Others with Thuren parts, please chime in

dodgeman324 · Post by **dodgeman324** » Sat Oct 10, 2015 10:58 am

Hello all. These questions are mostly for all of those with Thuren parts, particularly Control Arms, Trackbar, and Coils. I am having some very serious, and very embarrassing, squeaking going on with my front end. Every little bump, from the tiniest little crack or road repair goop, up to bigger bumps and highway dips, causing some annoying creaks and squeaks. I am having trouble isolating it to know what components are making the noise. Have any of you encountered this and what was your remedy? Here is what I have done thus far since getting my truck:

Thuren Control Arms, received and just put them on per instructions, didn't grease because it said they were already greased.
Thuren Trackbar, received and mounted, had to make several adjustments over time to get it just right, and also upgraded the frame-side bolt to the larger GR8 bolt, and used a lock washer and regular washer on both sides, no locktite or any greases, and didn't grease trackbar again because it said it comes pre-greased. Also, I believe I DID use the little metal spacer that was included, but not positive.

Thuren Coils, installed per instructions, but had to buy a cheap isolator at Autozone after dropping the Superlift lift spacer/isolator, and also used the Autozone ring that bolts to the coil tower. Again, not aware of any greasing needed here.
Mopar T-Style (2008.5+ Dodge Steering) linkage kit, included the drag link, end links, and basically entire steering bars needed to swap out from the old Y-style linkages my 2005 came with. Don't think these required any greasing. Added Carli Steering Stabilizer after this, install went smoothly.
Went back to OEM (for 2006-2008 Dodge Rams) Pitman Arm, versus my drop pitman arm that was causing bad bumpsteer.

So, that is basically it. My head leans towards the cheap isolators I bought at Autozone, but, do coils squeak against certain types of rubber on the isolators? I have no clue. Am I supposed to put some kind of grease or powder at the bottom of the coil, in the bucket? Could it be the control arm joints? I would want to doubt that since they are the ball type, and the only metal to metal touching is just the spot where the bolts go through, but I wouldn't think they could even move to cause a squeak. Do they need to be greased again, if so, what type of grease, and how often? Could it be the trackbar at the frame? When I am parked, I can bounce the truck at either front corners, but the squeak is much stronger on the passenger side, so this leads me to want to rule out the frame side trackbar mount. I'm posting a video below. What do you guys think? Any thoughts or suggestions? I badly want to get rid of this so I can drive through my neighborhood without ducking my head down in embarrassment. Thanks.

P.S. After making the video just now, my last thought came to mind. I replaced the drivers side sway bar bushing, but not the passenger side yet, could that be it too?

phpBB [video]

Clickable link for Tapatalk

Colibri · Post by **Colibri** » Sat Oct 10, 2015 12:37 pm

I'd start with the easiest thing first, grease everything that has a zerk. It won't hurt and it may help. The best I can tell from your video it sounds like bushing squeak from your shocks to me. It looks like you have poly bushings, did you use any lube or install them dry? Dry poly will squeak like that. Usually they come with a silicone grease to keep them quiet.

dodgeman324 · Post by **dodgeman324** » Sat Oct 10, 2015 12:45 pm

Poly bushings on the shock mounts? Or elsewhere? With these Rancho's, I actually had to drill out the metal sleeve inside the bushings for the bolt to fit so the bolt is literally touching the rubber in that eyelet mount.

Colibri · Post by **Colibri** » Sat Oct 10, 2015 1:26 pm

Yes sir, the upper and lower shock bushings. Upper are the sandwich style and lower are barrel, they can both take a dab of something to quiet them down. Maybe sway bar bushings as well.

dodgeman324 · Post by **dodgeman324** » Sat Oct 10, 2015 1:40 pm

Thanks. Now, what exactly would I put in there? I'm completely dumb when it comes to different types of greases and lubes. I've heard some do damage to certain components. Can I buy what I need at Walmart or Autozone? I have a grease gun as well for zerks but again, don't know what greases to buy and use for each type of application.

Colibri · Post by **Colibri** » Sat Oct 10, 2015 4:38 pm

I use redline cv2 for all my chassis components because that's what my Carli bj's take and it keeps things simple. Any quality grease should be fine though, but get synthetic if you can. For the shock and swaybar bushings I believe there are silicone greases you can get in little packets that are made specifically for that purpose. An auto parts store should have both. Good luck tracking your squeak down, nvh problems can be a real bear at times.

azracer · Post by **azracer** » Sat Oct 10, 2015 5:17 pm

My guess is the sway bar frame mounts. It is quite possible the bushings on the frame are your noise. Undo the passenger link then engage the swaybar disconnect and see if the noise changes or stops. Or just Disconnect the sway bar end links on both sides. Shocks bushings on top are a possibility too, just loosen them and listen for a change in the noise.

If it is the sway bar frame mounts then take them off and clean them then lube them with Dow Corning DOW-111 compound. Use only that and do it sparingly (lite film on bushing only). Use only the DOW product or an equivalent.

You don't need much so this should work.

http://www.amazon.com/Dow-Corning-Silic ... 1+silicone

You can use the same loosen and listen on all the pivots like the track bar and arms to rule them out. Use a squirt bottle with water to see if wetting the coil buckets one at a time changes the sound. Water squirting method may help isolate a shock bushing noise too.

Note: Don did say not to grease my track bar until it squeaked or about a year whatever came first. He said not to over grese it as that just collects dirt.

