[supra_toy]

Do the front springs have any bushings on top or below stock?

I recently did the whole suspension. The rear first (minus the control arm bushing which I haven't put in yet) and the front about a week later. Eibach 1" drop springs and Tockio hp along with the addco sway bars and PST bushing kit. The front springs seem not to be happy. I have some disturbing noises coming from the front end, clunking noises when going over bumps or potholes and even when making tight cornering manuvers. I think that the noise is related to where the front springs shift in the housing. When i replaced them their was no bushing above or below the springs (their was a rubber insert under the rear spring so I was suprised their wasen't in the front).

I was thinking that I could fab some rubber inserts to put above and below the front springs to do something about this clunking noise.

Thought, suggestions, solutions?

Any one else with the Tokico/Eibach combo have this problem?

Other that that the car handles great!

Sorry for the long winded post

Thanks

Will

 

[SupraWes]

Double check to make sure your strut housing nuts are tight. Other than that I cant think of anything

 

[supra_toy]

Thanks Wes. I'll look into that.... But I'm fairly sure it has to do with the bottom of the spring not sitting properly in the well at the bottom of the assambly. Then again when I put it on the lift the tire inexpliably (sp?) droped a inch or two after turning the tire almost like the front strut was getting caught up or something...

argh that noise is going to drive me crazy(er)!

will

 

[skip]

i have the same combo and i ocassionally hear the clunks when goin over bumps. the first 3 or 4 coils from the top are pretty close together when compressed. and yea there are stock rubber bushings that go on top and bottom, but i didnt use them cuz they dont fit the shape of the eibach coils to well and would probably add about 1/3 of an inch to the overall height. but even without the rubber bushings, it still looks taller in the front than the rear. time for coilovers...

 

[supra_toy]

humm so they came stock with some sort of rubber insert then...

I wonder if I could custome fab something to fit the Eibachs...

 

[skip]

you can try wrapping the bottom 1 and top 3 coils with some type of tape...now what kind of tape i dont know...i called eibach one time and they told me to wrap the top coils with teflon tape too dampen the sound when they touched...

 

[supra_toy]

humm I think the noise I'm getting is from the springs shifting in their pertch not from the coils touching..

 

[Marblehead]

It's possible that the upper strut mount is bad. The mount is the triangular metal plate with the heavy-duty rubber center which the strut mounts thru. The rubber could be worn or the ball bearings inside could be worn causing the mount to have too much motion.

A hangover is the wrath of grapes.
Scott

 

[SupraFiend]

I have the exact same clunk will. But I'm running ST springs with Sensatracs. I've checked the nuts on top, their just as tight as the day I put it all back together, and I used the stock rubber inserts top and bottom when I put the struts together (they fit fine with STs). I didn't get the noise at first, only after about 6 months of running with this setup. I've tried banging and pulling on the hubs with the wheels off to try and locate the cause and everything seems solid, but I can just barely replicate the sound when I pound down on the control arm (which moves the spring slightly). Its driving me nuts too. The spring is not even close to being loose in the perches when the front end is lifted, so the coils rubbing sounds like the most likely cause right now. STs are progressive so that would make sense (Eibachs in the front are too aren't they?) as the lower coils would be very close together when compressed.

Oh well, I'm going autoxing tommorrow, if something is loose or breaking I'm sure I'll find out tommorrow :roll:

 

[supra_toy]

Yes the Eibachs are progressive. I haden't figured the spring coils touching would be the problem. The pasanger side seems worse than the drivers side why I'm not quite sure but when making a tight cornering manuver right the clunking sound is herd which dosen't hapen when making a hard right turn?

will

 

[SupraFiend]

you said right twice so I'm not sure which side you meant. But whatever side you sit in will be heavier so if the spring is more compressed on that side when you turn one direction you may here it more often in that dir then the other

 

[Junkie]

I have been looking for this clunk in Ophir's car for 2+ years.Sometimes it's more noticable than others.It's always when turning left,and comes from the passenger side of the car.
All the parts have been disassmbled at least twice and I can't find any rub marks anywhere either.I'm very curious as to what you all find,I give up for now. :?

 

[Don L.]

I'll throw in my 0.02 worth. Although you didn't mention replacing the front strut inserts, I would pay special attention to make sure the insert is very snug in the housing. Tightening that big nut on top of the housing
(51mm nut ?) is sometimes tricky as it could tighten up, but the insert could still have play. Then you need to put a spacer at the bottom of the housing. Other thing is the big nut sometimes backs out a bit. Loctite is helpful. Other note, when I replaced mine with konis, they came with their own strut housing nut, so I guess each nut fits the shape of the top of the insert specially.

