I can hear this sound anytime I make a tight corner quickly. I can duplicate it by pushing the rear end of the car from side to side forcefully. Just stand next to it and push it away from you, let it come back, push it away again, etc, until the movement builds up and the clunk is heard. The clunk sounds off at each end of the movement on each side. It sounds like it's coming from both sides, as the car reaches the maximum movement in each direction. Occasionally I can hear a slight grinding type noise when in the moving turn to the right, but I can't duplicate it by pushing the car to the side at a stop. If I slightly apply the hand brake while in the turn, I don't hear anything. Everything works ok, the car feels stable. Help?!?

I forgot to mention - it's a 91 TA.

you need to get it in the air and inspect rear suspension . most likely panhard/trac bar . it runs from the pass. side of rear axle to body on drivers side . there are 3 bolts that hold it in place , i had all of them fall out on one of my cars . inspect everything else while there . good luck .

UPDATE - I had someone push the back end to make the noise, reached around the rear wheel to the edge of the brake drum and the backing plate. I can feel the backing plate is stable, and the brake drum moves in and out to the tune of the "clunk". This happens on both sides of the car.

Are your lug nuts loose? I believe some third gens originally had wheel spacers, maybe that is relevant in this situation...

The lug nuts are tight. The clearest way to describe it is given that the wheels are on the ground, the car slides back and forth on the rear axle.

The brake drum moves with the axle / wheel assembly, I can feel movement between the backing plate and the drum - about 1/8 ~ 3/16".

I've got a similar sound on mine, I'm hopefull to find a solution also.

mine used to be able to rock on the chassis (for lack of better words)

to describe it, you could lean on the side of the back end and bumb your back into the car, the body would move left to right as the axle/srpings seemed to stay put

problem was solved with UMI LCA & panhard , also all new poly bushings on the suspention, now i dont know what of all of the part sloved the probem, but i always lean to the panhard bushings, before if i laid under the car and had a friend bump it i could see the panhard moving as the axle stayed still

Mines did that also! The panhard bar bushings are likely the problem!

More info...

I visited Don Lorentzen today, we put the car on a lift and found 2 things:
- Main problem source is rear end axles loose, "C" clip play -> OK as is, just a bit annoying when cornering sharply.
- Sway bar bushings disintegrated, front and rear, probably allowing noise to be worse -> replace with improvement kits from Top Down Solutions.
- Maybe add a front end steering brace, forgot the name of it, cheap frame insurance.
- All other bushings, etc. are OK.

wonder bar

If the wheel moves too with the brake drum that the Cs
But if the brake drum can move but everything else stays still something is way wrong.

The drums should be sandwiched in there tight.

Even with some new parts, make sure the drums aren't moving.