rusty's question...why so much noise? ***vids added at end**

PBrug · **Posted:** Mon Apr 02, 2007 11:05 pm

Jeep4me99 wrote:

****when we put the single nut on top of the strut and strut plate we tightened it till there was one thread showing, should it be tighter???? could this be the problem?**** how tight should that nut be? I know the more info the better, we didnt exactly torqe the nuts, we just tighted the S*** outta them. I really don't want to pull the front end apart again, but I may have to.

Keeping in mind I only watched and slightly assisted in the install of my lift, I am fairly certain that there was more threads showing on the strut bolt when it was tightened. I have the OME HD's and Rancho's, not Rusty's, so I don't know if that would make a difference. I have no noises post lift.

unixxx · **Posted:** Mon Apr 02, 2007 11:45 pm

My Frankenlift creaked all the time for the first few months and now sounds normal. In my case, All J told me I just needed to wait a little while and they were right.

rubigade · **Posted:** Tue Apr 03, 2007 1:40 am

I too put on the Rusty's lift myself. The back shocks rattled but after I torqued the crap out of them and still no solution, I checked the tolerance of the shock stud OD to the sleeve spacer ID. It rattled in my hand so a few revolutions of electrical tape and it's been good for 4 weeks including a Jamboree. I'll probably have to improve it later with new shocks like everyone else but for now, it's good.
As far as the front goes, I've been reading the posts and the only thing I see that you did different, or at least did not confirm doing was having the struts assembled for you by a shop with a strut compressor. I put the lift on, and there was no popping at that point but I came back from the Jamboree and started to hear some, I read the posts on the recall and had the ball joints replaced immediately (last week), Every once in a while, I do hear a mild pop but it's only when we've had a cold night or I haven't driven it in a few days. A little rust builds up I guess, between the fits and squeaks and pops a tad. Other than that, my little buggy works well and quiet.
Bottom line: Check strut for solid "put together"/mount nuts and all components involved in the alignment.
Hope this helps.

csukoh78 · **Joined:** Thu Mar 08, 2007 10:34 pm **Posts:** 501

"Might be quicker to remove front swaybar and see if noise goes away.DON"T drive on the street at very high speeds during this test,as the stability will not be very good.If the noise is still there,look to make sure upper balljoint is not contacting coil spring."

I think a problem I am having is with the swaybar as well. Is this really a safe test/ definitive proof? Just seems dangerous

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Tue Apr 03, 2007 9:05 am

csukoh78 wrote:

"Might be quicker to remove front swaybar and see if noise goes away.DON"T drive on the street at very high speeds during this test,as the stability will not be very good.If the noise is still there,look to make sure upper balljoint is not contacting coil spring."

I think a problem I am having is with the swaybar as well. Is this really a safe test/ definitive proof? Just seems dangerous

The poping noise in the vids sounds like the top strut nut(one that holds the strut to the top strut plate) or a loose bolt on the sway bar,I've had both problems and they pretty much sounded the same.As far as driving with the front bar off,keep the speed down under 10mph and don't do any sharp turning and you'll be fine for a short test drive to see if the noise is still there.

Dje Ryu · **Posted:** Tue Apr 03, 2007 9:38 am

Jeep4me99 wrote:

ok....here are two videos to help explain what I'm talking about, no they arent the best (if one isn't coming up please wait for youtube to catch up). I loosend all the nuts and bolts we did durinng the install, then retightened them as per TJKJs post. but I still have the noise.

this one the camera is pointing down at the top strut mount bolts. air box is removed. I'm pressing down on the top of the body. its sounds like change rattling and something nasty!! I can hear this even louder when I drive. The sound def seems to be coming from the top of the strut

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw873_sdt0o

this one is during driving. at 20 to 38 seconds you can really hear the rattling. It sounds like the stut assembly is moving around.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U0Ko9uc5B0

****when we put the single nut on top of the strut and strut plate we tightened it till there was one thread showing, should it be tighter???? could this be the problem?**** how tight should that nut be? I know the more info the better, we didnt exactly torqe the nuts, we just tighted the S*** outta them. I really don't want to pull the front end apart again, but I may have to.

I had about a 1/4" of (coarse) threads after tightening that top nut so I'd say that's the problem. Gonna have to pull them back off, compress the springs, and tighten that top nut down.

myjeepwalks · **Posted:** Tue Apr 03, 2007 6:58 pm

Jeep4me99 wrote:

ok....here are two videos to help explain what I'm talking about, no they arent the best (if one isn't coming up please wait for youtube to catch up). I loosend all the nuts and bolts we did durinng the install, then retightened them as per TJKJs post. but I still have the noise.

this one the camera is pointing down at the top strut mount bolts. air box is removed. I'm pressing down on the top of the body. its sounds like change rattling and something nasty!! I can hear this even louder when I drive. The sound def seems to be coming from the top of the strut

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw873_sdt0o

this one is during driving. at 20 to 38 seconds you can really hear the rattling. It sounds like the stut assembly is moving around.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U0Ko9uc5B0

****when we put the single nut on top of the strut and strut plate we tightened it till there was one thread showing, should it be tighter???? could this be the problem?**** how tight should that nut be? I know the more info the better, we didnt exactly torqe the nuts, we just tighted the S*** outta them. I really don't want to pull the front end apart again, but I may have to.