Other noises I've encountered have come from aftermarket sway bars too close to the frame such that they might hit, usually about 8-10" from the sway bar ends. Also the sway bars go through a bracket that attaches to the susp arm via a rod, that hole sometimes needs to be enlarged.

If you still have the stock original strut tower mount (the rubber donut thing with the 3 bolts attached to the fender tower), then they usually need to be replaced. I doubt they make much of a metal on metal type of clunk though.

I usually run springs on upper and lower spring seats without insulators, it transmits more road noise, but I wouldn't expect clunking since the springs usually don't have a chance to get loose or unweighted. They always are pre-loaded I believe.

Anyway, just my ancient thoughts.

Don L.
'84 Supra

 

[pdupler]

I've been looking for a clunk from the passenger front for years and eventually gave up. I've had the whole front end out of the car twice, changed strut cartridges, checked everything and still every once in a while, it clunks. For me it seems to occur on potholes where the suspension is unloaded and then loaded again real quick. The clunk appeared when I first put the ST springs in. All the bushings, bearings, joints and top mounts were brand new. I gave up looking but I'll be interested to hear if anyone solves their problem and how.

Phil D.

 

[MkIISuperSupra]

Now I know this is completely out of left field but have you considered that the sway bar bushings are dry?

About 6 months after installing the Addco sway bars, my car started clanking when turning, then it to where it would clank when I would pull out of my driveway or go over a speed bump.... It really sounded like my struts were coming out of the car. After about the 3rd reinstall of the springs and struts a light went on in my head and I decided to glob the blue marine grease all over the bushings on the ends of the sway bars. Sound nearly went away instantly. Then I crawled back under realizing that I had forgotten to also grease the 2 bushings in the middle of the sway bar. Took the mounts down, spred the bushing apart smeared grease in there, put it all back together, 18 months later, still no reappearance of the clunk. It is amazing what a bit of good grease on the bushings will do.....

Don't know that this will help you but it is a cheap quick proceedure that just might help you out. If it doesn't, you haven't lost much.

Leslie

 

[Andrew]

I have Tokicos and Eibachs and I have the same clunking, it only happens going over bumps in the road, i'm going to change all my bushings this winter and see if it helps.

 

[supra_toy]

Well I feel better. I was wondering if I was the only one that has upgraded their suspension who had had this problem.

I think that this problem deserves being worked on more by the group for the benefit of the members of the CS forum who have upgraded suspension (ie. bringing the brain power of all the supra gurus to bear on this problem).

I have a few Ideas that might fix the problem. I think that the greasing idea is a good place to start also so is the enlargement of the holes where the sway bar goes thru the mounts that attach to the frame.

One idea was to weld the springs to the perches. I think that the noise is from the springs shifting in the perches. If you look at the perches the lower one has a well where the end of the springs fit in. I think that the end of the spring is supposed to settle into this depression. After taking a punch bar and a rubber mallet to the end points of the spring it was obvious that the spring could be rubbing against the transition from the flat part to the depression where the spring is supposed to settle in. Also maybe JB welding a more appropriate settling point for the springs to rest

Also as was noted earlier in this thread wrapping the springs in something and/or painting or coating them in something, truck bed liner comes to mind.

I was also thinking of taking off the lower perch and either coating it in either a rubber undercoating or something like that indestructible truck bed liner. Along with that I would coat the fender wells with a thick coating not only to mask this clunking noise but also to reduce the road noise (I'm also a car stereo nut looking to reduce background road noise)

Maybe nylon or poly-graphite or polyurethane spring bushing inserts? (since rubber probably wouldn’t hold up…)

I need to Isolate exactly where this noise is comeing from :x

 

[supra_toy]

Thoughts anyone?

I'm haveing trouble trying to identify exactly where the noises are comeing from their seems to be two distinctly different noises.

Will

 

[teng]

Man! I'm getting the same setup! Thing is the Tockico and Eibach's aren't installed YET.
The Eibach's are adjustables right (coil-over)? Has anyone tried adjusting them (lower or higher) if there's any difference?

Guess I'll have to look forward to this.

 

[teng]

Oops... just remembered that I have the Ground Control(adjustable coil over) ..
Hope that doesn't happen with me.