Front Suspension

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rmb3005

Active member
Joined
Jan 4, 2017
Messages
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Location
Brunswick, Ohio
My Car
72 Mustang, 65D body style, dark green metallic, black vinyl roof, 351C, FMX transmission


OK Everyone, I have what I believe to be a suspension issue on the right front of my 72 Mustang.  When I drive it, there is this awful "creaking" sound.  I have tried practically everything I can think of to figure out what the problem is.  I have replaced the shocks, replaced the springs including the rubber isolators on the top of the springs and the saddles that mount to the upper control arms that the springs sit in. I have greased everything that has a grease fitting including the upper control arm bushings, which I didn't realize had grease fittings until recently.

I wanted to attach a video with sound so the creaking can be heard, but I couldn't. 

Thanks for your help.

Bob

 
Wow, great looking car!

I hate to say it but, yeah, they 'creak', especially the stock front suspensions. Things you can do to eliminate include:

1. replace strut rods with Heim join style struts.

2. Roller perches

3. After market upper and lower arms that include bearings instead of rubber bushings.

In addition to reducing the creaking it will also tighten the rides.

 
Hey Mike, thanks for info. I'll have look into this further.

 
Sounds like an upper ball joint to me. Can you duplicate the noise when you bounce on the fender or turn the steering wheel while parked? Were you able to give it a good shot of grease? Sometimes they get plugged up and don't accept grease.

 
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If I bounce the front fender I can duplicate the noise, but no noise when I turn the steering wheel when parked. And the upper ball joint is a"greaseless" type without a grease fitting. It was replaced prior to me buying the car.

 
If I bounce the front fender I can duplicate the noise, but no noise when I turn the steering wheel when parked. And the upper ball joint is a"greaseless" type without a grease fitting.  It was replaced prior to me buying the car.
Some, including OEM, come with a plug instead of a grease fitting. You can remove the plug and use a special tool to grease it, or replace the plug with a standard zerk fitting.

 
Beautiful grandé!

Dunno if that can help, but mine was doing same and that simply drove me crazy.

So asked a friend cook to see he could spare one of his cooking polyurethane plate that they use.

He came back to me with 3 and one of them was of the thickness required!

Then its just a story of drilling the inner hole to original diameter, roughly cut the outer diameter

and turn them on drill machine. 10 minutes little work: noise gone, and they'll stay forever ok ;)

Over the years I way made more, and they are as new if I clean them. No more squeezes noises, no more

defect rubber either. In case you'd want to try, I was a few ago at IKEA and they got some cooking sets for

like $3. The only prob is if you try do original resto, I haven't found raw plates in black.

 
Beautiful grandé!

Dunno if that can help, but mine was doing same and that simply drove me crazy.

So asked a friend cook to see he could spare one of his cooking polyurethane plate that they use.

He came back to me with 3 and one of them was of the thickness required!

Then its just a story of drilling the inner hole to original diameter, roughly cut the outer diameter

and turn them on drill machine. 10 minutes little work: noise gone, and they'll stay forever ok ;)

Over the years I way made more, and they are as new if I clean them. No more squeezes noises, no more

defect rubber either. In case you'd want to try, I was a few ago at IKEA and they got some cooking sets for

like $3. The only prob is if you try do original resto, I haven't found raw plates in black.
Thanks for the compliment on the car! It's not a Grande, though, just a base coupe with a vinyl roof and. 351c that's been rebuilt.  I'm not exactly sure what you're referring to in your post.

 
If I bounce the front fender I can duplicate the noise, but no noise when I turn the steering wheel when parked. And the upper ball joint is a"greaseless" type without a grease fitting.  It was replaced prior to me buying the car.
Some, including OEM, come with a plug instead of a grease fitting. You can remove the plug and use a special tool to grease it, or replace the plug with a standard zerk fitting.
I didn't see a plug but I was wondering if I could drill it and my own grease fitting.

 
In my opinion, no. The stock location is in the middle of the top of the upper ball joint. If you tried to drill it there it would depend on if there is a space between the shell and socket, and then if the grease could flow from the cavity into the ball and socket and into the rubber boot. And then there is the issue of keeping metal fillings out of the joint when drilling and tapping it.

 
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OK. Trying to keep out metal filings was my thought too.

 
I just looked it up and that is really cool! I assume that penetrates the boot if the ball joint has no zerk fitting or the fitting won't accept grease for some reason. I'm going to order one and give it a try. Thanks for the info.

 
The preferred way is to insert it between the boot and mounting stud, but not always easy to do. The downside of penetrating the boot is the potential for the grease to seep out or water to get in.

 
OK. Good to know. That also got good reviews on Amazon.

 
@rmb3005

Ah yes sorry, totally unclear! I mean these. you got two of them. on top tower.



I've fabricated many since then. Some may smile about that, but ordered a few with

more complex shapes for my wife's Mini, aside the "performance" stickers on packaging

to make them look more cool they are actually of less quality while way more expensive

than the very simple raw one's I made.

You just need to pick the right material plate. All I know is that they stay as new,

and last but not least my front suspension noises were gone.

 
@rmb3005

Ah yes sorry, totally unclear! I mean these. you got two of them. on top tower.



I've fabricated many since then. Some may smile about that, but ordered a few with

more complex shapes for my wife's Mini, aside the "performance" stickers on packaging

to make them look more cool they are actually of less quality while way more expensive

than the very simple raw one's I made.

You just need to pick the right material plate. All I know is that they stay as new,

and last but not least my front suspension noises were gone.
That's a replacement for the rubber bushing that you get when you buy new shocks.  My front shocks are new, less than 2 months.  I'm not convinced that this bushing is the issue, since they're new.  And the suspension noise occurs on the right side only.  I realize you made your own, but is there somewhere I can buy bushings like this to replace the ones that came with the shocks just to see what happens if I replace them?

 
Well, if the car is on floor, its easy to test before buy anything. Just loose the nut of the tower shock plenty but not completely, loose the 3 bolts

for the cap and push up/down the car. If the noise is gone, you good, if its the same, then as Don C said, you probably need some lubrification upper ball joint.

Mine, replaced years ago, has a nipple for grease on both sides.

In my case the noise was caused by these, because of the frequent liftings of the car on jacks, which kinda ruins the rubbers and was letting

the shock stud to be bits too free and it was touching the tower metal. Even if thats not it, now you know my secret for cheap and more robust than originals bushings!

If you can reproduce the noise by pressing the car with your own weight, and its a "significant" dry friction sound, this means there are vibrations.

You could ask a friend to press the car, and you'd simply put a finger on the part to feel and id the source.

 
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Thanks for the info. My father used to use a wooden broom handle to do the same thing to identify noises and vibration. He would put the end of the broom handle against the part and any any vibration would transfer to the wood. Going to try that as well.

 
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