A systematic method of design modification to reduce the influence of impact from multiple clearances in a planar four bar mechanism is developed. For this purpose, an optimization method is used with the objective function which is the linear sum of the Earles and Wu criteria for every joints with clearances. One coil spring is attached to a joint of limited range of revolution to reduce the undesirable dynamic effects due to clearances at joints. The stiffness of the coil spring and its pre-loading angle are chosen as design variables. A numerical example is taken for a four bar mechanism. The initial and modified mechanisms are compared using a clearance mechanism analysis technic to see the difference in dynamic effects due to contact loss. It is found that the modified mechanism produces much more smooth joint contact forces than the original design.