Put your old struts back in and see if the noise goes away.

 

Also something to think about are the strut mounts. I purchased a set of Gabriel Quick Struts and one of the strut mounts wore out prematurely.

 

Try the search function with the keywords monroe quick strut and you will see multiple postings of people having this issue... Monroe dropped the ball on tightening that nut. A few guys had to tighten that nut that should have been tight from the factory...... It's fresh in my memory because I was researching what struts (coil overs) I wanted to go with myself. I just bought the bilstein adjustable 5100's for all 4 corners for $399 shipped!!! I've heard some great things about these shocks, with the only con being a firmer ride, which I'm ok with...

 

Well I put a breaker bar on the nut at the top of my strut, and its tight. Now the question I have is.. do I loosen the nut and try to turn the spindle tight, or will that just spin forever?
I jacked the truck up again, and there's no play in the rim.
The aggravation continues!

 

What I can't understand is, how loose this sounds and feels, even at 5 miles an hour and I can't find it.

 

You tightened the single nut and it still happens? I've heard that was the culprit... It could be the lower shock eye bushings failing prematurely.... I've experienced bad bushings on aftermarket motor mounts and even rancho shocks causing a banging clunking sound... Have you checked all your motor, body and tranny mounts yet?. Or maybe the ball joints??... If those are all set, then you may want consider the struts being defective in some way. Either way, this issue would drive me crazy..

 

Yup, the center nut. Am I supposed to loosen the outer nut and turn the spindle tight separately... then tighten the outer nut, or just the thing as a whole. As a whole it was tight.
Crazy....I just wanna throw it away when it drives like this.

 

When you say outer nut, are you referring to a locknut on top of the hold down nut? If so, then yes you need to back off or remove the locknut in order to tighten the bottom nut... You can and probably should hold the machined tip at the top of the threads with a box wrench while you tighten the bottom nut.. Once tight, then tighten the lock nut to keep it tight.. If you don't have a locknut then I'm stumped...

 

Yeah, that's what I should've called it, the locknut. Alright I'll give it a shot after work. I'll let you know what happens.
Thanks again for helping me out.

 

Can you raise the hood and crawl on there while someone rocks the truck? Cool engine of course. You could pin point if it was the top strut mounts.