Rear sway bar clunk

[LowlyOilBurner]

Note: this is not related to the rear axle clunk, different clunk

So, when riding over sharp bumps/terrain, I have a distinct clunk from the rear end. If you remove the rear sway bar, the noise is gone. The links seem fine, as do the bushings. Did a longer trail ride today, and it’s horribly annoying. Happens in uneven terrain or sharp bumps.

Anyone else have this issue? Car has about 500miles on it, and it started doing this relatively recently. It’s almost like a knocking, seems to resonate through the rear end. I had the rear axle clunk “fix” performed by my dealer, and that’s fine now. 2024 Northstar Ultimate 3 seater.

Ideas? My gut instinct is to replace the rear sway bar links with the shock therapy ones, but who knows if that’s the fix? There’s not a whole lot to go wrong with a sway bar setup?

 

[Big Red]

I have what I would describe as a rear axle bind more than a clunk. You can hear it setting up for the release, almost like it's loading up then it lets go. It's pretty much been there since day one so I just kind of ignore it. Not sure if there is an easy fix or if it is normal but mine has always done it.

 

[Skippy]

Someone had posted in another thread about torquing the sway bar bolts and it helped , I torque mine can’t remember the number but noise is greatly reduced.

 

[LowlyOilBurner]

So, it appears, after some test and tuning, the rear springs are moving ever so slightly on the spring perches or keepers at the top of the rear shocks. The noise is coming from the upper part of the rear shocks. We soaked them in Magic Tap cutting oil and the noise is almost gone. Also, rode with one swaybar link disconnected and the noise is pretty much gone. The one link disconnected doesn’t seem to affect high speed stability. Kind of a bandaid fix like the loctite rear axle fix, but at least it helped narrow the issue down. I’m going to pull the rear shocks and inspect them. Maybe buy the shock therapy spring kit?

 

[Clubin]

I can confirm after 10,000 km my shock upper and lower bushings are hammered out and needing replacement. Off to place an order at garage products. They make an awful clunk too.

 

[LowlyOilBurner]

I can confirm after 10,000 km my shock upper and lower bushings are hammered out and needing replacement. Off to place an order at garage products. They make an awful clunk too.

How bad were the bushings? I did notice the upper bushing on the passenger side rear shock was kind of sloppy.

 

[Clubin]

How bad were the bushings? I did notice the upper bushing on the passenger side rear shock was kind of sloppy.

The pins would easily fall out. They’re supposed to be pressed in and under tension. You could see where it was squeezing the bushing up on the lower. I just ordered garage products, bushings for the machine. So I’ll start a thread when I install those.

 

[LowlyOilBurner]

The pins would easily fall out. They’re supposed to be pressed in and under tension. You could see where it was squeezing the bushing up on the lower. I just ordered garage products, bushings for the machine. So I’ll start a thread when I install those.

Oh yeah, that’s exactly how mine are. I’ll get some ordered up too.

 

[LowlyOilBurner]

Installed the Garage Products shock bushings, no improvement, almost worse now. Removed passenger side sway bar link and it’s totally silent now. I think I’ll leave it out unless I do a lot of high speed flat trails or roads. Even on the road at 60mph with that side off, the car is fine. No compromise in handling at all. Weird.

 

[TSkeen]

Note: this is not related to the rear axle clunk, different clunk

So, when riding over sharp bumps/terrain, I have a distinct clunk from the rear end. If you remove the rear sway bar, the noise is gone. The links seem fine, as do the bushings. Did a longer trail ride today, and it’s horribly annoying. Happens in uneven terrain or sharp bumps.

Anyone else have this issue? Car has about 500miles on it, and it started doing this relatively recently. It’s almost like a knocking, seems to resonate through the rear end. I had the rear axle clunk “fix” performed by my dealer, and that’s fine now. 2024 Northstar Ultimate 3 seater.

Ideas? My gut instinct is to replace the rear sway bar links with the shock therapy ones, but who knows if that’s the fix? There’s not a whole lot to go wrong with a sway bar setup?

What did they do to fix your rear axle clunk?

 

[KC RANGER XD 1500]

I just went on a ride through Lewis and Clark Motor Way road and I started getting rearend clunk coming out of a kelly hump ( water bar). Machine has 1850 miles on the speedo. Several things happened during this trip: never had any water issue in those miles. It rained pretty hard that night and I had about 1" of rain on the driver side floor board, machine was setting front end downhill. It was coming from above the steering wheel and window. Clean mess up and road another 120 miles in rain and never had any issue? On a side note we had three Rangers XD two two doors and one four door. The four door has a door stop strap and all four doors as the two door has none. One friend was going down the road and his door was not shut and his door opened up and it pulled out of the door stop ball slider and broke both hinges at the seat. where it is set to be from factory. Sorry I went down the rabbit hole. Look at picture of four door straps. Then I have one picture of my 2025 XD Ultimate

 

[LowlyOilBurner]

What did they do to fix your rear axle clunk?

The loctite fix. This is fine now. The sway bar is what’s making a clunking noise now. Like I said, I removed the passenger side sway bar link and it’s fine. Maybe the links are slightly worn, causing the clunk. It’s only on sharp bumps, whenever you get a lot of rear suspension articulation.