Undiagnosable Clunking

After reading everything, my money is on some thing wrong inside the front differential. Second in line is a CV. I’m definitely not an expert in either of those areas, but I do hate noises that have no explanation. If I know what it is and it’s not causing any harm, I’m good with it. But if it’s something caused by some type of failure or improper installation, I want it fixed.

definitely in for the results, whatever this plays out to be.

 

Dang, beat me to it. I would remove the hub cover of the CV's to remove the big nut. Bang the CV back deeper into the front diff and make sure you go past the snap ring. Tighten the big nut back up and replace the dust cover. Sounds like your longer travel suspension has caused the CV's to be pulled further out then stock. My 2cents.

 

Chassis ears are on my list of things to get next week if this next shop visit doesn't reveal any issues.

I've considered getting rid of it a few times, unfortunately it would probably take more time and money to return this thing back to stock before trading it in or selling it than it would to replace/take apart the few remaining items I haven't touched yet.

 

Not stupid at all. I've heard of it being an issue so I already checked all of those parts.

 

Interesting. I've never noticed an unusual humming, but these Toyo RT'S aren't exactly quite so I bet it would be hard to pick out anyway.

I'm gong to have the mechanic working on it this week give me his opinion on the amount of CV slop I have and maybe pull the axle to take a closer look.

 

I'm beginning to grow suspicious of the diff/CV's so as stated above I'll be having my guy look into it this week.

Thanks for the suggestion. Tonight I'll compare the gap between the driver/passenger side CV and the diff to see if I notice a difference

 

I would check the gaps between the CV and diff with the wheel at full droop. Jack up the truck from either the frame rail or crossmember and see if a gap shows up when the wheel gets off the ground.

 

When I first installed my wheel locks I placed the key inside the console safe and headed to Home Depot for something. Went down the road through several turns and out of nowhere clunk clunk clunk at random. At first I thought the front end came apart on a brand new truck, sure did sound like it was control arm or sway bar. Nope, it was the wheel lock key bumping inside the safe. I assure you, I was dumbfounded for thirty minutes trying to find a loose suspension component in the dark. Don't believe me, throw a deep set socket in there and take off, it's really concerning when you hear the clunks.

 

Lol. I had a similar experience in my old Tacoma. I mounted a big Maglight flashlight on my driver seat. The D batteries rattled in the casing on certain roads.

 

How much room between your coil-overs and the LCA at full droop here? Any marks from contact? This LCA has been notched, albeit poorly.

 

I think he may have clunked out.

 

Yep, STILL clunking! Going to go the chassis ears route here soon.

 

I've already eliminated the possibility of something inside the truck clunking

 

I've read about the LCA's requiring clearancing but mine are not contacting at full droop and there aren't any marks of them contacting.

 

With the way things are now you could always trade it in at this point for more than you bought it for and get a new one.

 

Is the battery moving around?

 

mine is doing same thing and sounds like it’s getting worse IDK.

 

Was there any solution?

 

I also had a similar sound like that after i installed a lift and after I had an alignment that sound occurred and I read a couple of other posts about the same issue everyone mentioned the LCA needed to be torqued to somewhere around 200# when I used my torque wrench sure enough it was never torqued and I figured as much because they never removed my TRD skid plate to do so because from what I seen underneath I don’t think there is any way to torque it unless it’s removed. IDK maybe double check and see if they even torqued it to proper spec.

 

I read that fantastic thread for this...SOAB.

 

Back from death. Still clunking?

 

What’s your front suspension setup besides the TRD Fox? I have the same and am thinking my newly reinstalled sway bar is hitting the shock.

 

I have the westcott lift in front and coachbuilder +3 carrier bearing drop in back with RAS.

 

did you ever check the differential mounts?

 

Alright, read this whole thread… you’ve checked damn near everything, but the one thing you haven’t checked is the front diff, it sounds like there’s slop between the gear set like the backlash wasn’t set properly when the gears where installed. Did a shop install them? Did they paint the gears to check the pattern? Is the race and backlash set properly? You might not have a failure because of it, but it’ll be wearing down the teeth on the gears, how’s the front diff fluid look?