carbster09

Hey all,

I have been attempting to locate this little knock that I sometimes get upon coming to a full stop quickly. Well .. stupid me :cool: whilst driving far too fast I ended up getting the rear way, way .. out of shape! :yesnod:

Good thing nobody was near me! Anyhow I recovered, went home and had a beer. I reckon the front end seems a bit loose? :confused:

Could it be a ball joint? Also how can I tell? Any other guesses? D*mn ball joints look rather difficult to do by myself...any ideas?

Thank

Carbster09 :seeya

wombvette

Look at the control arm bushings, especially the upper ones. They will cause a knock on hard braking.

My79Vette

Ball joints aren't as bad as what you might think. If they are riveted in, you need a grinder to grind off the ball on the rivet heads. If someone has changed them before, they usually have nuts and bolts through the mounting plates, which is what you will usally get for replacements. Since they are trashed, or if you are just replacing them, back the spindle nut out flush with the end of the spindle, and rap it with a big ole hammer to drive it out of the frame. OR, if you have the ball joint seperator tool, looks like a big tuning fork, place it in between the ball joint boot and the frame, and hit it with a hammer to seperate. Then install your new joint. Instructions are normally in the box and should be close to what you did to remove, except in reverse order.

Ben's75

I'm getting a similar "clunk" from the front end while braking. My control arm bushings were just replaced, and I've had some repairs made to the front crossmember and control arm brackets. I already replaced my lower balljoints - could the upper balljoints be making this racket? It's not so much a "knock" as it is a *crack* or loud pop kind of noise. It doesn't sound great. Anything to check? I've got the car all taken apart (no class - woohoo!) for the summer, so it's a good time to fix stuff...

Ben

My79Vette

Since you have it down already, I would check the upper ones. There is a chance that it could be your wheel bearings as well.

Ben's75

I suppose that's possible, but I have had my car in with a trusted mechanic recently, and when he replaced my rear wheel bearings, he didn't say anything about the fronts. But I understand that the front bearings are a real cinch, and cheap to boot. Maybe I'll extend my car's period of convalescence, and just do that while I have it all up in the air. Hm...

Ben

PigPen

I had been chasing a clunck/crunch in the left front for some time. I replaced bushings, idler arm, etc. All these helped tighten up the front end, but I still had the clunck. Discovered the typical cracks in the frame around front crossmember/frame. I had a feeling they were there, looked several times, never found them until one day...After locating them, I don't know how I could have missed them before.
Welded them up and the clunck is gone. Not a peep since.

carbster09

PigPen,

That's pretty interesting. I am going to inspect that area with care now! Maybe this will fix it. Of course I think new ball joints are on the way as well.
The front is still to loose with the new bushings and idler arm.

:seeya

carbster

Ben's75

yeah - I'm beginning to suspect the frame myself... there's an area visible from the engine compartment where it appears that one of the lateral rails (don't know if that's the right term) is pulling away from the front assembly near the radiator. Hm...

I'll have the front end apart soon - I'll take a closer look.

In the meantime - one rear trailing arm back in with no problems :hurray:

Ben