The Hyperlogos

On my way up Cobb Mountain I started hearing and feeling click/thump noises from somewhere in the middle of the truck. It turned out that the carrier shaft bearing's rubber isolator had failed, probably because of added vibration because a bolt was falling out.

Red: Steering Knuckle/Hub Carrier • Blue: Lower Control Arm • Light Blue: Tie Rod • Lower Purple: Anti-Roll Bar • Upper Purple: Coil Spring • Yellow: Strut Housing • Green: Unibody • Not Shown: Tension Control Rod/Radius Rod

Pillow ball mounts use spherical bearings at the top of struts to allow them to pivot without a bushing. This reduces flex and helps maintain suspension geometry.

The tension control rod is the part of the front suspension which keeps the lower control arm from moving forward and backward. Actually, it causes it to move by a specified amount around a fixed point at the front of the car. At this point there is a bushing, the only alternative being a ball joint, as it must flex in two directions at once.

A Nissan suspension diagram showing a cutaway view of a shock absorber (actually a "damper")