I have a '94 Ram van and have a major clunk in the front end usually when I make right turns at slow speed. I have a recent rebuilt steering box on it and I changed all ball joints about 50k miles ago. I went under it, had someone move steering left & right while on the ground and jacked up in the air. All tie-rod ends seem on, no slop at all. I cannot duplicate the problem unless it's under way nor do I see anything moving that is not supposed to. I did find a bad transmission mount which I changed but that didn't fix the problem. The sound is very loud to the point I can feel it in the seat and floor yet cannot figure it out. Any ideas?

 

How about your idler arm? It looks like the pitman arm on the steering gear box but is just a rotating arm.

 

How about control arm bushings?

 

Sometimes a loose brake caliper will make hard to find noise.Mount bolts will wear and caliper will move around when driving ,but seem to be tight when inspected while sitting still .

 

When you checked the front end, did you let the wheels hang down with the van supported off the frame or did you jack it up and put he jack stands under the lower A frames?

 

Strut rod bushings? The rod mounts to the lower control arm back to the frame right about under your seat

 

That's where it seems to be coming from. I can feel it in my seat

 

Ok so I figured it out. Turns out the passenger side lower ball joint is bad. It's got about 1/4" of slop in it so it has to be replaced. I checked the upper too, it's a bit sloppy too so I may as well replace all 4. It looks like the upper is a screw-in type, don't know about the lower. Of course I don't have the proper socket so I may have to buy or rent one. Anybody done this job?