grandpajay

My buddy and I were so excited after a long weekend of wrenching on the car. We install Koni shocks and struts and ford racing front lower control arms. we took the car out for a spin to test the new suspension and grab some milk shakes. we got to the first red light and heard a "clunk" that sounded like it came from the rear... there's not much back there that could've been messed up however I'm wondering if new shocks and struts change the ride height enough to warrant adjusting the rear upper/lower control arms and if that clunking is the bushing in the back making some kinda unhappy noise.

let me know if anyone thinks they have a solution.
Thanks!
Mike

BrazenStang

You should go back over your work. I would check that all bolts are torqued to spec properly & that they were torqued with the suspension fully loaded. Also, check that the springs are seated properly. Even though you only changed the shocks, maybe one of them got bumped or twisted off the spring mount.

gmoran1469

The UCA on the 05-09 mustangs use a 14mm bolts with a 16mm bolt hole. That's the clunk. I've dealt with it for the longest and finally mounted a gopro up under the car and went for a few test spins to see what the deal was. I could see the UCA moving from where I had the camera mounted. I also took the rear seat bottom out so I could get to the UCA mount bolt that goes inside the cab and I put my hand on it while I got on and off the throttle. The clunk trasnlated right through the bolt so I knew it had to be that. Ordered a new mount last week, should be here tomorrow. Got mine from Steeda. It's the GT500 mount from them instead of the regular GT mount to beef it up.

I run steeda LCA's and adj. UCA and the clunk just got worse when I put them on. It seems the lower you go the worse it gets.

UPRSharad

The rear swaybars are notoriously noisy if they're not tight. That and the PHB. Retorque everything and see if the noise goes away.

gmoran1469

Got about halfway through the install of the new UCA bracket last night. Going to have to modify it or use a pry-bar to shift it slightly to get the last bolt in place. The place where it bolts inside the car on the new bracket is bigger than the OEM bracket and whereas the OEM bracket had slack and could move back in forth when in place, the new one does not. In fact, I had to file out a bit of the metal to even get it into the slot where it slips into. I have a feeling it's going to be a LOT more rigid when I finish the install.

gmoran1469

Updating:

With the steeda UCA GT500 mount the clunk is gone. There is still a VERY clear transition of weight to the front and back when on and off the throttle in an aggressive manner but that's the be expected with rod/poly on everything. No more CLUNK sound though as if something were loose.