I just replaced the bushings on the radius arm of my truck, Today when I was driving in 4 wheel high occasionally there was a clunking noise (mainly as I started up a hill), is it possible that the radius arms were not tightened enough....any suggestions?
Thanks in advance!

 

Which radius arm bushings did you replace? The "C-bushings" where the arm mounts to the axle, the bushings where it attaches to the frame, or both?

If either one of those bushings are loose you can get a nasty clunk. It's pretty easy to see if the C-bushing mounts aren't tight so I'll suspect you're asking about the frame-end bushings. The frame-end of the arm has a little step on it that only allows you to tighten the bushings so far until the outer cup washer seats solid on the arm itself...that should set the compression of the bushings properly.

How did the frame mount for the radius arms look when you changed the bushings? Was the hole still round or was it wobbled out from the arm rubbing against it when the old bushings were still in? My '76 had fairly new bushings in it when I bought it, but the previous owner had ran the thing for lord knows how many miles with em worn out and it had worn the holes in the fram bracket pretty loose....it would still clunk on occasion until I tore it down and did some welding on the mount to get the holes back to the original size.

Is your truck lifted at all? If you've got tall coils in up front, that can change the radius arm angle enough to make it bind or clunk on occasion too.