I see people building wooden platform out of 2x6 joined together and in steps to drive the car onto for suspension work when needing to raise or preload the wheels. Inexpensive and can be very useful if built properly with safety in mind.

You can drive the car a little bit not a problem with the suspension bolts hand tight but also, I commonly raise the wheels from the bottom of the hub so it's just one pump. Easier in back but doable in front.

If you're still talking about making the final torque on suspension components with the system loaded, here's what always works for me (unless it's really convenient to do that when the wheels are on and on the ground):

Jack the car centrally

Jack stands on both sides, set to equal height

Wheel(s) off as needed

Do the suspension work you need to do

Install, but do not final-torque bushings

Jack up the wheel-less suspension corner, by whatever is convenient - outer end of the control arm, knuckle, brake rotor (with someone stepping on the brakes), whatever it takes.

How far? You want to jack it up to match the same geometry you'd have with the wheel on and sitting on the ground. You could go and measure the fender lip to hub center distance and then duplicate that while jacking. That will put the geometry of the suspension components in the same positions they'd be in if it were off the jack stands, so that's the position you want to be in for torqing the bushings.

But (here's the cool part) if you did that carefully, and you jacked the suspension out near the brake rotor (roughly where the wheel center would be), you would find that you reach the correct distance exactly when the car lifts off the jack stand.

I've done this so many times now, and it makes sense from physics, that I don't even bother to measure the fender lip to hub center distance any more. I just jack until it barely lifts off the jackstand. And even if you go further, not much changes. If the car were not originally jacked and supported symmetrically, this may not work so accurately, but would still be pretty close.

Also, back to the clunking ... I always reuse my stiffening plate bolts, torquing very carefully. But if not done carefully, it is definitely possible to break those. I've never heard of it happening, but since they are TTY, it is closer than most bolts to being there. Those bolts hold the sway bar bushings in place, so if you lost one or two, you might get clunking. If you did break a bolt please report back, you'll be famous.

The other thought is to rule out anything loose in the brake caliper. But I generally agree on the suspension as a first suspect - at speed, it is seeing constant force due to driving, keeping it tighter, but at slower speeds, the looseness allows the clunks.

Very good suggestions oldskewel. I have all the bolts to the support plate intact and none are broken. I don't think I am ever that strong but anything can happen when adrenaline is running right?...just kidding.

I'm about to jack up the car, keep the front and rear level and jack stands on all four corners. Last night, I did have a look at the sway bar bushings and they look to be properly aligned and okay. I will loosen all the nuts/bolts to the support plate and sway bar and informally torque them down.
Then, I will check the passenger side sway bar link to make sure both ends are securely in the slot and torqued evenly. Finally, I will check the ball joint at the upper and lower control arms.
Will report back.

Thank you.

Thanks for this - and was what I was thinking (re loding suspension for torquing) - wasn’t sure if it could damage the car to lift it off the jack stand/get it to the point where it raises) by jacking under the hub - but suppose it should be fine.

Is it just the bushes which can be damaged - or should the ball joints also be preloaded? I may as well tighten them all at the same time - but I watched a you tube vid where the guy claims its just bushes which need to be preloaded - which kinda makes sense...

Thanks again!

The ball swivels the bushes twist. Only bushing end needs to be tightened @on the ground". Lift off the jack stand makes perfect sense; clearly the same as on the ground.


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Yep. That makes sense. Thanks.

Well, I loosen the nuts/bolts to the reinforcement plate and tighten them evenly. Checked the new sway bar links and they are in snug. The knocking/clunking noise is still there.

Prior to getting this noise, the upper control arm was rough and under braking or acceleration the car would jerk. Now that the front end has new upper control arms, sway bar links, and wheel axels, I'm now leaning closer towards the passenger's lower control arm ball joint being the culprit of the knocking/clunking noise. Upon hitting some bumps on the road surface, I noticed the steering wheel wobble a little bit still. Sometimes, I feel the nose of the car wander too. From what I've been reading, bad lower control arms allow the front of the car to wonder left and right, especially if the road has uneven surface.
Does my logic or assessment sound reasonable or I should go take a cold shower and come back...?

P.S. I have ordered a replacement lower control arm so will be getting that installed in a week or so and then report back again.

Clunking noise under front passenger side...help!
 

Lower control arm also is the ball joint. If the ball joint is with you will get shimmy in the wheel on braking at speed. Usually a gentle brake from about 50 to 30 mph is where it shows up first but can be 70 to 60 as well. That's usually the first symptom of bad ball joint but it can clunk as well.

There is a bearing at the top of the spring as well that when wears out can certainly cause clunking


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Andrewwynn, that is very interesting. I just didn't spend enough time looking at the parts diagram to notice the bearing of the spring. To be honest, I had that thought in the back of my head this whole time; thinking that when I moved the strut assembly out and forward towards the front fender to pull and replace the wheel axel, did I dislodge or misaligned something in the strut assembly. A couple weeks ago, I just did a quick inspection of the top of the strut by removing the dome shaped plastic cover. I didn't fully look into the entire assembly. The clunking noise that I get is just very odd and hard to place. So, I will have a much closer look at the strut assembly to see if something got misaligned. It's worth a short. I just hate messing with spring coil as they can be quite dangerous under load if not careful.

If not, well, I have a brand new lower control arm coming. It's going to get installed regardless.