1981 front-end clunk. Sometimes when I hit little bumps in the road or enter a driveway, I get a clunk from the front end. I put the front wheels on blocks and had my daughter turn the steering wheel back and forth slightly while I inspected everything under the front end. I could hear the clunk, but I couldn't see anything moving that would cause the sound. Do these sounds sometimes come from inside the steering box? It seems to be coming from that area. Also, with a pry bar, I could get some up and down movement out of the tie rod ends at both wheels.
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Thanks to everyone for the help, Doug C. 81 242 Brick Off Blocks, stock; 86 240, 129K, once in Rolling, now smashed quarter panel thanks to driver of an F150. Daughter safe in her Volvo.

Had the same problem with my 740 and 240. Replaced the strut rod bushings and the noise went away. The strange thing is that it sounded like it was coming from the rear of the car, like a loose shock mount.
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don hodgdon '89 740ti, '81 240t, '71 D-35

Have daughter repeat test, but get a $7 mechcanics stethoscope and put the end on the various parts- you'll know right away.

Does it do it when you bounce the car in the driveway?
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http://www.fidalgo.net/~brook4/oilslubesfilters.html

I'd replace those tie rod ends first- outers are really easy and inners aren't too tough, especially if you have a small pipe wrench. The other likely suspect is that big rubber bushing at the back end of the control arm.
If you can move things around with the pry bar, they're shot. Just found a bad balljoint on our 740 with that yesterday... only acts up in hard left turns! Go figure.
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Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: 86 244DL, 87 244DL, 88 744GLE, 91 244: 808K total