1995 Caravan Front End Clunk

[Mowerpan]

Hey guys I'm a newb to this board but am a member of many other forums but I need some help and figured you guys would know the most on the van.
It's my mothers van, a 1995 Plymouth voyager with the 3.0 v6. 120,000 miles.
The current complaint is that her van has recently started clunking when ever encountering something that causes the suspension to compress roughly.
My expertises is more on the s-10's and rwd vehicles althought I have knowledge of fwd and there suspensions. Is there any common problem that would cause this clunk in the front end, sounds like it's comming from the right side. My first guess was faulty/worn strut? Would this cause this type of problem. My mother also said the van felt like it was getting"wobbley".
My dad had it looked at as during the week we are all very busy, and they found nothing to be wrong, but I know this clunk is not normal , and think they may have overlooked something. I'll start with the normal inspections, wheel bearings, ball joints, idler arm ect and grease any points, but is there anything special on these vans that I should check or any tips on a common problem? Thanks in advance.

[gas28man]

There are some pretty obvious sources of a front end clunk over bumps. Since your Mom reports some slop in the steering, I'll put my money on tie rod ends. You have two outers and two inners. The outers are very cheap, and you can do them yourself if you've done them on RWD vehicles. It's the same basic techniques. The inners are more tricky. Trying to remove them without the appropriate tools can screw up your steering rack, so they're best given to a professional. They're not all that cheap either. About $200 a side, plus an alignment.

Give it a test drive yourself, and if you don't notice any slop in the steering (especially when there are longitudinal cracks or grooves in the roadway), then your tie rods are fine, and I would look at the sway bar links and/or bushings. Again, as with a rear-drive vehicle, these are a very straightforward and cheap repair. But when they go bad, they make an awful clunk over things like speed bumps.

There are other possibilities, but on these vans, these are the most likely culprits.

Good luck, and let us know what you find.

Rick

[Mowerpan]

Alrite I'll hafta take it for a ride and confirm the problems myself, and then I'll take a look at it. Ya I've done inner and outer tie rods before. I'm pretty knowledgeable just didn't wanna come accross as someone who thinks he knows everything.

[gas28man]

I've only ever successfully done one inner tie rod end on a front-wheel-drive car, an 85 Lancer that I had years ago. The manual called for removing the whole steering rack, and setting it on a bench in a vise to remove the tie-rod end. But I had a friend who was a tool-and-die maker, and a former race car driver and mechanic. He took a look at it, and figured he could put together a tool that would let me leave the rack in, and still remove the inner rod end without damaging anything. We spent a few hours measuring the parts, milling some steel into the right shape, and threading the metal to take some cap screws that would create a custom clamp. Worked like a freakin charm. Once I had that tool, the job took less than an hour. Without it, it just wasn't gonna happen without breaking something, or removing the whole darn steering rack. If you've got a way to clamp the rod without damaging it, rave on!

Good luck.

Rick