Clunk, Thump, Bang

[discoman]

When I'm driving slowly, lets say in a parking lot, and I hit a speed bump or a *** hole, I am getting a clunking sound (almost like a snap) from somewhere in the front end. It will only clunk once, when it hits the bump. Sometimes I can feel it through the floorboards.
Any clues as to what it might be???

 

[joey]

Could be CV joints, could be shocks, could be driveshaft, could be tires hitting fender.

It is hard to say acually without either hearing the noise or knowing more about the vehicle in this particular post.

 

[discoman]

It's not the tires hitting, and I would doubt the cv joints because I'm familiar with what they sound like, and this noice does not sound like that. I also doubt anything to do with the steering, cause i'm not feeling any feedback through the steering wheel. I'm suspicious of the sway bar myself. I will try to crawl under the thing this weekend and see what i can see.

 

[joey]

Possible panhard rod bushings....

 

[discoman]

Well I rolled around in the dirt and felt and tugged on things, but I couldn't find any obvious culprits. I did find however that my rear shock bushings are wearing and I can rattle the shocks by hand, but that doesn't explain the noise from the front end.
Here's a new one, when I was driving down the street the other day, I was sawing the steering wheel back and forth driving in an "s" pattern, and when I changed direction and the vehicle weight shifted, a half-second would pass and I would hear a dull clunk sound.
Any ideas?

 

[joey]

Panhard rod bushings.

 

[discoman]

Well my parts finally arrived and I installed new pan hard bushings and replaced the shock bushings on the rear shocks. The old pan hard bushings didn't look to bad at all but I replaced them anyways.
The verdict?
She does ride nicer and quieter now, but......I still get the dull thunk noise when I give a hard **** on the steering wheel to the left or the right.
Can anyone suggest a test I could do with the vehicle parked? I know how to do the one where you get someone to wiggle the steering wheel while someone is underneath inspecting all the steering links for play.

 

[joey]

If you changed the other items and still getting a dull noise... I would start looking at bearings or bushings. Either one can cause issues.