Hey all,

When hitting the brakes in reverse I am getting a clunk. I suspected brakes, but everything seems good there. I have laid under the truck with someone driving it, as far as I can see it looks like the axle is rotating. It seems that the lower control arm bracket on the driver side has been worn by the bolt moving back and forth. So I believe the rocking is being caused by the cam bolt hole being wallered out. Anyone have an idea on how to close this up? I have heard of welding washers on there to get it back to size, but with the cam bolts I don't think this would work. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Yeah, those holes are supposed to be slotted, so the cam bolt can rotate the axle a bit. Probably what is happening is the bushing in the control arm is bad. Those can be replaced, but, its an exercise.

Welcome to DF!

 

Thanks for the welcome, I suspected that as well, I'll be honest weren't really sure how those cam bolts worked. I tried removing those bolts, but looks like more likely like I will have to cut them out. Truck has custom control arms which I was told they don't make any more, which means no replacement bushings eithier. They quoted me new control arms but don't really want to fork out the cash for that.

 

Measure the size of the bushings, and maybe you can just replace those? Are they urethane, so some kind of heim joint?

 

They're urethane. I have tried to find some that matched , but had a hard time finding a good size. I bought some and did some major customizing to get them to work on the top arm. Without replacement cam bolts I didn't really want to do the lower if that wasn't what was causing the clunk.

 

The bolts are still available, but, I think they are the 'small diameter' fellers.... No clue what year they changed those. (they should work anyway though.) Might try hitting them with chems for a few days, and see if they won't work loose.

The bolt isn't just loose by any chance is it? Can you torque it down tighter, and get it to stay in place?

 

Hmmm I didn't think about it being loose. I noticed when trying to get it undone I could spin the whole cam bolt around. Not sure if you're supposed to be able to do that or not? Broke my ratchet trying to get it loose. When I get my new one I will try tightening it up.

 

Yeah, if it is tight, it should NOT move. At all. May wanna go and get an alignment if it tightens up nice. It controls caster angle after all.