When I crawled under my 85 DL the other night to find the source of the infamous rear clunk and saw what I thought was a track bar bushing on the passenger side that had gone bad, I was sort of happy and proud. But when I talked to a Volvo mechanic on the phone today was told that the track rod bushings rarely fail especially with only 133k, I thought I had better have another look. He claimed those bushings last longer than the others and in fact they don't even stock them.

So tonight I put the rear end up on ramps and had another good long look and realized what I had thought was a backed out track rod bushing was merely a gap between the track rod housing and the dished washer that holds the bushing in place. I then crawled under my 92 245 and confirmed it. I was going to post a digital picture the other night on this site which would have no doubt put an end to my bad bushing theory, but I didn't get around to it...

So now I'm back to square one in diagnosing the source of the clunk. I wrapped a rag around the tailpipe and muffler and drove over some bumps but still heard a occassional clunk. My wife claims it made the sound the other day when she pulled up to a red light. I guess it could be the rear suspension bushings (trailing arm or torque) but I sure would like to figure out what it is before I replace a bunch of parts. Any ideas as how to do that would be appreciated.

Now I know what NASA means about not jumping to quick conclusions when diagnosing the cause of something. Things aren't always as clear cut as they appear.