Dreaded clunk

I just fixed a similarly elusive clunk in my '84 120, it was all to do with the rear radius arm bushes being shot. They were at a point where it affected the handling, producing oversteer part way through a corner, and when putting some grunt into removing wheel nuts, the whole axle would move about 5mm fore & aft. One was worse than the other. Easy enough to fix, and not too expensive.

I'd earlier done the bushes on the front radius arms also, they sometimes made a hell of a BANG when taking off from a standing start, like something in the gearbox breaking. This was the rear end of the arm smacking against the mount on the chassis as the axle torqued as one bush was completely worn out.

Fraz,
take it to someone who can diagnose the "clunk" before just replacing all suspension components in random order...

Any reputable mechanic can surely assess between the remaining probable culprits

- worn control arm bushes
- sway bar bushes / joints
- drive flanges
- tcase input gear
-uni joint/s

it would be exe to just go down the list swapping parts!!!!

S

Fraz

Take the caps off the rear axles and rock it backwards and forwards could be worn axles and drive members

Yeah I replaced the rear axles and drive flanges in my Defender and most of the clunkiness went away.
It's cheap and easy to fix and do both at the same time.

Reputable mechanics can be as hard to locate as the sourse of the 'clunk'....

Suspension dramas can be particularly elusive. Despite pretty much all of my radius arm bushes being shot, the Landy handled, well actually it handled like a bar of soap really (but it got through rego like that!), but some where in the list of things to do was a wheel alignment. That is when things got interesting even though the alighnment was only0.5 degree out. Once that was adjusted I had the most amazing death wobble, not surprising really in hind sight given the state of the suspension, but really wierd in that prior to the alignment there was no hint of this.

New shocks, front and rear radius arm bushes, panhard bushes, tightened rear wheel bearings and she's pretty much fixed. There is still the hint of a wobble after hitting bumps, but as a work horse I can put up with that.

G'day All, I had a clunk that I thought was coming from the rear end and knowing that the ball joint had been replaced with an adjustable type, anyway to cut a long story short, it was the bushes in the front raduis arms (nolathane p.o.s) I replaced them with genuine L/R parts and the rubber bushes at either ends 'No more CLUNK' so it pays to check everything 1st hope thats of some help cheers Dennis:angel:

I wouldn't discount axle flanges. I've found that if you stand on the rear wheel, and rock the wheel back and forth while holding onto the roof gutter, you can get enough momentum to replicate the knock. With assistance you may be able to locate it by sound that way.

Good luck
Brid

Hi guys, I'm a newbie here and bougnt a 95 Def about a month ago and have exactly the same problem. I'm hoping it's something cheap. Just had the A frame ball joint done but I know the shocks are all shot. When I've got the handbrake on, I can still stand on the rear wheels and rock back and forth (in fact can just do it with my hands on the wheels). Rear propshaft doesn't move (obviously) so it scares me to think it's the diff ;any thoughts? Front propshaft moves slightly with same loads applied.
cheers pirasea (Gerald)

I'm no expert here at all, I've just had a bit too much recent experience.... If you know your shocks are shot, chances are you should think about all other 'consumable' suspension bits eg bushes as per previous quotes in this thread.

I have noticed that with one wheel off the ground and the hand brake on, I still get something like 10-15 degrees wheel rotation via all the slack and back-lash in the diff. I assume this is about normal, Landys are famous for that, but after the recent bush/shock replacement I have no clunk from anywhere in the vehicle.

Thanks 10 inches more, which btw is an intriguing name. You guys collectively are giving me some heart and confidence about this and make for some really interesting reading. It's a great social network and I'm looking forward to meeting some of you on a trip or at some meeting in the future. Yeah, I did think I'd take the old girl to Pedders for their $14 or $28 supension check and then try to do it all myself. I'm sure if they have a look at it there'll be more than a few of those bushes, etc that need replacing. Overall its bound to be cheaper than a reco or new diff