2011RPW · Post by **2011RPW** » Sat Oct 10, 2015 7:29 pm

I'm with Colibri, my first thought was your shock.

My shackles squeak from time to time, but nothing like that.

MoparToYou · Post by **MoparToYou** » Sat Oct 10, 2015 9:01 pm

I'm betting it is the heim joints on your swaybar links. I've been building Jeeps for many years, and the noisiest joints are heims, followed by polyurethane. The OEM rubber joints actually give the best ride, are quietest, and last longest. To test my theory, just get a can of WD40 (or spray lubricant of your choice), and spray those passenger side heim joints. Then go for a ride and see if it stops. I had a 2004 Jeep TJ with an all custom suspension, and everything had heim joints on it. It squeaked so bad it was unbelievable. I actually carried a can of WD40 in the Jeep with me. One spray of the joints and it was quiet, ... for a few days.

Bluchalk · Post by **Bluchalk** » Sun Oct 11, 2015 1:11 am

I have all of those parts from Thuren.

I grease mine every oil change. The few times I neglected to grease at oil change there was squeaking coming for my front end. I think it was the track bar. But, I greased everything so not exactly sure.

dodgeman324 · Post by **dodgeman324** » Sun Oct 11, 2015 11:49 am

Ok guys, thank you for your help so far. I have narrowed down my squeak and it is the trackbar frame mount. As soon as I sprayed it with WD-40 and bounced it it went away. But, I know WD-40 will only last about a day. Would it be safe to say it is not the inside of the poly bushings where the grease goes into with zerk? My guess is it is the outside somewhere where metal meets the trackbar, in between the multiple spots the bolt goes through. So, where do I apply some grease to give a longer lasting squeak free ride? I have some waterproof "green grease" multi-purpose synthetic grease and I have Mobil 1 Synthetic grease. Do I just apply some on all surfaces that the trackbar touches and re-attach trackbar? Will it hurt that poly bushing at all? Sorry for dumb questions. I'm sitting in driveway waiting on a reply so if able to answer those rather quickly I'd appreciate it.

azracer · Post by **azracer** » Sun Oct 11, 2015 3:38 pm

I would take out the bolt drop it down and grease the zerk, wipe off any excess and try to rotate it and grease it again wipe off the excess. Be sure that washer/spacer is there and put it back in place then bolt it in place. Use the red grease as mentioned above. Should be good to go.

I wonder if it failed to get greased at assembly? Note that washer has to be there and I made sure mine went on the side Thuren had when shipped. I doubt that made a difference but I wasn't going call to ask or take a chance that it made a difference either.

PS:If needed get a 2nd person and use the steering to help line up the bolt hole.

Kenadian · Post by **Kenadian** » Sun Oct 11, 2015 4:26 pm

I had that exact squeak were if you shook the truck by hand it would squeak. You have to fully droop your suspension and grease your Control arms then compress and grease. To get full coating I found worked

I like to break things !!!

Colibri · Post by **Colibri** » Sun Oct 11, 2015 4:41 pm

As azracer said, once you get it good and greased wipe away any excess. You don't want big gobs of grease it will only attract dirt and grime.

Will · Post by **Will** » Mon Oct 12, 2015 7:26 am

I see you found the source, just letting you know I grease my controls arms at every oil change and pump two shots into the tracbar. If I get into any water and do a weekend of offraoding, I grease them again because my control arms will have a squeak to them and let you know they need it. I chock the front tires and back up a little to unload the zerk side of the fitting and then grease.

2011RPW · Post by **2011RPW** » Mon Oct 12, 2015 11:26 am

Not to derail this thread, but what's the best way to grease the Thuren shackles? I have to completely compress the suspension to grease. I guess I need to just get some 90* fittings.

dodgeman324 · Post by **dodgeman324** » Mon Oct 12, 2015 12:02 pm

I haven't put my Thuren shackles on yet, so I'm thankful you brought it up so I can put 90 degree ones on BEFORE I put the shackles on. Hehe. That does suck though. Oh wait, you have you COMPRESS it to get to the zerk? So what do you do, just jack up one side of the axle at a time to grease? Sounds annoying. If that's the case, maybe it is a good excuse to go offroading somewhere and when you hit that spot that flexes out your rear axle, grease and repeat for other side.

2011RPW · Post by **2011RPW** » Mon Oct 12, 2015 12:22 pm

I just back it on to the lowboy trailer at work to compress one side at a time

Colibri · Post by **Colibri** » Mon Oct 12, 2015 6:22 pm

Odd, mine came with 90* zerks

rbpowerwagon · Post by **rbpowerwagon** » Tue Oct 13, 2015 8:19 pm

I installed a thuren track bar back in June. I had this annoying squeak over the littlest bump. I talked to Aaron at thuren fabrication and he told me the bushing would take about 2000km before it would break in and except grease. After the break in period the trackbar finely excepted grease and now no more squeaking. As for grease I was told that I would have to use full synthetics to avoid any swelling of rubber seals and parts. Not sure if this helps you at all just sharing my experiences.

dodgeman324 · Post by **dodgeman324** » Tue Oct 13, 2015 8:41 pm

Everything helps.

I indeed was able to grease the trackbar and used Mobil 1 Synthetic and it took two pumps worth. Immediately it didn't stop squeak but the next morning on way to work it was gone and hasn't came back so far after a few days now. Thanking whoever invented grease now.

Mr.Smith · Post by **Mr.Smith** » Wed Oct 14, 2015 4:06 am

Sweet! Glad to hear.

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