308 front right clunk?

I have a "clunk" coming from the right front whenever a bump is hit at speed, say over 20 mph. It only comes from the front right and not the front left. Lifted the front end and grabbing the right front wheel at 12 & 6 found a very small amount of play and then 9 & 3 found more play. Hoping it was just bearings I did a full remove and replace of everything (races and bearings) and then reassembled. This eliminated play along the vertical axis (12 & 6) but not along the horizontal axis (3 & 6).

On further inspection I can now see play in the tie rod end. This will be replaced next. My question is: are there other items which potentially could be causing this play? I will inspect ball joints while in there but anything other than that? The car has 61K on it and the left front is solid as a rock. would like to hear if anyone else has similar experience in fixing this a similar issue. As always, thanks in advance for reading and any <ahem> constructive suggestions...

 

Any associated suspension part. Sway bar, sway bar link,etc

 

If it's the right hand side, that is the side with the bushing in the steering rack. Could be the bushing has disintegrated

 

Since you will be doing the tie rod and ball joint, while you're in there might as well do all the bushings(control arms and shock). Do both sides, since you will need to do a full suspension alignment afterwards. Inspect the steering rack bushing as mentioned and replace if needed. You don't want to take it apart again just for that. On the outside chance it could be the shock needing rebuilding.

 

First thing first, are your wheel nuts properly torqued? I assume you'd know if the wheel was loose on the hub, as opposed to the hub getting free play, but worth an easy check.

I'd try to pin down the problematic issue first before taking more things apart for restoration, like a full control arm bushing job; just adds more variables to confuse the problem point. That said, ball joints can start to go, drop link connections and bushings, remove and inspect your steering rack, also the rack mount bushings, and also see if you've lost any control arm shims through the frame slots below the control arm attachments.

 

Dflett- when you say "bushing in the steering rack" do you mean the rack support bushing (part #103287) or some other bushing?

 

No, I mean the plastic bushing inside the steering rack casing that supports and centers the end of the rack on that side. It's under engineered and often breaks leading to play in the right hand side tie rod connection. The solution is to rebuild the rack with either a brass or delrin replacement bushing.

If you disconnect the tie rod from the steering knuckle, you'll feel the tie rod loose inside the rack if the bushing has deteriorated.

Regards
David

 

Got it - thanks. Appreciate the clarification.