My Co-driver had a big off last weekend at talladega but we both determined that the grass was wet and nothing had moved. When I drove the car on the street I noticed a distinct banging coming from the right Front suspension. It made the same kinda noise that it made when the bolt on the top of the shocks was loose. I pulled the wheel off yesterday and searched for anything loose. A arms, Sway bar, shocks bolts. Nothing was loose. The only thing I could find was that the sway bar and the bracket on the koni shocks was extremly close. So close that it was touching when jacked up. I let the car down with a jack stand under the suspension and it was no longer touching. I figured I had the problem figured out untill I checked the other side and found the same clearances. On futher inspection to the right side I found no markes on either the sway bar end link nor the shock bracket. Meaning nothing is making a solid impact to make the noise. I found the noise is made on Compression bumps not Pot holes or other dips. With everything Off I went at it with a rubber hammer and couldn't get a noise out of anything that I could hit. Any Ideas as to what this could be?

PS. I have the gendron front sway bar and off the shelf koni's.

 

did you check your a-arm brackets? it took me several weeks to discover that mine needed to be re-welded to the frame. check for cracks in the rubber stuff around the trailing a-arm mounting bracket...you may need to remove the wheel to get a good look.

 

I've heard about this happening in the past. And I've made a note of looking everytime I change the wheels at an event. But to be Honest I'm not 100% sure what I'm looking for.

 

I doubt your a-arms are having problems since you haven't been running the car that long. If you've gone through and made sure all the suspension bolts are tight, I'd suggest taking a close look at the Gendron bar arm. I think the attachment of the arm to the center section can work a little loose, though I'd imagine you've checked that already.

-Andy

 

I have had a similar noise from my bar. What happens is the locating collars loosen a little and allow the bar to move left to right which makes a noticable clunk, especially on street driving over uneven pavement. I couldn't tell anything until the suspension was completely unloaded and even then it didn't feel like a lot of movement but the sound was the same. You could check that out.

I've since corrected the problem and may soon have a gendron bar for sale. Not because it clunks, because I don't need a tree trunk for street tires.

 

What Pete said. I forgot to add that I ended up putting clamps around the bar on the inside of the brackets to prevent the side to side movement.

-Andy

 

Good point. Thats the one thing I didn't think to check. I'll do that tonight. Thanks Pete. I thought you sold your S.

 

Hey Ian, let me listen to the clunk in the next couple of days. I hate to say it, but it might be the shock eventhough it is new. I definitely know what a bad Koni sounds like.

Also, I can show you where the welds are failing on the a-arm.

 

Luckily I kept the car, I wasn't unemployed for nearly as long as I had feared.

I am taking it easy this year and keeping my activities to a local season on street tires and possibly co-drive for nationals.

 

Thats Good to hear, I'll look forward to see you in topeka.

Robert I'll see about bringing the car by tomorrow night. Hope it's not the shock. Probably not enough time to solve it before Ft. myres.