Hello all--I'm trying to find the cause of some increasingly frequent noise from the front end of my PV--a sharp clunk, usually upon braking but occasionally while parking, steering sharply or generally wrestling the wheel around. Something's clearly amiss and I'd like to pin it down before using the car again:

I've inspected the front end as thoroughly as I know how, did not detect any slop in the kingpins (grabbed steering arms and checked for fore-and-aft wobble) or in the threaded bushings where the steering knuckle joins the A-arms (checked this by grabbing the roadwheel at 12 and 6, shaking, etc).

No sign of slop in the idler arm or steering box.

The only thing which seems out of the ordinary is the state of the tie rod ends, and I'm not familiar enough with healthy ones to know how far gone these are. The steering rod ends seem to move smoothly, though they're quite stiff. But the tie rod ends move notchily and are extremely stiff...would these alone be enough to cause the noises on braking?

Any thoughts on the subject would be much appreciated--as well as other suggestions on how to inspect the PV's front end.

Best--Nathan