i've been having this popping that you feel in the floor of my truck for a while now. I dismissed it as just body flex and I needed to put the thin plastic insulators in. With the driverside window down, you would swear it was coming from the front. Deceiving!
Well, after installing the plastic insulators, the popping didn't change. It would pop under torque changes and when turning into entrances that were sloped. It used to only do it every once in a while to recently being pretty much a regular occurance.
I was reminded that leaf springs can bind after getting worn and pop occasionally so I jacked the rear of the truck up, lubed them and tested that theory...no luck.
After it bugging the heck out of me after none of the little fixes changed anything I went to looking at the drivetrain. I had a buddy get in the drivers seat and load the truck up in forwards and reverse. The popping could be felt in the frame (thus why it transfers to the floor boards of the body), but it was hard to pinpoint as the sound was more or less reverberating through the chassis. Hard to get under the truck when it is lowered and you can't really get under the frame very well! But after checking u-joints, cross member bolts, etc. I finally find a bolt not torqued down on the rear tranny mount. Under load or frame twist, the bolt would POP from front to back of the hole just enough to hear and you could barely see it.
My transfer case had been rebuilt by the dealer quite a while back and from what I can tell he cross threaded the aluminum casting. It probably torqued up fine with an impact then but over time it pulled the threads and loosened up. I had to run a longer bolt through and put a nut on the back side to fix it.
i'm just glad the popping sound is cured! It was driving me nuts and it was embarrassing to have customers in the truck and have them ask what the noise was!
Thought this may help some others in search of similar sounds.
Well, after installing the plastic insulators, the popping didn't change. It would pop under torque changes and when turning into entrances that were sloped. It used to only do it every once in a while to recently being pretty much a regular occurance.
I was reminded that leaf springs can bind after getting worn and pop occasionally so I jacked the rear of the truck up, lubed them and tested that theory...no luck.
After it bugging the heck out of me after none of the little fixes changed anything I went to looking at the drivetrain. I had a buddy get in the drivers seat and load the truck up in forwards and reverse. The popping could be felt in the frame (thus why it transfers to the floor boards of the body), but it was hard to pinpoint as the sound was more or less reverberating through the chassis. Hard to get under the truck when it is lowered and you can't really get under the frame very well! But after checking u-joints, cross member bolts, etc. I finally find a bolt not torqued down on the rear tranny mount. Under load or frame twist, the bolt would POP from front to back of the hole just enough to hear and you could barely see it.
My transfer case had been rebuilt by the dealer quite a while back and from what I can tell he cross threaded the aluminum casting. It probably torqued up fine with an impact then but over time it pulled the threads and loosened up. I had to run a longer bolt through and put a nut on the back side to fix it.
i'm just glad the popping sound is cured! It was driving me nuts and it was embarrassing to have customers in the truck and have them ask what the noise was!
Thought this may help some others in search of similar sounds.