I have a clunking sound from the front end when I am backing out of the drive way. I'm assuming that my front end is pretty tired 'cus it's got 240K miles on it. The idler arm is new but that's it. How do I check the other steering components?

 

Raise the tire(s) and move/tug/pull on them to see how much movement you have....with 240K I wouldn't bother...I'd just replace everything.

I suspect the clunking sound to be the ball joints..

Ed

 

I kinda figured. Guess what I'm doing today!

 

Good luck with the rebuild. Click the link in my sig. I have a whole pictorial on my rebuild and you may find it helpful.

Ed

 

Thanks for the Pics Ed! I replaced all of the linkage and the ball joints yesterday and all I can say is...dang she's tight! I never realised just how sloppy my steering was. I need to replace the steering box sometime as well to eliminate a fluid leak but I don't think anything else is wrong with it. I'll do the bushings as soon as we get a second car and transferred back to the east coast. I'm off to the alignment shop this morning! Now maybe I can keep front tires more than 6k miles!

 

Well, the alignment shop fpond bad LCA bushings. Good thing too. The right front bushing bolt was worn 1/2 way through from rubbing on the LCA!!! It wasn't too bad replacing them either. This has been a great experience!