Dry rattle in front of F250?

Question

When I turn or go over rough spots in the road in my 97 ford f250 F 250 Powerstroke Heavy duty Diesel there is a real heavy dry rattleing sound coming from the passenger side in the wheel area(I dont know how else to describe it, its not like a marble in a tin can its 'heavier' like if you had like #8 rebar and you were wiggling it around inside a huge solid chunk of steel, or maybe if you rolled a 4 ft tall ball of steel down a hill covered with big rocks and it would hit a couple, i dont know if this is helping but its had to describe)Is it the ball joint or something? I know nothing about anything but the engine. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

If your F250 is a two-wheel drive like mine, there are several places it could have a clunk in the front end. Mine has kingpins as opposed to ball joints and I think 1997 is the same as my model year, so the kingpin or the thrust bearing between the spindle and axle could be worn and cause a heavy clunking. Also, the axle has a trailing arm that connects to the frame to stabilize it, there is a rubber bushing on this that could also be worn. There could be other things wrong, but in my opinion those are the 2 most likely candidates.