I am new to dodge trucks and have been getting alot of great info off of it.But,I have a question I haven't seen asked or answerred yet.I have recently purchased a 1998 2wd 1500.Had a few issues,frost plugs on block leaked,pulled tranny and replaced them,needed a upper ball joint and got it replaced,now the problem.Before replacing the ball joint there was a distinc squeeking sound from the passenger side and the new ball joint got rid of it,now it has a loud "CLUNK" when turning the wheel all the way to the right or hitting the brakes hard.Any ideas,the work was done at a shop and I would like to have an idea what it could be so the place can't just tell me I need more front end work because the ball joint just tightened everthing else up.Or did it?Thanks in advance for any help.Besides these 2 problems I find it quite a good truck.

 

I also have a 2wd truck and noises have periodically come up in the front end on me. The first think I will tell you to do is to get someone to help so that they can push on the truck, replicating hitting a bump, while you listen and look for where the noise is coming from. I had a similar noise when hitting the brakes too. Turns out one of the upper control arm bolts holding the pivot bar had loosened up after having the truck aligned a couple of weeks earlier. The mechanic would have removed these bolts to remove the control arm and replace the upper ball joint. Look at these.

The other thing almost everyone here will tell you to look at is the sway bar bushings and endlinks - make sure that there tight and not worn. I would think the mechanic who did the work would've seen this though.

Get a friend to jump on the front end of the truck and suff your head inside the engine compartment and wheel well.

Good Luck!

 

mine was as simple as a loose shock tower bolt. It might be a loose brake pad. You just never know until you start tearing into it.

 

thanks 96,i bruoght the truck back to the mechanic and one of the control arm bolts wasn't in it's seat,also got him to ckeck the whole front end and he says it's perfect and to get an alignment since a ball joint was replaced.