2001 Grand Cherokee Limited - rear clunking over bumps

[jamx13]

I've only had this Jeep for a short time & it had the clunking problem when I bought it. It's annoying but doesn't seem to affect the driveability. We had a break in the weather so I decided to crawl underneath & have a look. The lower control arm bushings & shocks seemed to be OK, but when I reached up & grabbed the upper "boomerang" control arm, there was a lot of slop in the bushings. I figured, great, I found the problem. I removed the boomerang, whacked out the bushings (actually they just about fell out), installed new ones & for good measure, I replaced the balljoint. Took it for a ride & the damn clunking is still there! The other stuff needed replacing anyway so I'm fine with that, but can someone give me some pointers on how to best check the lower control arms/bushings? Visually they look fine. Thanks.

[MagicRat]

Check the shock absorber bushings and mounts first. This is more likely the source of the trouble.

[jamx13]

Originally Posted by MagicRat

Check the shock absorber bushings and mounts first. This is more likely the source of the trouble.

Thanks for the advice. I took the passenger side rear wheel off so that I could get a good look & everything seemed fine. I decided to undo the lower bolt so that I could work the shock by hand & wouldn't you know, the shock itself was bad. It had full resistance on the upstroke but jumped about 1/2 back before any resistance in the downstroke. I removed the shock, put the wheel back on & took a drive around the block...no more clunk! I headed over to Advance Auto with my $5 off $25 coupon in hand & grabbed a pair on Monroes. Problem solved.