Click under braking

OK I figured it out.  It was the newish tie bar bushes.  One of the inner ones had collapsed allowing the tie bar to contact the subframe mount.  Only happened under tension and a visual inspection didn't reveal the issue.  On the brighter side I did finally complete a full front end rebuild that I'd been postponing for 3 years.  Thanks to everyone who kicked in ideas.I'd still like to put a standard engine steady in so if anyone has any of the parts used laying around shoot me an E-mail.

 

I had a similar click... resulting from loose upper steady bolt at firewall cross member.  It allowed the engine to apply torque to the subframe  resulting in the tail of the  subframe, where it meets the floor to try to "oil-can" it. There is now a 1" long stress crack in the floor, which was causing the "click" - a dry metallic sound kind of like a crumpled pop can only duller, heavier, or a broken body-weld kind of click.

Tightening the steady bolt stopped the sound immediately.

 

"Hang on a minute lads....I've got a great idea."

The click is generally only heard once or twice under braking, it's not rhythmic.

The rotors would seem to be a simple thing to test. Does the clicking frequency slow as the car slows? Easy enough test, would seem.

one more idea

I once had a car that clicked on braking. 

There was a hard spot in the rotor. With time, the rotor metal had worn down around it to uncover this harder, previouslt hiddden manufacturing flaw. It was just barely visible and palpable - about the size of a dime.Although small, it created enough motion in the brake pads that they had a dull click, almost clunk, clunk while braking. Replacementn solved it. 

 Carefully, carefully feel and inspect both sides of your rotors. 

OK, I've ordered some upper arm kits.  I didn't see or feel any play but they've not been touched by me and I've had the car 5 years or so, figure it can't hurt. 

Some additonal testing is showing quite a bit of movement of the shifter during braking and I'm now hearing the click during takeoff (it's possible it was there all along and the engine noise drowned it out.  All that leads me back to the steady's.  I have only the upper left ultimate engine steady and the lower right forward facing gearbox steady (pretty worthless I hear). 

I've ordered a lower gearbox rearward facing steady (right side) and some new engine mounts.

I'm missing the upper right side dogbone and brackets, anybody have the dogbone, brackets, or all?  1275 A+ if it matters.

Thanks for the ideas so far.

Not sure if this is your problem, but I had a similar problem that I couldn't find for a while until I went in for an alignment.  The mechanic showed me that he couldn't complete the alignment until I got the upper arm bearings fixed, then showed me by grabbing the upper arm at the hub end and moved it forward and back.  There was lots of movement.  Once I got the bearings changed out, the clicking went away.

willy

When mine starts the clicking I always check the bolts on the upper steady. Tightening usually make the sound go away.

Dean



dooderwear.com Dooderopolis Spring Thing or Bust 2006 Spring Thing 2007 Spring Thing 2008

Would the CV joints click only under heavy braking?  Checked the bushings and went ahead and replaced them even though they looked OK.  No change.  I did notice some movement of the shifter under braking, but it could have been like that for quite some time.  Still, bad engine mounts?

 Think it could be CV joints?

Spelling errors may be beer related

Thanks for the response Bill.  My car, when I got it, didn't have the standard right side steady. The bracket was and still is torn off and the previous owner fitted an ultimate engine steady (the one that connects to the thermostat bolts and one of the manifold studs).  It seems to have been fine until recently so I'll check the bushings in it.

With the clutch in and the car under braking does the transmission have so much drag that the engine tilts?  Seems like the engine/transmission would be along for the ride and all we'd be dealing with would be the drag from the diff, laygear, and third motion shaft.  Is it just the weight of our top heavy engine/transmission transferring forward?

I'm off to check on those bushings.  Anything else to check?

 

I had (and still have due to laziness) the same problem. After an exhaustive search of the possible suspects, I discovered that the upper steady had a perished bushing and it "clicked" when the engine moved forward under heavy braking....

Hopefully you will find something as simple...

Bill 

I've got a click under heavyish braking that seems to be coming from the front of the car.  If I brake gently I don't hear it.  76+ with solid mounts and I replaced lower arms with adjustable and bushings with poly.  It's been about 6 months since I did that and the clicking is new within the past few weeks.  Here's what I've done so far.

Checked wheel bearings (replaced one side)
Adjusted ball joints
Checked tie rod bushings (look new)
Tightened hub to disk and caliper to hub bolts
Replaced rack and tie rod ends (so worth paying someone else to deal with!)
Checked heal board for cracks (none)

About the only thing I can think of is the upper arms need to be rebuilt.  Any other ideas?  Could the upper arms being worn cause a click under braking?  How would I check them?  Compress the cone and wiggle them about?