legacycentral bbs

Hello everyone. This is my first post. I need some help with a clunk noise and vibration at take off. I have a 1992 Subaru Wagon L AT non Turbo FWD. I have replaced both axles, struts and ball joints. The noise was there before I replaced all the items mentioned. Is it possible that there is something wrong with my diffrential? I have searched and read a lot of posts but I have not found a possible solution. Any help will be greatly appeciated!

The only thing I can think of is that it might be the bushings for your control arms. Raise the car up taking the load off of your front suspension and see if you can move the front wheels (from out side of the car) left right up and down. See if it moves loosely and replace those parts. Check to see if all the bushings are there too.

Too bad you live 7 hours away. If you lived closer I wouldn't mind stopping by to look at it. Laid off from work and going out of my mind with nothing to do. Sorry for hijacking

Possibly your motor mounts? Does the engine flop around at idle or when you blip the throttle?

It is wort at take off and it is almost like I feel the clunck by my foot when on the gas pedal. The heavy clunck goes away at high speeds so does the vibration. I will check the motor mounts an bushings.

i would also check the transmission bushing and cross members. see if the bushing has ripped off the mount and for the cross members, make sure they are tightened all the way down. a lose bolt on a tranny cross member will make this noise at low speed acceleration.

Well after many days of looking and investigating I found a bad control arm bushing on the passenger side. It seems as if it is leaking? I am some what confused though because it is like I feel the cluck next to my right foot when I press on the gas. Transmission is working ok. The motor mounst are good. Any other suggestion will be greatly appreciated. I may have to eat my pride and take it to the shop before something bad happens. Are control arm bushings hard to replace? Should they be replaced in pairs?

I'm assuming you're talking about the rear control arm bushing. They're not too hard to replace. Impact wrench will help with removal of those bigger and stuck bolts. Otherwise make sure you have a breaker bar.

Actually I was talking about the front bushin. It is by the front passenger door. I appreciate it though, I will be taking it to the shop tomorrow morning as the noise still there and I can not find the source. I will post the diagnosis from the shop this weekend.

There are two bushings on the control arm. The front one, which bolts to the sub-frame, and the rear one which bolts to the chassis.

In my previous post I said rear control arm bushing in reference to that rear bushing on the front control arm. I had a misplaced modifier. Sorry about that

Let us know what you find out.

Took the wagon to the shop and it turns out that one of my new axles was bad. I went the cheap way with auto zone remanufactured ones and I've learned my lesson. I got my money back from auto zone (belive it or not!) and went to Advance Auto Parts and got a pair of brand new ones with lifetime warranty. They look and fell a lot better. So the noise went away but I still have a vibration at take off. Being that i have checked everything alone with the mechanic I have no idea what the vibration could be.
Thanks to those of you who helped.