A Ford tech's take on "THE CLUNK" (THE ONE and ONLY CLUNK THREAD)

[FSM06]

Houston, do me a favor and try something. Go to your local parts house or machine shop and order some molykote. If you are capable of removing your rear driveline or could ask your local Ford dealer to do it for you, (you may have an in if you show them your video) thouroughly clean the splines and dry with brake parts cleaner. Apply a liberal amount of molykote on the splines and reinstall. I would love to know if this helps. My Raptor has not had the "clunk" so have not had to deal with it. Just a suggestion. The molykote will resist the t-case fluid better than the teflon.

FSM

 

[pirate air]

Good video. GM ran into this problem 7-8 years ago. The fix was grease at first than a nickel plated slip yoke when the grease did not permanently fix the problem (sound familiar?). Its inevitable that the yoke is going to slide in and out of the tail shaft on any vehicle when the suspension cycles. For whatever reason the 2011 Raptor is having its problems with it. The big hollow aluminum drive shaft design doesn't help anything by emitting the sound/clunk.

 

[pirate air]

Houston, do me a favor and try something. Go to your local parts house or machine shop and order some molykote. If you are capable of removing your rear driveline or could ask your local Ford dealer to do it for you, (you may have an in if you show them your video) thouroughly clean the splines and dry with brake parts cleaner. Apply a liberal amount of molykote on the splines and reinstall. I would love to know if this helps. My Raptor has not had the "clunk" so have not had to deal with it. Just a suggestion. The molykote will resist the t-case fluid better than the teflon.

FSM

Thats what I'm wondering, if maybe a better/different grease could solve it. If my 10' did it I would experiment with it, but mines "clunk" free.

And from my understanding, teflon needs to be heated before it attaches to metal; much hotter than what temps the splines will ever get.

 

[FSM06]

Good video. GM ran into this problem 7-8 years ago. The fix was grease at first than a nickel plated slip yoke when the grease did not permanently fix the problem (sound familiar?). Its inevitable that the yoke is going to slide in and out of the tail shaft on any vehicle when the suspension cycles. For whatever reason the 2011 Raptor is having its problems with it. The big hollow aluminum drive shaft design doesn't help anything by emitting the sound/clunk.

I do recall that with the GM's now that you mention it. A fixed flange at the back of the t-case with slip yoke in the driveline would fix it for sure, but would be an expensive retrofit.

FSM

 

[pirate air]

I do recall that with the GM's now that you mention it. A fixed flange at the back of the t-case with slip yoke in the driveline would fix it for sure, but would be an expensive retrofit.

FSM

I think thats the best solution too. It could have a grease zerk that you could service every oil change.

 

[JP7]

I think thats the best solution too. It could have a grease zerk that you could service every oil change.

Yes - I used to use a marine grade grease on my Broncos which stayed in longer. The two piece can also be fitted with rubber boots to keep excess grease from painting the underside of the truck.

Great vids Houston - at 0:55 in the first vid - that second clunk is what I'm getting a lot again (It did go away for a while, but 2000 miles this week seems to have brought it back).

 

[whtrapta]

Thank god I don't have that. I would loose my mind!!!

 

[Bar]

Nice video. Thanks. My experience exactly.

 

[gcmj45acp]

Great video! Just an FYI; I'm also in Houston but, the clunk has been fading on my truck over the last few weeks. Specifically, it started fading about two weeks back, at about 8800 miles. The truck had 9427 miles on it this morning (keeping track for tax purposes). I heard/felt a mild chirp when I took off from my first controlled intersection on the way to the dealer for 10,000 mile service but, that was the last abnormal sound I heard/felt out of the drivetrain today. All the dealer did was rotate my tires and change the oil/filter. All that said, I shut the truck down for the day with 9524 miles on it a bout an hour ago. At the moment, the truck seems to be clunk/chirp free. We'll see how it acts tomorrow. Thanks again for the video HoustonRider, as you can tell, we all appreciate it.

 

[jdowens1]

That is one great video! thanks for being able to show it to all of us. When the clunk was the most noticable to me around 50-58 seconds it looks as if the slip got stuck then ****** forward.