Hello!

I have a 2004 Ram 1500 5.7L with a stock suspension. For awhile now, I have noticed that theres a clunking noise coming from the front passenger side of the truck and it only clunks if I am going over any kind of bump and the sound increases with the size of the bumps!

We took it to a mechanic (Not my favorite guy..) and he said it was the Sway bar or the possibly the sway bar bushing. I know very little about the suspension components on the truck so I don't know if this is true or not. What could possibly make a clunking sound from the front end?

Also, are there any good suspension diagrams out on the web that i could use?

Appreciate it!

 

I would first suspect your ball joints. Upper/lower or both by now. You can jack up the passenger side and pull on the top and bottom of the tire and see if there's play. If there is, that's probably the issue. Ball joints are infamously bad on these trucks.

 

100% agree with johnny

 

Ok i have an 06 2wd QC ram. i was having the same noise over bumps like you are having. It just kept getting louder and louder over a few days. so i checked it out and couldnt tell. so i got someone to bounce on the truck and finally i saw it. the sway bar end links were wore out on the drivers side. This is the bar that connects the sway bar to the bottom control arm. the bottom part of the end link has a ball joint and i guess there was enough stress to stretch the ball pocket to make it so loose it clunked when i hit a bump. i ordered some off ebay hoping it would cure it but a few months it started again. so i made some that was just a solid bar with threads on both ends and long enough so i was able to use rubber bushings. its been almost 2 years and it hasnt happend again. i hope this helped you.

 

I had the same...worn out sway bar end links

 

Just check it out. I'm not saying it's not the sway bar link, but if it makes a loud sound when you go over bumps, I would lean more towards ball joints. Just my opinion.

 

Just wet through the same thing. I figured from the sound it was sway bar for sure, but when I got in there evrything was good and tight. After a whole bunch of head scratching it turned out it was the plastic step insert on the factory tube steps. The rear mount on it had let go and made some nasty clunks every time I hit a bump, and was more exagerated with larger bumps. Solution: I just took the damn things off!

 

end links from the factory are crap . i replaced mine with suspension max links they have a lifetime warrenty and are built strong

 

http://suspensionmaxx.com/mm5/maxxlinks.html

hear i the link

 

Swaybay links on my truck. Same symptoms. Replaced for minimal cost and made a world of difference.