Chaotic dynamic behavior in clearance joints is the prominent nonlinear factor for multibody systems. This study presents a passive chaos suppression method to stabilize the planar slider-crank mechanism with a clearance joint. The strategy resorts to a vibro-impact oscillator attached to the slider. Primarily, the impact principle is employed to characterize the dynamics in clearance joints. The mathematical model of the integral system is conducted subsequently. The chaotic system behavior is evaluated by bifurcation analysis varying clearance size and crank speed. When the controller is activated, parametric optimizations of the stiffness, clearance coefficient, and particle mass are conducted to achieve optimum chaos elimination. Phase portraits, the largest Lyapunov exponent, and time-frequency distribution are evaluated. Numerical results illuminate that an adjusted oscillator can suppress the chaotic high-frequency composition of system response and help to maintain continuous contact between the joint elements. The results suggest applying the identical clearance size in the revolute joint and vibro-impact oscillator for fast optimization. Moreover, the method is still technology valid when considering different contact principles. Ultimately, a test platform is established to achieve some experimental validations.