So, i have numerous issues in my front end that I need to address.

1. I have the ball joint or tire rod end creak sound when turning the wheel. I need to get the front end in the air to test at the wheel which it might be.
1a. I'm "intermediate" level capable of doing work on my own, but concerned this might be out of my capabilities. How hard is this work to do?

2. I have a random clunk sound in the front end. It comes and goes - when it comes, it lasts for a few days, and typically over bumps. Then the sound goes away for a week or two then comes back. Sounds like it's bottoming out, but its not.
2a. Related to issue #1? What could this be?
2b. Also - Someone told me they thought it sounded like it was coming from the rear. I can feel the clunk and it feels up front, but could it be in the back?

I know these questions are all over the place - but dealership was unable to address the clunk issue. Now warranty is up. (61K miles). Creak sound in problem #1 just started.

Help!

 

Lower ball joints that are worn will allow the vehicle to wander, like each wheel feels the road especially in small ruts formed by heavy traffic.
Those are difficult to replace.
Upper ball joints require replacement of the upper control arm. Not horrible work but looks like quite a bit of disassembly. There are youtube videos of how to replace the upper control arm/upper ball joint.

Lower ball joint could be cause of the clunk if they are badly worn.
The wheel bearing/hub assembly can be a possible cause of your clunk too.
I'm not too sure how specific these are to your steering creaking. I may be way off on my thoughts.
Also, as you steer the body will weight and unweight from side to side -could be bushings squeaking.

How many miles on the truck, depending on the above it's seen, the parts shouldn't be worn out yet, or are borderline worn.

I suggest youtube for some how-to's to see if those are in your wheel-house. Most of the work is disassembly of hard parts with common hand tools aside from 18mm and 21mm sockets that one may not have.
Look up
fordtechmakuloco
1A Auto
South Main something or another.

They all do good videos specific to your truck. The 1A auto is my least favorite of the 3.

 

Thanks so much for the detailed reply. I've been scanning youtube as well (fordtechmakuloco is great). They may be slightly out of my comfort zone but perhaps I can find a friend to help. I know these won't be cheap if i have to bring it in. It has 61K miles - the creak is about 2K miles old and the clunk is about 20K miles old but the dealership has been "unable to duplicate it".

No wandering although alignment is off, even though it was just aligned (bringing it back in this week for that) and it pulls to one side. But not wandering.

 

Could be a broken stabilizer bar end link. That would be real easy to fix.

 

You've had it in for an alignment already and you need to take it back for a correction? If you have issues with front end parts, your alignment guy should be able to feret those out and recommend parts replacement. Any alignment shop worth their medal is going to make sure all front end parts are within spec before doing an alignment.

 

I agree sway bar end link is a common issue on lots of different vehicles and fairly easy to find and replace. If its broken its obvious if its worn, maybe not. I've replaced them on other vehicles and they look O.K. on the vehicle but once you got them off, it was obvious they were worn. Sway bars end links won't require an alignments but tie rod ends will.

 

If your sig. you state you have a 2" RC leveling kit?

Not surprised you have issues and these cause more wear than stock suspension.
I am not here to debate leveling kits... but wouldn't be surprised to find our your ball joints are worn.

Try taking it to another dealer that might know what they are looking at, or if out of warranty anyway, then just take it to a trusted indy shop and have them take a look at it...
They should be able to diagnose the problem rather easily one would think....