Rear Clunk

[mike burns 3]

I can hear a clunk from the left rear of my '01 on heavy bumps. I can also shake the rear of the truck from side to side (hard) and get the same clunk. Almost sounds like its coming from the rear end. Springs and and supports look ok.



Any other ideas?



No oil leaking from the rear end to indicate a bad bearing.

 

[Bryan Tobey]

Sway bar links?



The bushings are prone to failure.

 

[swshawaii]

Ditto. Check the tailgate pivot hinge cups and use heavy grease if needed.

Also the spare tire, shocks, and exhaust hangers for any slight movement.

Springs and and supports look ok.

Inspect ALL your body mount bushings, seems to be extremely common with '01 ST's.

(Unless that's what you meant by "supports") NVH issues are never easy, good luck.

 

[mike burns 3]

Link bushings look bad ... going to fix that first. Lets hope thats it.



Next, need to attack some rust that starting to appear

 

[EddieS'04]

I dont understand all the rear link bushing failures.

I have the stiffer EE sway bar. I drive the crap out of my trac. My oem bushing are still tight.

 

[mike burns 3]

Cant speak for others but I think most of my issues are living on a dirt road in VT. The underside of my truck gets pelted with a fine salty sand grit 6-7 months out of the year.



Ball joints are almost a annual event. The first set of sealed lasted for 6 years and 110K miles. The greaseable aftermarket ones last maybe 20K. I have gone back to OEM on most everything else with good results. If I decide to keep the truck I'm going to go back with OEM lower control arms with new sealed ball joints. Weatherford TX Ford usually has good online pricing so the OEM is about the same cost as aftermarket.



One big negative for Ford is they don't seem to be maintaining Sport Trac specific parts. Things shared with Explorer or Ranger OK but trim, seats, etc that are specific to the SP are hard or impossible to get new.