure if the bolt is hollowed out some because I didn't actually remove it, just tightened it down. Replaced front shocks w/ Bilstein 4600s. Running Black Magic pads and centric rotors.

I haven't seen any slop in my U-Joints or Axle Hubs. There is a bit of slop in the rear pinion of the front differential ... I can sort of pop/move the front driveshaft w/my hand when under the XJ checking stuff... if that makes sense. It's not super tight and has a bit of slop... could be that the rattling/popping is coming from that. I guess I should take off the front driveshaft and see if the noise goes away??

The only thing I haven't replaced that tends to go bad is the steering box spacer. I don't see/feel any play in the steering box when I put my hands on it so I'm not sure if there's a way to know it's bad unless I take it off. I don't really want to do that unless I have a better replacement in hand. I just hate throwing more $$ at this rig only to not fix the problem I'm trying to fix... if that makes sense.

Also, I suppose there could be a crack in the frame somewhere but I've not been able to find one when visually inspecting my rig from underneath.

Any suggestions or help would be appreciated.

The most common source of this is a wallowed out hole in a control arm or track bar.

old_man said:

The most common source of this is a wallowed out hole in a control arm or track bar.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I failed to say that it really feels and sounds like it's coming from the drivers side... but that could be transmitted from the passenger side I suppose. I know the control arms had no wallowed out holes from what I recall but the track bar very well could be.

Also check your frame side trackbar mount mounting bolts!

RCP Phx said:

Also check your frame side trackbar mount mounting bolts!

Click to expand...

Thx. Failed to mention that I tightened down all the frame side trackbar mounting bolts w/my impact gun a month or so back... and that didn't seem to do anything to fix my issues. Still will double check that again to be sure.