I have a popping noise that is coming from the front left of my 70 Challenger when I turn the front wheels. Once the car warms up and moves around a bit I don't hear it, but hear it when it's cool and I'm trying to navigate in or out of a garage space. What might it be?

It sounds like a dry ball joint to me. I'd get it off the ground and visually inspect the front suspension first.

Could also be the tire. I had a tire once with a broken belt in it which would make a loud popping sound when the tire was cold. Once it was warmed up the tire didn't make any noise.

first thing in the AM have someone turn the wheel with you on the ground underneath

It has Goodyear Polyglas I don't think they have belts.

I am also leaning towards a tire issue. Take 5 mins and rotate the tires to see if it goes away. Cheapest easiest check

Of course Polyglas tires have belts, fiberglass belts. They were the intermediate step between bias tires and radials. There was a whole class of bias-belted tires. The Polyglas were Goodyear's high performance model.

I am leaning towards something like a drag link that needs replacing.

R.

I meant steel belts. I don't think it's a tire issue. It's a T/A so it has different size tires front and rear. Would look awfully funny if rotate the tires and put the larger tire on the front and the smaller ones on the rear.

You can still swap sides and see if the noise follows. But I am sure you already thought of that.
Craig

Just putting this out there, but when being driven at all, the tire is generating heat, creating a condition that would be more conforming and flexible at any given speed within reason, in my thoughts, therefore, causing the on again off again condition that you are describing. I don't see a ball joint doing that, or a drag link, but I personally would still look at all this stuff before driving the car at all. On a final note, didn't TA's originally come w the same tires on all four corners? Like the rest of chryslers built during that time?

Oh snap, e's up front and f's in da back. My bad.....but you could still swap around or out the tires

Ta's and hemi cars did have different tire sizes front to rear, my bad. You could still do a switcheroo though......

How are the suspension parts ? I'm going thru this on a 2001 Ram right now , the bushings are loose in the control arms ... so far ....

Suspension parts all look brand new and well greased. However they were replaced about 10-15 years ago and the car has had maybe a couple thousand miles in that time. It really sounds like something is loose, but when it gets going and moving and heated up it seems like something may swell up and it doesn't make the noise any more.

I had a Ford Bronco a while back. They have issues radius arm bushing failure. When you would turn the wheel left or right while backing up and hit the brakes it would make about the same noise. Such as a bushing that is worn and not doing it's job anymore. Thing is on this one it's all new stuff, but it is older new rubber parts so it could have dried out from sitting, or something may not be tightened down enough. Don't know still diagnosing..............

Had a chance to take the wheels off and take a look. Everything looks great, new and well greased except a rubber bushing that is under the control arm on the drivers side where the noise is coming from. See photos. I'm not sure what the part is called but it needs to be replaced as it is split. Maybe some kind of bump stop? If anyone can tell me what part I need to ask for that would be great.

The part that is split is the upper control arm bump stop. with weight on the suspension it shouldn't be making contact with anything. The fact that its split has me thinking maybe the front suspension is not set at the proper ride height. Probably not you noise, but something that should be addressed.

Think I would put the floor jack under the lower control arm and move the body up and down to see what is making a small sudden jerk. As the suspension travels, everything should move smoothly and consistently. Whatever is not moving smoothly is probably your noise maker. It really could be anything in the suspension, anything attached to the suspension, or anything effected by the suspension. Old suspension rubber parts (that still may not have wear) tend to be a bit more still when they are cold, and soften up as the move. That stiffness can cause attaching points to move that are not suppose to move. Once the rubber parts soften a bit, and become more flexible, the parts that were moving may not move anymore.

I've seen poor penetration on factory spot welds on the upper control arm mounting braces that would allow the braces to twist with the control arm until the bushings softened up. Unibody cars make funny noises when the spot welds fail. Popping and snapping are tell tail signs, the the noise can travel through the car a long ways from the issue. Not saying this is your problem, but its is something I have encountered. Gene

Check the wheel bearings.

Although of a different design completely, the "hollow popping sound while turning" fits to a "TEE" the noise my 4wd Ram made when the unit bearings were disintegrating.

Maybe a dry torsion bar socket?

I've used a floor jack to raise and lower the control arms. I get the noise as the suspension raises up with each pump of the jack. Sounds like a ratcheting sound this way vs popping when it's done with the car weight on it, but it's got to be the issue. Problem is I can't pinpoint exactly where it's coming from but best I can tell it's coming from the bottom near where everything attaches to the subframe. Something that pivots and is supposed to rotate on its axis smoothly isn't. Not sure if there is anything I can lube there to help or not. I'll try to post a video of the noise.

Hopefully this will work. Please disregard the jack squeaking for some reason you can really hear it better on the video than in person, but you can also hear the popping noise that I'm trying to figure out and solve.


http://vid338.photobucket.com/albums/n439/kna4977/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_0116_zps1ce41a87.mp4