Soooo, I found two problems with the upper shock mounting but neither solved the noise problem I have. The first problem I found was the upper bushing was upside down. There is a "step" (as Grouch pointed out) on each side. One is wider than the other. I had the narrow side facing down. The wider side shoulda been facing down. Either way, the lower bushing had the "step" completely inside the shock mounting hole so that kinda dispelled the noise coming from there. The second problem is the top nut ran out of threads. There's 1.0" of threads. 0.7" were exposed above the nut. The nut is 0.3". The nut was bottomed out on the shaft. I stacked a few washers on top of the shock washer to use as a spacer and buy some more threads. It worked. I tightened the nut with the impact and it adequately squished the top bushing to the width of the shock washer.

But, the noise is as bad as ever. It has graduated to a clunk. It's going fast. I either drive around the neighborhood till it busts thereby exposing what is wrong or I take it to my tenacious mechanic and see if he can find it. He's a very sharp guy who doesn't give up and a much better mechanic than me.

 

I am also a tenacious mechanic, and my suggestion is to take it to a large parking lot and do donuts until something falls off. I am ASA (All **** Advice) certified so I like to think I know my stuff.

 

In all seriousness, that thought has crossed my mind aplenty. I've about had it with this damn thing. Just break!

 

Truly. I'm cursed with be extremely keen ear to my vehicles and every little tick and tap and shudder (that don't mean nothing 90% of the time) makes my eye twitch. Course it's that 10% of the time that matters. That time I had a tie rod let go really had an impact on me. I was damn lucky.

 

You replaced the tie rod ends, how about the rack itself? Is it original or has it been replaced?

 

The rack is original, Grouch. I’m not sure how to diagnose a rack other than looking to see if the seals are leaking or squirrely steering. Neither is the case. Can a rack still make a nasty noise and work properly? How would braking cause a rack noise?

Returning to the noise, I can make it clunk by hitting the brakes and/or turning at slow rolling speeds. Wish I could pass it off as “old truck” noise but it is well beyond that. This is “sumpin’ is gonna break” noise and I’d rather get to it before it causes other damage.

 

How do the rack mounts look? It may just be shifting a bit in it's mounts, and you get some metal on metal contact....

 

Sounds like it's getting worse which means it should be easier to diagnose, in theory. At times when I was alone I've gone so far as to mount a camera to be able to watch what suspension and stuff is doing. Of course, having a second person is ideal but I've diag'd problems with the camera before. Had (a cheap (!!!) old (!!!) phone) taped to a really strong magnet. Worked well. Easily positioned.

Wish I could offer more advice but I think all I can do now is watch the thread.

 

Raise the truck and wiggle the front wheels side to side. See if there's any slop in the rack.If the rack inside is worn, it will have side to side slop. On my '93 Dakota, mine started leaking at 110,000 miles. The truck had pulled to the right slightly since new and a new rack it stopped. Also, like HeyYou said, look for the mounts and see if they are loose or worn.

 

I inspected the rack a couple times for movement. I’d lay under the front end while the wife would turn the wheel back and forth. I didn’t see anything. But I’m going to spend more time tomorrow looking around and I’ll check that rack again.

Meanwhile, what is the appropriate tightening method for the axle/adjusting nut? The big nut behind the grease cap?