I was rather hoping the slight clunk from the front right over rough ground was the broken spring but having changed that it's still there. Options now seem to be ARB bushes or ARB drop links. The latter are a doddle to change, the former not so much. What's the best way to pin down which it is, assuming it's not something else altogether?
the drop links are the most likely and are only about a tenner for the pair. To check them: you need to undo one side and try and lift the arb up and down, which checks the opposite side, repeat by undoing the other one. The arb bushes are quite straightforward to change with the car in the air, but much less likely to be actually worn. Bottom ball joint is not uncommon on those, again a complete arm is very cheap and easy to replace, checking those is best done with two people, one to watch the joint from underneath, the other to tug at the wheel and or use a bar to lift the wheel, just as they do at the mot. ebay have kits of two arms, two drop links and two track rod ends for about fifty quid, and two arb bushes will be about a tenner.
Thanks for that. I'll have a play with the drop links as a first option. The MOT a couple of weeks ago found nothing other than the broken spring so I suspect the ball joints are all ok. I gather that the drop links aren't easily testable at MOT time though unless they're completely shagged. I found a Youtube video about them a few days ago and they didn't even look that bad once the guy had got them off the car but new ones definitely cured the noise. The only thing he could really point at was you could move the joints very easily by hand on the old ones but the new ones were almost completely stiff. I guess it boils down to there being just a few thou of play inside the old joints and that's enough to cause a knock.
For the sake of £9.80 inc free postage I think I'll just order a pair rather than spend a couple of hours dismantling the old ones, checking them, putting it all back together to stay mobile and then having to do it all again once the new parts arrive.
Exactly, some things are not worth messing about with.
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