plumber mike
Adventurer
I’d check the sway bar end links too if you run a sway bar.
Apex parts causing terrible Clunk on an F350 with full Carli & Redhead
- Thread starter Macfly
- Start date
Macfly
Active member
Try reading what I wrote.
GR8ADV
Explorer
Sorry I guess am slow. My wife was right. Maybe ‘bold face’ what you have done to narrow down the situations. Thx.
Macfly
Active member
I've crawled underneath several dozen times, added a pair of rubber washers to one of the x3 steering dampers that was clacking, but that wasn't it. Thenonly thing that sounds like it maybe a bit too loose is Apex track rod, but the noise sounds much worse than that, it almost sounds like I have a broken frame.
youtube.com
A look at the underside of the truck. #automobile #adventure #offroad #overlanding #offroading
This is a look at everything I can see beneath the truck, the only thing that seems to be really loose is the Apex track rod bar, but I'm not sure if that is...
youtube.com
Look up
Steel man wired chassis ears 2
I use these at work for find noises.
They are really the best option for diagnosing issues while driving. They are cheap enough it might be worth it! Chassis ears
Steel man wired chassis ears 2
I use these at work for find noises.
They are really the best option for diagnosing issues while driving. They are cheap enough it might be worth it! Chassis ears
AbleGuy
Officious Intermeddler
We had kind of a similar situation years ago at the start of a trip. The noise from the front left of our Chevy HD 250 four-wheel-drive was driving me crazy cause I couldn’t figure it out.
We pulled into a big empty parking lot and I had my wife drive the vehicle slowly in different circles while I ran along next to the front left tire trying to figure out the source of the noise.
Then, after she stopped, I crawled under the truck and grabbed anything I could with my hands and tried to find something loose. No result.
Finally, I jacked up the front as if I were going to change a tire, and once I had the weight of the truck off of the mechanics, I found it was simply a loose shock mount.
The weight of the truck settling on the ground, though it made everything feel solid.
You may have mentioned that you crawled under the truck and checked everything but maybe it’s worth trying to jack up that front left of the truck and reach under there again. If you do, of course make sure you’ve got some kind of a blocking system to keep the truck from falling on you if the Jack Falls.
Macfly
Active member
Today I was able to spend some time with my Land Cruiser building buds, and had the benefit of both an experienced builder and a second pair of hands to turn the steering wheel and rock the front wheel while I could listen and film underneath.
All of the issues turned out to be the Apex Suspension parts. The clunking began right after fitment, but Powerhouse identified the issue as being a Carli track rod. Replacing that did indeed cure the very sloppy and vague feeling in the steering, the truck actually drives great, but the noise from the rapidly failing Apex parts is destroying the joy of the drive.
Once I get back to LA I'll see what they have to say, and if they'll stand by their products, but as of this moment, this is not an upgrade I would do again or recommend.
All of the issues turned out to be the Apex Suspension parts. The clunking began right after fitment, but Powerhouse identified the issue as being a Carli track rod. Replacing that did indeed cure the very sloppy and vague feeling in the steering, the truck actually drives great, but the noise from the rapidly failing Apex parts is destroying the joy of the drive.
Once I get back to LA I'll see what they have to say, and if they'll stand by their products, but as of this moment, this is not an upgrade I would do again or recommend.
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Macfly
Active member
For sure I'll report back, I'm hoping that they'll stand by their products.🤞
When they were fitted I imagine that they were greased. I wasn't given any instructions to grease as I went, but also seeing how easily the seals pop out of their seats with the pressure of the grease gun, and how impossible it is to reseat them, there's a clear danger of inexperienced hands over greasing them too.
When they were fitted I imagine that they were greased. I wasn't given any instructions to grease as I went, but also seeing how easily the seals pop out of their seats with the pressure of the grease gun, and how impossible it is to reseat them, there's a clear danger of inexperienced hands over greasing them too.
GR8ADV
Explorer
Hmmm. But glad you found it. It’s no fun when it’s not fun.
tacollie
Glamper
I almost bought Apex steering stuff for our truck in July. Quite a few people on the forums had issues with them on Super Duties so I passed. It did sound like they had a good warranty on their products. It's also my understanding they did a redesign and they're different now but I could be wrong.
Those tie rod ends should definitely be serviced, although 3000 miles seems way to early to fail. Based on the videos, the boots appear to have been cut/failed in the accordion which may have been an install error. Rod ends (and other greasable parts) should evacuate air and oil grease from somewhere, but not between the folds of the accordion like that. The hydraulic pressure does help to preload the bearings which is also why letting them run dry is bad because it allows sloppiness which begets further sloppiness.
I thought that you had mentioned the noise was present before the drag link install but is now worse - maybe I am remembering that wrong but one thing I saw under your truck was some Heim joints on your track rod - those can also be noisy (like, really loud depending on their application) and that is just normal. They are strong and durable, but unlike a tie rod end, they have no rubber to dampen the metal-on-metal noise. People can grow to hate them. They shouldn’t make too much noise in that application but if some of your other suspension components have Heim (or Johnny joints - metal spherical rod ends similar to the tie rod end in your video, but sans rubber so more noise), that could be the cause of your clunk.
Apex says that the warranty covers everything except “boots, bushings, or Heim style joints” so they may balk at your request, which would be a bummer given the timeframe because something did not go right with those tie rod ends.
TexasSixSeven
Observer
Dude I know how you feel. I 100% felt the same damn way. If my current Apex ends fail as quickly as the first set it’ll be in the trash ASAP. I haven’t driven it much since replacing them last year, so no issues yet.Today I was able to spend some time with my Land Cruiser building buds, and had the benefit of both an experienced builder and a second pair of hands to turn the steering wheel and rock the front wheel while I could listen and film underneath.
All of the issues turned out to be the Apex Suspension parts. The clunking began right after fitment, but Powerhouse identified the issue as being a Carli track rod. Replacing that did indeed cure the very sloppy and vague feeling in the steering, the truck actually drives great, but the noise from the rapidly failing Apex parts is destroying the joy of the drive.
Once I get back to LA I'll see what they have to say, and if they'll stand by their products, but as of this moment, this is not an upgrade I would do again or recommend.
TexasSixSeven
Observer
I was less than impressed with their warranty
Macfly
Active member
I believe that the initial 'clunk' was caused the Carli track rod bar, which we just replaced (1k miles ago) so the original clunk was Carli's, which started with the sloppy-wandering steering about 6-7k miles ago. The steering got so bad that we fitted a Redhead steering box and the full Apex kit about 4k miles ago trying to solve the steering issue, which it didn't.
However, this is when the clunk started getting really bad, so the bad Carli track rod and new Apex overlapped by 3k miles.
On the plus side, replacing the bad Carli track rod bar has totally fixed the bad steering, so honestly the Redhead and Apex were probably not even needed, but we just find the cause of that problem (Carli track rod failure) until I'd driven up to Montana and back.
The 'clunk' has continued and on this trip (so now a total of 4k miles on Apex) and the cluck has became absolutely diabolical.