I installed new bushings, ball joints and wheel bearings in my '93 Dakota back in Oct 2018 and had a local shop do the alignment afterwards.

Almost exactly a year and about 5K miles later, I started hearing the occasional 'clunk' when I would stop and back up. Didn't always do it, just occasionally, blew it off as maybe the caliper was making the noise.

It's been slowly getting worse, and recently started making the noise even when driving.

I rigged up my phone and took a video of where the noise is coming from. Wasn't expecting to see this (watch the control arm):



I'm gonna show the alignment shop this video and see what they say. I'm guessing the one side was never fully tightened by the shop since its right under the manifold and it just worked loose over time.

Aren't old vehicles fun?

Old? It 42 years newer than my DD,

They could claim they never had to loosen it On the other hand it's been almost 1-1/2 years and they can also claim someone ellse has worked on the truck. they should be made aware of it so that they can share the info with their tech's. Loctite is ones friend

I don't expect any problems, they've been good to me so far. I started going to this shop a few years back when the owner of the other shop I used retired and closed.

It's like you completely lost a bushing?

Larry, watch the control arm, The arm and the attaching bracket are moving together where the bolt goes into the frame to hold the alignment. It was either not tightened enough, or maybe the nut in the chassis has stripped out.

The way Dodge set these up is the control arm shaft has seriated edges on the bottom that are suppose to dig into the metal under it. The seriated edges cut new groves in that metal if the shaft has to change positions, as the bolt gets tightened down. Seems to work OK if the bolt gets properly tightened, but if left loose, I suspect simply tightening the bold not won't do the trick, there is probably not much of the seriated cutting edged left on the control arm shaft. Gene

Dang, didn't think about that, I hope I didn't 'file' it smooth as its been making the noise for awhile.

The truck, noise, was talking to you and you looked and listened long enough to find it
Time to go back to work now

I've never seen that with eccentric cam adjustment, does the Dakota use that system? I did see it once on a GM shim adjustment car, mechanic apparently didn't get it tight enough and all the shims dropped out. IIRC, from the factory, GM shims were installed "bottom up" so the first alignment was a bit of a PITA if caster and camber needed adjustment.

Front bolt is clearly loose and I'd suspect rear bolt is less than fully torqued down. My bet is younger alignment tech that hasn't seen a lot of these. Old timers know that when you move the arm you really gotta torque the snot out of it. They always told me that they tend to jump back in to the old grooves while being tightened down.

As mentioned, I think part of the problem is that this bolt is directly under the manifold, you can't get a straight shot at it with an impact.

that looks like a "fun" fix..........
i wonder what the other side looks like ? is it REALLY tight, or just "tight enough" ?

The Dakota frame has slots cut into it. There are captured nuts under the slots I believe (I'd have to look again). The shaft the control arm bushings and control are are attached to have seriated teeth on the bottom side, and the mounting bolts pass through the shaft. When it was set at the factory, the seriated teeth on the shaft cut groves into the steel frame between the captured nuts and the shaft when the bolts were tightened down. That kept everything in place.
When ever a wheel alignment was done and an adjustment had to be made, the bolts were loosened up and the control am shaft was repositioned to a new location. Then the bolts were tightened, and the seriated teeth cut new groves in the frame. That worked well as long as the shaft didn't jump back into the original grooves instead of cutting new groves, and as long as the bolts were tight enough to cut the new groves and remain tight.
The system worked well when it left the factory. If a guy kept up with the front suspension parts, and the control arm didn't have to be repositioned, it also worked well. Then if the control arm had to be moved, but was properly torqued into the new position, it also worke pretty well. If the botls didn't get properly torqued after an alignment, the system didn't work so well. Gene

I've done many alignments on vehicles with the same style adjustments(Chrysler wasn't the only ones to do that style) Get it to shop to set the angles correctly and crank those bolts tight....it'll stay just fine. Someone limp wristed that one for sure. I crank them with an impact(flex sockets are your friend)

Problem solved. The shop did charge me some since (as mentioned) it has been almost a year and a half, but I'm happy with it.

They went thru the front end looking for any other issues and repacked the wheel bearings. Then they reset the alignment and went thru and made sure EVERYTHING was tight, if not tighter.

$80.

Nice not having that 'clunk' anymore.

Sounds like you got a good deal in the end.

Only thing that kinda surprised me was that I thought I had maybe driven 5K miles since the rebuild when in actuality it was closer to 9K.

So, in almost a year and a half, and almost 9K miles, the only expense outside of oil changes cost me $80.

I'm not complaining.

always good to hear a report back on a problem solved successfully !