Popping.......

C

Cherokeekid88

NAXJA Forum User
Location
North Carolina
So in the last week or so, I have noticed some popping going on under my front end. So today I go underneath her to have a look. also about 2 weeks ago, I installed some bilstein 5100's in the front....still waiting on money for the rears. So i checked first to make sure they were nice and tight....they are. So then I checked my trac bar on both the axle end and frame end....both are nice and tight....(now I didn't remove the axle end to see if the hole had been wallowed out....About a year ago, I drilled the hole out a tiny bit to fit a bigger bolt through and added some washers to keep it nice and tight... I also have a IRO long arm kit which was put on back in Feb, so I checked the sub frame, the arms, and the mounts and everything was nice and tight....My TRE's are only about 2 years old...I had an alignment done right after the long arm kit was installed and everything was and good until about a month ago when My steering started feeling loose and my steering wheel was becoming less centered while I was driving straight.....

So I am not really sure what to check next.....But whenever I go to back up and give it any type of gas and turn, it pops....if I am going slow and turn it pops, if I go to turn into a parking space....it usually will pop. It will not pop though if the car isn't moving and the wheels are turned....
 
My guess would be track bar. You need someone to turn the wheel while you watch underneath.
 
My friends had similar symptoms and it was his steering box/pitman arm tie rod end. The steering box shaft had worn (the one that the pitman installs to), which in turn wore out that tie rod end. Like High2by said, have someone cut the wheel back and forth in about a 4-6'' throw and look at all the joints/components for any wear.
 
It doesn't do it while car is still and wheels are turned....Ball joints are at least 4-5 years old....I haven't replaced them since I had the thing. But usually bad ball joints would cause some sort of camber right?
 
You can check the ball joints by lifting the tire off the ground, grabbing the wheel/tire at 12 & 6 and shaking it. Then do it again at 9 & 3.

What track bar are you running? Mine pops like hell when it loosens up.
 
Is the track bar frame bracket good? Mine had an issue of ''popping'' away from the frame where the bolt holes were worn out. Just a suggestion.
 
UNCC_99XJ said:
You can check the ball joints by lifting the tire off the ground, grabbing the wheel/tire at 12 & 6 and shaking it. Then do it again at 9 & 3.

What track bar are you running? Mine pops like hell when it loosens up.
Click to expand...

I am running a IRO trac bar I beleive, I know its a double shear trac bar.....


My IRO long arms have flex joints at the frame end....but they have never made any noise at all until now.... since Feb.
 
I dunno. Im sure they wouldn't need to be greased again only after 6 months..... I am thinking that it is my trac bar some how....maybe the hole on the axle side is wallowed out...I just haven't had time to take off and check it out.


I dunno....
 
ok, so I drove it about 15 miles.....it has gotten worse today. Its popping like every 5-6 seconds...its really scary...I was afraid I would hear one loud pop and flip my jeep.

Almost sounds like a axle u joint but don't have time nor space to mess with it right now. taking it to the shop in the morning.
 
Are you hearing it every time you hit a bump now, every time you steer, or both? I'd lean away from a ujoint as you would be hearing noise from that all the time.

My money's on the track bar still. Grab a helper and have them turn the wheel back and forth in the driveway while you look and feel around.
 
I was only hearing it whenever I turned at slow speeds like into a parking space or backing out of one or turning out of a place or whatever. But yesterday it was popping while I was driving down the road and whenever I would come to a stop and give it gas....it would pop.
Just got it towed to the shop, so Ill let them figure it out.....
 
I had a popping in my '01 and found one spot where it could have been. Turns out it wasn't, but I needed to address it anyway.

I have a ZJ tie rod and one of the bolts on the adjuststing sleeve on the track bar on the drivers side was making contact with the part of the axle that the swaybar link is attached to. I ended up using a cutting wheel to shorten that stud.

Didn't solve everything, but one issue solved.
 
Haven't heard from the shop yet.....The only thing that worries me is that I know my steering box needs to be replaced because I have some play in my steering on top of whatever is making that god awful noise...... I also can't work on my jeep where I live (apartment complex), so it makes it hard to fix stuff as it happens.....
 
Just went to go pick up my jeep from the shop.....the guy told me that he couldn't find anything wrong....he did noticed that they adjustment sleeve on the draglink was loose and so he tightened that and greased all my fittings, but saw nothing else...so I walk away with no bill, get in my jeep and drive off, everything sounds good...no popping...get about 4 miles down the road and it starts popping again....just a pop here and there and so yeah.....not fixed and its driving me insane......
 
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