So it's loose at the pitman arm on yours?

 

My tie rod and drag link both have rotational play in them, and make noises over speed bumps and/or potholes/depressions in the road. Took me a long time to figure out the noise, and one day by accident moved the tie rod...voila! I went to a dealership and checked out a brand new Rubi sitting on the lot, and it was somewhat the same way (I knew it would act and sound like mine before too long). The tie rod ends on JKs are simply average from the factory. They work ok, but the only fix to the noise and movement is to replace the ends with heavier duty, greasable ends. Or replace the drag link and tie rod altogether.

 

I had a clunk over bumps as well.....searched and searched, removed, greased, tightened and searched again....nothing helped. Until...I was rotating my tires, and grabbed my rear sway bar link to assist me in getting up...holy shitte...it was loose on both driver and passenger side....trusty wrench in hand....clunks went away and never to return.

 

Thanks for all the replies so far. I havent pinpointed it yet but I still think it's the joint on the drivers side tie rod, or after reading some replies, draglink.

Ball joints are looking good with no play and absolutely everything has been loosened and retorqued to spec. So it's definitely not shock or swaybar link related.
Any other possible culprits?

 

X2, the same issue here! Check your sway bar bolts.

 

Check the rubber bushings on top of the shock mount.

 

Bump. Ok to repeat myself, it's not the swaybar or anything to do with shocks. Just put on new shocks today and it's still doing it. Everything has been torqued to spec. I have noticed it looks like grease is on the drivers side of the drag link.
Someone said U joints. How do I check that?

 

Huh? It's not when I turn. And I don't feel anything in the wheel.

 

ChopN, did you ever find the culprit to your issue?

I have a similar problem with my JK. I hear a clunk whenever I turn sharply left then right and vice verse. Crawled under the Jeep to check if anything was loose and noticed that there's a lot of play in the tie rod and drag link where I can pull it up and down by hand. Is this normal?

 

Where are you grabbing it to get the up and down movement you are seeing?

If you grab the tie rod right at the joint end, and try to move only the joint up and down, do you get any play?
There should be no play in the ball and socket. If it is just swiveling, or rotating, it's OK.