I have the same exact noise in mine, but mine is all stock. It's not my swaybar because i took it of and drove it and the noise was still there. I'm guessing with mine it is the upper stut mount/plates. Anybody ever have these go bad. I checked my entire front end about 10 times and nothing is loose. Just had the lower ball joints done under recall hoping that was the noise but no. This has been driving me nuts for about a year. I have some very very slight play in my steering rack that makes noise shaking the wheel back and forth when the engine is not running but i dont think that is the noise i'm hearing. It sounds like a suspension noise. Wash board roads/trails sound like the front end is falling out.

Jeep4me99 · **Posted:** Tue Apr 03, 2007 7:15 pm

wow....lots of responses now...hopefully they will lead me to solving the issue!!!! keep the ideas coming though. The more info I have, the better chance I have at narrowing it down.

THANKS :!:

rubigade · **Posted:** Wed Apr 04, 2007 12:04 pm

Somebody Ginxed me!! Last night I had to drive down a road under construction. It was very pitted and uneven. Ya'll... I began to hear rattles from the front end!!!
As I said, it was unusually rough and I was going faster than I typically would on such a surface but I thought.."crap, somebody ginxed me!" I'll start looking too.
Thanks alot

Jeep4me99 · **Posted:** Wed Apr 04, 2007 2:02 pm

rubigade wrote:

Somebody Ginxed me!! Last night I had to drive down a road under construction. It was very pitted and uneven. Ya'll... I began to hear rattles from the front end!!!
As I said, it was unusually rough and I was going faster than I typically would on such a surface but I thought.."crap, somebody ginxed me!" I'll start looking too.
Thanks alot

jeeeeeeeeshhhh, its contagious. I'll be digging into mine this weekend. be sure to post your findings and I'll of course do the same.

DarbyWalters · **Posted:** Wed Apr 04, 2007 3:30 pm

That is definitely strut noise from the videos...make sure the spring isolators were installed if needed also

csukoh78 · **Joined:** Thu Mar 08, 2007 10:34 pm **Posts:** 501

I have the same exact noises...what can we do about it? When I had the 4x4 shop put it together, he put it together correctly and the top shock bolt and nut had about three full threads exposed, did we do something wrong?

USPLibby · **Joined:** Thu Jul 28, 2005 12:29 am **Posts:** 377

I think that that sound is the top nut on the strut. Thread pitch shouldn't matter as Rusty's struts comes with it's own lock nut. The problem either is that the 4x4 shop didn't install the springs correctly, it happened to one of my struts = they either didn't tighten it down all the way or misaligned the upper strut plates before they tightened the nut leaving it loose.

That nut is only like 35 ft lbs I think, so compressing the spring properly first, getting all the parts lined up and torqued before you decompress the spring is important. Lock-tite should keep the nut from loosening again by itself.

Also, make sure that when they reinstall the strut that they properly align the clevis fork before clamping it on. I use a small wedge of oak to hold the clevis open slightly, I slid it into position on the strut, tightened the lower bolt first and then tightened the upper clevis bolt in that order.
This makes sure that the clevis forks aren't installed twisted which I think might unscrew the bolt over time. The OME struts don't have a registering notch like the stock struts.

Oh, I should add that a good way to test to see if the top nut is loose = if you have the dust shields installed, they should be tight and shouldn't wobble. One side on my Jeep was really tight, and the other flipped around easily making a rattle.

csukoh78 · **Joined:** Thu Mar 08, 2007 10:34 pm **Posts:** 501

ok, I cant get my finger in between the spring, but I used my leatherman to poke and prod the dust boot, and surprise surprise the drivers side (the one I think is misaligned) make a distince rattle sound just by barely touching it.

Is it ok to remove the dust boot? I have heard about guys doing this, but it concerns me exposing those metal parts to God knows what....what about reliability?

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Wed Apr 04, 2007 8:34 pm

csukoh78 wrote:

ok, I cant get my finger in between the spring, but I used my leatherman to poke and prod the dust boot, and surprise surprise the drivers side (the one I think is misaligned) make a distince rattle sound just by barely touching it.

Is it ok to remove the dust boot? I have heard about guys doing this, but it concerns me exposing those metal parts to God knows what....what about reliability?

Never ran a dust boot yet,you'll be fine without it.

Jeep4me99 · **Posted:** Wed Apr 04, 2007 8:52 pm

csukoh78 wrote:

ok, I cant get my finger in between the spring, but I used my leatherman to poke and prod the dust boot, and surprise surprise the drivers side (the one I think is misaligned) make a distince rattle sound just by barely touching it.

Is it ok to remove the dust boot? I have heard about guys doing this, but it concerns me exposing those metal parts to God knows what....what about reliability?

Its not a problem not having off the dust boot, I don't have mine on, but who am I to speak about a perfect suspension :oops:

. In my opinion, having the cover off will allow you to rinse the strut better to clean it. I live in Fla so I don't have to deal with road salt in the winter, not sure how that would affect the strut?

csukoh78 · **Joined:** Thu Mar 08, 2007 10:34 pm **Posts:** 501

Sigh...........I guess this means I either have to live with it, or take it apart again..... :evil:

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Wed Apr 04, 2007 9:00 pm

csukoh78 wrote:

Sigh...........I guess this means I either have to live with it, or take it apart again..... :evil:

The more you take it apart the easier it gets!I've got it down to be able to remove the whole front suspesion and install it in under 3hours with smoke breaks(alot of them).

csukoh78 · **Joined:** Thu Mar 08, 2007 10:34 pm **Posts:** 501

How can I tell if the clevis bracket is aligned correctly?

Hauntedyards · **Posted:** Wed Apr 04, 2007 10:36 pm

You guys are making me reeealy happy about where I had mine installed... no sounds at all... I love it...

rusty's question...why so much noise? *vids added at end

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