I had the clunk for the last few months, the dealer couldn't hear the sound because it would only happen after driving for 30 mins or so. It got progressively worse latey and finally they could hear it. Yesterday they replaced the intermediate shaft and i drove it home lastnight, it's like night and day. In fact I think it feels smoother when I bought it new.. I wonder if it's always had an issue from the day I got it....anyway, no more clunk and handles much better now (there was alot of freeplay with the clunk before)

 

Think I have this problem but not sure. It's like a notchedy popping or clicking noise i can feel in the steering wheel and in the driver floor board. It is pretty faint but kinda bothersome. Dealer could not replicate the problem. Could it be a balljoint instead? I had a really bad clunking, popping noise below my driver floor boards in my Bravada and it was a torn axle boot or something. My JK noise feels like that but about 1/10 as bad.

 

That sounds like it.

Replacing the intermediate shaft will be a temporary fix (been there, done that). Ever since I've removed mine and greased it up per this thread:

https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/jk-write-ups-39/attention-all-clunky-steering-people-11927/

It's been very solid feeling. I don't doubt that I will need to do this periodically as well, but at least it fixes it for a while.

 

I wanted to see if I could confirm exactly which parts are being taken off and what part is being greased. I thought it might help to post a picture with some notes to reference. I have no clue what the sections are really called - I just named them for the sake of discussion. The clunk feeling is killing me and I want to try fixing this tomorrow if I can find the grease.

I am correct the main fix is adding grease to that boot on the lower section? But then there was mention of loosing the upper knuckle and then positioning the upper section further into where it hits the firewall? Or, are they both possible solutions?

I hope I am not making it more confusing than it needs to be or more complicated by adding the picture to the discussion. Thanks!

 

Greasing the spline under the boot definitely is the solution. I did this quickly by injecting grease into the boot, and then rubbing the grease into the spline from the outside -- it only took 5 minutes. I have gone over 3 weeks without a trace of the steering clunk. Lubrication is the key to eliminating it.
Bill

 

Billb1000 - so you didn't even remove the parts or loosen anything - just added grease under the boot? Thanks for your help.

 

My '07 JK has this issue as well. My '06 Chevy Silverado had this exact same issue with the intermediate steering shaft and it was a TSB for Chevy and they lubricate it and it goes away for about 6 months. I can only imagine that the lubrication solution will be temporary as well for the JK.

 

This is how I greased mine as well and it literally just a few minutes! It was nice not to have to bust out any tools for once...

 

My clunking is back.... I will try the grease trick and see if it works.

 

I greased mine and it lasted all summer with no issues , then I made the mistake and had the dealer install a new one and last week just as the temperature started getting warmer the clunk was back . So injected some heavy duty axle grease ,problem solved. This is a direct effect of the shaft being over the exhaust manifold and as temperatures getting hotter!