Trying to solve a front end "clunking" issue.
All my steering components and ball joints are new, but here are the symptoms:

When coming to a stop, it feels like something is shifting forward, and then back after I let off the brake pedal. If I come to a very gradual stop its less noticeable. But if I tap and release the brake pedal quickly I get the clunk.
I dont feel it in the pedal, feels more like frame or suspension.
Also hitting bumps in the road something feels looser/clunkier than normal.
Also sometimes shifting feels clunky, leading me to suspect either engine or trans mounts.
Looking at the running engine you would never suspect the mounts to be bad. The trans dipstick tube vibrates quite a bit, but it always has.
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Anyway here are pics of the engine mounts.
There is a 1/8" gap on side of each mount, is this normal?
I stuck a 3 ft prybar in the mount and I can move it a little, but I suspect that I with a 3ft prybar I could move it a little even when new. Not sure how flexible these are when new?
Looking for any other ideas on what and how to check.

 

I'd check if the trans mount isn't damaged. Try to lift the rear of the transmission, sometimes they just come apart. Leads to what you describe.

 

I agree. I see a lot of transmission mounts fall apart into two pieces when you pull the crossmember on a 2nd gen 4x4. I would say 40-50% of the old transmission mounts are junk when I work on 2nd gen transmissions.
I have never seen a 2nd gen motor mount fail, other than one that bent and cracked do to a front end crash.

 

Agreed, they catch all the leaks which make them deteriorate quickly.

 

I think I found my problem, just posting in case someone in the future has the same issue:

When I replaced all the front end components a few months ago, I also added one of those steering box stabilizer brackets. I bought one of the best ones available, which is cut and bent from a single piece of 1/4" steel plate (no welds).....this mounts to the frame, above the sway bar, using the sway bar mount holes.
So, installing this lowered my sway bar by 1/4"
On the passenger side, the sway bar end link sits right above the tie rod end.
The lowered sway bar end link had only about 1/8" of clearance to the tie rod end. So under most driving conditions it was not a problem, but when braking, the nose of the truck/suspension drops enough to cause the end link to hit the tie rod end.
I looked up the torque specs for the end links, and tightened them to spec, which compressed the rubber bushings a little more.
No more clunk.
Thanks for all the suggestions, trans mount was solid.

 

Thanks for letting us know what was the fix.
Good work on solving it.

 

Thanks for the feedback,I think this will help other folks in search of their random clunk. (Which can drive you mad if you don't find it)