Truck Trend Garage: 2004 GMC Sierra Loose Spacers
SPRING TIME
| Truck Trend Garage Spring Time
Question: The heading "Too Much Chatter" in the September/October issue is right on and identifies the solution I found on my 2004 GMC Sierra. I was getting a similar clunk and after several looks under the truck, found that one of the spacers on the bottom leaf had come out. I bought a new one at the dealer for about $10 and placed a jack under the spring hanger to lift the truck to take the weight off the spring. I only had to raise it a small amount to put the new spacer in place. There is a hole drilled through the bottom leaf for the retaining plastic pin in the pad. I lowered the truck and pushed down on the bumper to seat the pad. It took about five minutes to install the one missing pad. The others were fine. It solved the problem, and there are no more clunks.
Answer: Good work on locating the cause of the noise with a simple but thorough visual inspection. Missing inserts is a somewhat common condition at the overload spring (secondary leaf), and replacing them is usually a simple job you can do yourself. You may have noticed there are several leaves clamped together on top (main pack), and a single (overload spring) on the bottom. The inserts are mounted front and rear, on top of the overload spring. Over time and miles, they can break apart and fall out, producing the suspension clunk. As a suggestion, you might want to replace all four inserts. When one breaks, the others are typically not far behind. In your case, the job was a cakewalk because you were able to raise the truck by the frame and separate the springs enough to slip in the inserts. But on other models it's not so easy. In these cases, the center bolt that holds the main pack to the overload spring must be removed in order to provide enough separation to repair and replace the inserts.
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