mystery clunk from '91 integra front ?

Integra has a a mystery clunk that i am not able to reproduce at
will. It seems to intermittently occur under just the right
conditions of slowly braking while descending a mild ramp/grade
then turning right onto a flat surface/street and accelerating.
Clunk occurs somewhere in between the the range of let off brake,
turn and accelerate since they all occur at approx the same time.

'91 integra LS ( ~ 175,000 miles )
condition of car is ... regularly maintained , reg. oil changes,
properly aged timing belt water pump, brakes look good etc., no
major damage or repairs ever made. Replaced the CV joints about
5 yrs ago.

Visual inpection turns up no problems with motor mounts nor the
sway bar, the strut rubber looks good. Lifted the front end of
car then shook and kicked the wheels with no clunks or odd play
in the various arms and joints and such ...

any ideas ?

thanks for any helpful replies
robb

 

Down thru the years a clunk like that usually turns out to be strut
mount bushing, which means new strut mount.

 

Your shake/kick test tells you nothing, since you don't have the wheels at
the correct road-ready attitude.

If you're /certain/ none of the bushings have delaminated or broken (check
the REAR ones as well, especially the giant ones on the trailing arm!),
then... The only things I can think of that would cause such a noise are
the CV joints (yes I know, but it's still possible), or a worn balljoint.

To test the CV joints, find an empty, dry parking lot. Drive in a circle
with the wheel at full lock either way. Travel that circle several times. A
bad CV joint will clunk or click.

To test for worn balljoints, you need to pop their tapers and wiggle them
by hand.

 

This one puzzled me for a year until I got the car back from my son and
had more than 10 minutes at a time to figure it out. Double-check ALL
the sway bar bushings, particularly the ones at the ends of the bars.
Make sure they are still there (grin). There was air where mine used to
be ('91 Accord). Only certain combinations of cornering with either
braking or throttle made the clunks happen. Check also the bushings
under the sway bar mounts on the front crossmember.

When the car is jacked up, there is enough tension on the bar to prevent
it from making any noise no matter what you do with feet or hands.

Autozone had generic replacements (sorry, Tegger, not OEM ;-) that I
expect to outlast the car at this point in its life.