97 Accord EX new front end parts, new clunking sounds..
 

Let me start off by saying I have never used a forum so take it easy on me. I'm pretty hard-headed and asking for help is not my strong suit. The fact that I've signed up for this forum shows you how frustrated I am.

Last week I spent almost all day doing front end work. On both sides I have changed CV axles, hubs, bearings, rotors, upper control arms (with new ball joints pre installed), lower ball joints, sway bar links, and outer tie rod ends.

When I did my first test drive everything was fine, I did a couple laps around the parking lot and there was noises no issues it drove really smooth. But when I took it out the next day I made a left turn right down the road from my house and the passenger CV axle popped out of the trans, and made a terrible noise so I had to take the wheel off, and pop it back into place. The next day I took it to my buddy to help with the inner tie rods and he noticed that when trying to turn the inners, the rack was trying to rotate as well. I decided to leave it alone because the inners looked okay and i didn't want to ruin the rack trying to mess with parts that are seemingly okay. Fast forward a couple days I'm driving to work without the radio on and I noticed the front passenger side making a clunk/pop sound when going over rough spots in the road, especially when taking a corner. I thought maybe it was the control arm so made sure all the bolts were nice and tight on the uppers and the noise didn't go away. And today when I was leaving work I noticed that when holding the brakes and shifting to reverse from park, it made the same clunking noise.

Therein lies the question.. Is this a cv axle issue?

the axles I used are Trakmotive HO8090 & HO8092.

​​​​​​​I've read other forums where aftermarket cv axles can cause this sort of issue but hoping it's not the case.. if I knew they would be doing this I would have just paid OEM price from the get go. I'm just trying to get this safe for transporting the kids around any help or insight is much appreciated.

Noises are tough to pinpoint over the web.

The CV joint clicks into the transmission and when seated shouldn't pop out. Maybe the CV joint wasn't seated into the transmission and popped out?

I'd support the front of the car on jack stands, then push and pull each front tire at 3/9 o'clock and 12/6 o'clock just to ensure you don't have excessive play in the ball joints. If the steering wheel is locked, you should have very little movement and the movement would come from the slight play in the steering wheel. If you have someone hold the steering wheel, the tires should have little movement.

When installing upper control arms, I have the car on jack stands with the tire off and I keep the bushing bolts at the top of the wheel well slightly loose. I put my jack under the lower control arm as close to the knuckle as possible and jack up the car until the frame just comes off the jackstands. This loads the suspension. I then tighten those bolts going through the upper control arm bushing This will allow the bushing to have zero twist when the car is at rest and not pre load the bushing.

At the same time, I tighten the sway bar end links. The 97 style end link is a bunch of stacked bushings. I only tighten the bolt down until the bushings slightly bulge. The torque setting in the shop manual can cause you to over tighten them and destroy the new bushings (guess how I know?).

I tried to get to those bolts on the upper but its really tight next to the strut. I noticed as well i have the nut on the outside for drivers side so i might have to take them off and switch the side to be able to tighten it down while installed.. not looking forward to it though because if it ends up being the aftermarket cv, i would be able to do it then and there instead of the upper. Worth a shot though, and will give me a chance to double check the ball joint fitment to eliminate that possibility.