thumping sounds under your feet are loose lower shock bolts. torque to 100+ pounds.

otherwise use a pry bar between the moving parts and look for movement. any back and forth movement on the control arms, track bar, or ball joints is bad.

most everyone's track bar is bad. get the moog replacement from rockauto for about $107. (thats a great price) its pretty easy to replace. jack up the body a little to create some clearance for the socket at the passenger side axle bolt.

 

jacked the truck up last night and checked ball joints. a lot of play in the passenger side and quite a bit in driver side too. I could see the play between ball joint and the steering knuckle as I moved the tire. I suspect that is where the knock is coming from. The knock seems most present on paved back roads where suspension isn't really bouncing but I'm not on a real smooth surface so as the truck drifts up and down over bumps I can feel the knock. I am gonna swap ball joints first and then see where I'm at.
Thanks for all the tips, and at least I'll know where to go beyond bj's to get this truck in tip top shape. Best thing is, it's not my daily driver so I can work on it over time and get an awesome wood hauling machine before long!

 

Do the ujoints on the axles while you are in there.

 

also replaced a u joint that was worn out and still have the exact same bumping sound under the floorboard.
It must be either the lower shock mounts or the control arm bushings.
I was up under the truck and pushing up and down on it and could hear the knock but it felt/sound like like it was higher up than the lower shock bolt. Are there two control arm bushings on both sides? an upper and lower? If so, I suspect it's one of the bushings on the upper control arm on driver side.

 

Four bushings per side. Two at the frame, two more at the axle.

 

ok. after further inspection, I have found that the lower shock bushing and/or bolt is worn out. I got under the truck and pushed up and down and felt the same clunk. In fact the only clunk I can hear from the front end is right at the lower shock mount. Also, I don't think any amount of tightening of that lower bolt would every tighten it enought to hold it in place. I think it's just smack worn out in there. Next step will be to pull the shock and see if it's the bushing on the shock or the bolt. Pretty convenient to find this right before I'm gonna put on a 2" leveling kit on front. Will probably go and buy two new shocks while I'm at it and replace those old rusty bolts too!
Thanks for the tips everybody. This as helped keep me from replacing a bunch of stuff unnecessarily.
I think everything else is tight under there that I can tell!
thanks

 

The bushing is the usual fail point (same thing has happened to me... 3 times), and should be included with a new shock. As for the bolt: never heard of a bolt "going bad", but I suppose its possible.

EDIT: Also, check your track bar--they are notorious for going out on these trucks ( if you do shocks with a bad track bar, it will cause them to go out quicker). If you have the money, lifetime warranty is the way to go(mines a moog).

 

Woodtrucker:

A few thoughts for you:

Once I had the same thing, a knock from an improperly torqued lower front shock bolt: turns out the installer had installed it with the lower bushing missing / undersized (somehow !), and so no amount of tighening would make it right. (that was about the time I decided to STOP going to most shops for installation....).
Shop re-installed correctly; no shock mount noise thereafter.

Make sure to check both end of track bar; the ball / stud joint on the Driver side frame wears out, and can be rebuilt with a 'Luke's Link' kit - really cool option that will make it the last track bar you'll need; it makes the joint greasable & adjustable.

Also, keep in mind the steering column in our Rams has a weakness (poorly designed lower internal bearing) that wears out - causing steering play & clunking or rattling noises. It's hard to locate the source if this is the case, as the part that is actually loose is hidden. What happens in this case is the intermediate steering shaft reacts to cab / frame flex, and the intermediate shaft 'telegraphs' the rough pavement / road vibration thru the connection to the column (and if the lower bearing is worn out / loose), there is a clunking or road rattle that is heard & sometimes felt in the steering wheel / pedal / floorboard area.

Most of the time folks think it's their suspension, and that's not an implausible idea.

From your description, I think it is your supsension, probably not your column.

But I wasn't sure if you guys had heard that the column can make similar noises, ergo my comments.

Here's how I've learned to distinguish the bad column bearing clunk from supension originated noise:

Roll up your windows while driving, when the noise is occuring.

If the noise largely now seems more distant, it's probably suspension related- as you help isolate it by closing windows.

If the noise gets louder & more distinct when the windows are rolled up & cab is quieter - then the noise is probably originating in the steering column - with the steering wheel acting as a 'speaker' to transmit the noise to the driver.

What can be weird is when the column clunks real bad, from road vibrations, it can be felt distinctly in the pedal & surrounding floorboard area, which might make one think it's suspension related - not surprisingly, as the lower end of the column where the bad bearing is very close to the firewall / pedal mount / floorboard.

Make sense ?

FYI, the reason I know this is because I went thru this in 2006 with my 1997 Ram 4x4 CTD, and now help others to fix the problem with the Rock Solid Ram Truck Steering Fix kit we offer.

Hope you get it all sorted out,

David / RamSteeringFix Guy

 

Do you have personal experience with the lukes links fix? I would be interested in hearing more about that. (reading more about that? You get the idea.)