Kai Demarco

TLDR IT WAS THE TRANS MOUNT

I've had this rubbing/clicking noise on my 97 XJ only on left turns. It wasn't that big of a deal at first, as I had multiple things that I could assume it was. My axle shafts had some play, my ball joints had low resistance, my sway bar links and bushings were demolished, my shocks had play, etc. But with every fix I did, and the noise stagnantly taunting me with every post-fix test ride, it slowly began to drive me mad. That damn clicking noise, it was the devil himself toying with my soul. What should have been an easy diagnosis and fix, turned into 13 separate forum posts, two different mechanics, and probably 60 hours of replacing tie rods, removing steering boxes, replacing wheel bearings, re-re-doing axle joints just in case, scouring forum boards, shimming foam on my exhaust pipe to see it it's rattling, messing with the track bar, second guessing previous fixes, etc.

Anyway, I was sure it was coming from the front right. But I decided to replace my transmission mount on a desperate whim after finding a post on a ZJ on the fifth page of search results, and despite the mount only being a couple years old, THAT WAS IT. Finally, I had found the devil's sacred maracas and burned them to ashes. My car jerks a lot when I go into gear so maybe it is wearing faster because of that. Thanks for everyone who tried to help me, I would have given up a while ago without the forums. I'm a little mad at the time and money I spent but hey now my front suspension is squeaky clean. Maybe I should have done more diagnosis than part replacing, but I spent hours and hours on a creeper trying to find something with play, and the tranny mount seemed solid when I pried on it. I had even spent a full day go-proing different areas of the front suspension and the transmission/driveshaft area and didn't see anything. People looking under the car when I turned didn't see it. Mechanics were like "It's an old car just drive it". And I had inspected the mount a few months ago when I had done an engine swap and it seemed fine. It's a sad pit of despair you fall into when you cannot buy your way out of an old car problem, and the only answer is to drive it until it breaks more or keep trying more and more unlikely solutions.