If we could apply impulses of several hundred pounds to ball joints while feeling for clunking or play then troubleshooting these things wouldn't be so fickle.

My view is that if there is clunking or rattling in the front suspension, then you have to look at how long the components have been in service & how much they cost to replace in selecting the most cost-effective course of action.

I got a '95 965 recently that had some clunking in the front suspension & just replace all the ball joints, struts & bushings. The car's twelve years old, all the stuff looked original, it was time for retirement from service. The new shocks didn't feel different to me pushing & pulling on them when compared with the old shocks. None of the ball joints felt bad, although some of the rubber seals had openings. I think the whole thing was a little less than $500 in parts with only the ball joints parts & bump-stops aftermarket.

When I was done, there was no more clunking.

I'd suggest first checking the inner tie rod ends for play in the rack. You may need to get a few heavy duty zip ties as I've found that it's best to pull the boots away from the rack ends so that you can grab the tie rods directly and feel carefully for play under heavy side-loading.

If both rack ends check okay, then changing the swaybar links & the outer tie rod ends is probably the best bet. I did buy aftermarket parts for these two items as they are easy to change and the Volvo parts were kind of high; I think the Volvo swaybar links were ~$50 each , while the FCP parts were about $80 total for all four pieces.

You should be prepared to replace the ball joints at the bottom of the struts as well. I went with the Moog parts on these. They're easy to change.